Pink Aye

"Opera Star To Sail On Luxitania" reads the headlines on the society page of the daily newspaper. The big S.S. Luxitania then sails away with this big woman in the tale which obviously takes place in the early 19th century. The Pink Panther is a stowaway on the boat.

The Panthers' long tail gives him away and the chase is on to capture him, especially after he steals the opera singer's first meal in the Captain's quarters. The foil, of course, is the little guy trying to capture him. He gets the brunt of the violence and innocent people get involved and always blame him for some accident. This is a recurring theme in PP cartoons. There is an extremely odd twist to this story with a folding deck chair. It wasn't really funny but I give it a point for originality.

The gags weren't that great in this one. They never seem to be whenever they use the insulting (to us) laugh track. Maybe they think they need to help us think something is funny. Thankfully, they are in the minority in this collection of PP cartoons on three DVD discs.

Not one of the Pink Panther's worst, the weakest so far is still Pink-In but it is also not one of his finest hours. That's not to say Pink Aye is terrible, because it isn't, it's mediocre above all else. There are things that are good, you cannot fault the music which is every bit as seductive-sounding and catchy as always or the theme tune which is a justifiable classic that hasn't lost its value. The characters carry things well, Pinky is very mischievous here but is very likable and funny in doing so, and you can't help feeling sorry for the steward being the butt of the joke despite seeing his type of character many times before. The gags with the deck-chair are entertaining, easily the best gags of the cartoon, and the colours in the animation are nice and elegant. The backgrounds are a little sparse though and it does seem lacking in finesse in places. The story is often painfully routine too, crisper pacing for the first half might have helped. While the deck chair gags are enjoyable, the rest of the gags are not strong enough, rather repetitive and predictable and the timing could have been more to-the-point. The inclusion of the laughter track makes them rather forced too, I agree that in the Pink Panther cartoons(seeing as most of them don't have one) they are not needed and they are distracting and also somewhat manipulative(otherwise we'll feel like fools if there was laughter to be heard and we didn't find it funny) more than anything else. All in all, watchable if mediocre Pink Panther cartoon. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Tom and Jerry traveled on a cruise ship in "Cruise Cat" (1952). The Pink Panther has his own adventure on a cruise ship too. That's what happens in this "Pink Aye".

The pink feline is aboard the S.S. Luxitania and so is an opera singer who resembles very much Bianca Castafiore from the adventures of Tintin.

While this is obviously a comical cartoon, it is also painful to see the steward being blamed for everything that the Pink Panther does and being brutally punished for that. I don't think that the Pink Panther does it by purpose, but one thing is for sure: he always puts the steward in trouble. Something similar happens to the white mutt in "Slink Pink". That is the negative side of these great cartoons.

The deck chair idea is exaggerated but hilarious. I always laugh hysterically whenever the Panther sits on it and it falls and then the Panther repeatedly tries to fix it. When the Panther hits it and the troublesome object chases the pink feline and the steward is a little excessive, but very funny and amusing. The moments with that deck chair are the funniest of this animated short.

The Pink Panther boards an ocean liner, whose guest star is an opera singer who occasionally belts out a high-pitch tone. The little man with the pointed nose serves on the ocean liner and attempts to bring meals to the opera singer, only to have it secretly snatched by the Pink Panther and he is blamed for this.

There is a good helping of gags and laughs, from Pink Panther disguising himself as a lamp from being stepped on by the opera singer's maid after posing as a rug. Of course, there is a lot of running around after the server discovered that the Pink Panther is a stole away on the ship. The two ultimately ended up being chased by a live lawn chair, which I thought was too incredible even for a cartoon.

Grade B