Pink-A-Boo

Pink Panther Odyssey Part XXI

Another solid Panther in a good consistent run o' them. Pink does battle with a mouse who just wants to party - it's not breaking many molds in the great cartoon canon of characters doing battle with smart mice but it's got the pink jazzy cool to it and some good surreal bits and MOST IMPORTANTLY it has a solid ending.

Rather than go into the story, which a couple of other reviewers did here, I'll state a few things that struck me funny in this Pink Panther cartoon.

I liked the mouse's Park Avenue-type entrance, the fanciest I've ever seen in a cartoon, and cartoons love to show mice and cats. I also laughed at the "dagwood" sandwich he made and carried back to the hole, and the clever way he figured out how to stuff in through the small entrance.

I also laughed at his buddies knocking on the front door and then racing in with musical instruments and a bottle of champagne for the party! Later, we see them party hats on. These were amazing mice. One guy even plays the electric guitar.

However, they lose their cuteness in the last minute or two. These guys are pushy!

This is a somewhat funny little cartoon where the Pink Panther has been invaded by a pack of mice in his house, who are partying noisily inside their hole in the wall. To add insult to injury, the mice steal food from the panther's fridge as he was reading his newspaper. As a result, the panther hilariously tries to get rid of the rodents, from calling an exterminator to dressing up like a cat.

Plenty of little laughs here and the mice can be a little endearing at first, but got very annoying along the way. The back and forth duel between panther and mice were pretty hilarious, but too bad panther got more than he bargained for.

Grade B-

The Pink Panther was part of my childhood, and a vast majority of the cartoons I still really like/love. Pink-A-Boo is not one of the classics, but it is still thoroughly enjoyable. There is very little wrong other than times when the story is on the simplistic side and a couple of the gags in the middle are a little dull. The animation though is very pretty and drawn with simply charming detail. The music is jazzy and compliments the goings-on very well, and the theme tune is still positively infectious even after hearing for goodness knows how many times. The gags are very amusing if not exactly hilarious, the beginning and end are great and the middle is mostly too but with a couple of bits that don't work quite as well. The action is basically Pinky and the mice trying to outsmart one another, so if you are familiar with the Pink Panther format you'll find nothing new here, however it's done in a way that you honestly don't mind that. Pinky is very likable and charismatic as he always is, and the mice are very cute and funny while quite persistent later on. Overall, a good cartoon from Pinky but not one of the best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

"Pink-a-Boo", without being one of the best cartoons by the Pink Panther, is nevertheless a great short and a classic. It shows us an angry Pink Panther dealing with energetic and persistent mice.

In fact, that's where all the fun of this story. A bunch of mice which are great little thieves steal everything they can from the Panther's refrigerator. However, only one mouse in particular (the «leader of the pack») steals the food, while the other mice are guests to a party and bring an electric guitar and a bottle of champagne.

What makes me laugh most in this cartoon are the following scenes: when the Panther is about to eat his sandwich and the mouse steals it in the last moment; when the Panther falls on the mouse (after being slammed by him), letting him dizzy; and the part when the mouse uses the telephone to invite his friends with that mousy-voice.

The only thing I don't like is the ending, with those vicious dogs chasing the Panther (even more just after his victory) and he's forced to hide himself in the mouse-hole, where a mouse is playing the electric guitar.