Pink Pistons

Our pink hero is searching for used cars in a lot when he discovers a James Bond-type Aston Martin vehicle with all the gadgets. This little sports car intrigues and impresses him, so he buys it.

As in other Pink Panther cartoons, an inanimate object turns to be human-like, so when our guy brings his new car back home and begins to spray paint the front of it pink, the car balks! It wants no part of this spray-paint job!

The car - not the Panther - winds up in a drag race against an old lady, who turns out to be "Granny Flash: senior citizens drag champion."

This was hilarious, thanks to Granny, and I hated to see it end so abruptly. They could have continued this for another full cartoon with the just race between the two cars.

The Pink Panther is nosing around a used-car lot and is contemplating buying a small bug car that looks like it would fit him perfectly. Only it's the wrong color. So he happily pays good money for it and takes it home to spray-paint. Once out on the streets with his new pink bug the car starts to give him hassle and is finally pushed over the edge when Pinky drag races an old granny.

I'm not that impressed with this cartoon. Nothing much really happens and it's not really that hilarious despite few funny moments. It's mostly a one joke affair and doesn't really get good mileage out of it. Pun intended.

Pink Panther Odyssey Part XVI

Our panther gets into a spot of bother with a tiny and sentient car that he approves of. It's another surreal and meandering one this and I'm all for it frankly - the only thing that stuck out badly was that perhaps somewhere along the line there was a decision made that Pink shouldn't be smoking so his looong cigarette keeps winking in and out of existence. They say you never quit forever though, I suppose so it makes sense.

I enjoyed this movie very much... an obvious comical parody of the famous "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" movie. However, I noticed an error in the color of the car in one scene --- after Pinky meets Granny and they race the first time, she turns on the "supersonic rockets" and roars off, leaving Pinky and his car covered with soot. A few seconds later, Pinky and his car zoom away after Granny, shaking off the soot and leaving it in a pile on the road. But then the car is next shown in its original BLUE color as it whizzes off down the windy road and disappears around the bend --- evidently somebody in the art department momentarily forgot that Pinky had re-painted the car pink.

The Pink Panther is one of my childhood favourites, and I do like a vast majority of his cartoons a lot. Pink Pistons is one of his better ones from 1966. It does run out of mileage at the end, with the ending being too predictable and abrupt. Everything else though is just great. The animation is very nicely done, simply designed but also elegantly so with colours that are very easy on the eye and look as though they were done with thought and care. The music from the incidental music to the theme tune is still as catchy and infectious as ever, succeeding in enhancing the gags and giving the cartoon a sense of life and energy while giving it time to breathe also. The gags and premise are among the funniest and most creative of the Pink Panther cartoons, they all make their mark and only the ending doesn't quite work. Pinky is cool and likable, and the Granny is hilarious and probably one of my favourite Pink Panther secondary characters.

Overall, another great Pink Panther cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox