Pink-in

The Pink Panther spends the day in his attic rummaging through an old trunk. Inside, he finds several letters from his former Army friend, Loudmouth Louie, which causes the panther to reminisce about his past. The past is represented via several past Panther entries, including "G.I. Pink," "Pink in the Clink," "Pink Pajamas," "Pickled Pink," ending with "The Pink Package Plot." DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (DFE) produced this "best of" episode in an effort to cut costs. By 1971, they were busy producing new entries for the highly successful "The New Pink Panther Show" on NBC-TV and had to come up with cartoon quickly. Thankfully, they chose some worthy past entries. Marvin Miller (who was busy providing off-camera narration on "The New Pink Panther Show") provides the voice of Loudmouth Louie, uncredited. Though some scoff at "Pink-In" being a cheap knock off, it is a memorable episode nonetheless, and provides a rare spoken voice in an otherwise pantomime-only series. The current print available contains the version with a laugh track, which was added at the insistence on NBC-TV. No question that the canned chuckles make some cringe; however, others view them as a welcome addition. Viewers today seem to think the hated laugh track has been long dead and buried, when in fact, it is alive and well on nearly every single "live" sitcom (laugh tracks have always been used in the background as a safety in the U.S., and will not be going away any time soon). Its usage in "Pink-In" harks back to the day when Charley Douglass and his "laff box" was synonymous with television comedy. In other words, get over it. Laughing matters.

The Pink Panther sits in the attic reading his old letters. One of them is from his old friend Loud Mouth Louie, who reminds about the panther's past life, with all the mishaps and memorable events he has experienced. This frame-tale takes us to scenes from earlier Pink Panther cartoons, including G.I. Pink (1968), Pink in the Clink (1968), Pink Pajamas (1964), Pickled Pink (1965) and The Pink Package Plot (1968). This means the cartoon is nothing but a paste-up job, but the old scenes are at least funny, so if you're not familiar with the originals, this one provides a guaranteed amount of laughs. If you have seen all five aforementioned cartoons, then naturally this is just one to turn your nose up at. Another gripe: the totally unnecessary use of a laugh track. As if that wasn't bad enough, we hear laughter even when there's nothing funny happening.

In this cartoon, the Pink Panther is reading an old letter that was sent by an old friend named Loudmouth Louie named, who writes about their past adventures. However, it is really a recap of past cartoons in the long line of Pink Panther program shorts. So, there is really no plot to this particular cartoon, and there is really no laughter, action or much entertainment to enjoy.

It is more like a filler cartoon that sticks in a narrator to make it a little unique. Not much to see here, except for a little bit of chuckles you might get out of the "past adventures."

Grade D-

While rummaging through his attic, the Pink Panther comes across some old letters. He reads one from an old Army buddy, "Loudmouth Louie," who recalls the old days, such as when they first joined the service. We hear Louie's voice and Brooklyn-type accident (i.e. "soivice" instead of "service.").

The rest of the cartoon is the PP reading more of the letter, us hearing Louie, and quick rehashes of visuals depicting what Louie is talking about. As another reviewer points out here, these flashback segments are reruns from previous Panther cartoons. That is an insult to the viewers. The Three Stooges did this a number of times in late '40s cartoons and it's a cheap way to present a story.

Since I own three DVDs that have all these previous Panther segments, I found this one a total waste of time. The producers of this fine animated series ought to be ashamed of themselves, passing this one off on the public.

Pink-In is not without its good points, but it is also one of those cartoons where you do question what the point of it was. The animation is minimal but elegant and fluid, the music is sly and catchy with the theme tune still not losing its classic appeal, Marvin Miller voices with a lot of vigour and doesn't feel out-of-place and annoying and there are a few fun moments here and there. Pink-In generally was not very funny, the odd gag is on the predictable side and if the cartoons featured hadn't been included there would have been nothing to it. The five cartoons are enjoyable and have a sense of fun that deserved to be better incorporated, a couple of scenes weren't among the very best of their respective cartoon either. The story, told in retrospect, is very thin and is little more than copying and pasting pre-existing Pink Panther cartoons and stringing them along. Initially it seemed a good idea to do it, but it came across as predictable and rather cheaply done. Pinky is one of animation's coolest characters but doesn't have a huge amount to do really here, his coolness and comic timing not been anywhere to good use. The laughter track was agreed distracting and was as pointless as this overall cartoon was itself. Pink-In is not a terrible cartoon, but it is mediocre stuff and the weakest of the Pink Panther seen yet. 4/10 Bethany Cox