Pink Arcade

The Pink Panther visits an arcade and gets the tables turned on him after each attraction malfunctions and fights back at him. The results were hilarious and the Pink Panther seems to get his fair share of bad luck as well, reminiscent of Donald Duck.

The animation was great, the slapstick comedy was abundant and the humor was right. Too bad we couldn't see some of the panther's more classic traits such as his sly, crafty self. He seemed pretty clueless in this cartoon and never winning out on anything. It's still an entertaining cartoon short, though.

Grade B

The Pink Panther cartoons generally range from quite good to great(a handful classic), with a few average ones too. Pink Arcade is among the best of the latter Pink Panther cartoons, formulaic it is and not all the drawing is as smooth as it could be but on the most part it's great. Most of the animation is good, while not quite as good as that of the previous cartoon Pink Pictures it is an improvement over the animation of the 1976 cartoons and Therapeutic Pink, the drawings are much less rushed-looking, the colours more vibrancy and variety and the backgrounds have more detail while still adopting the simple/minimal approach without taking it to extremes. The music is not as subtle as the Pink Panther cartoons before 1978(which may be a turn off for some), but it's constantly energetic and tuneful and doesn't get repetitive. There is nothing to dislike about the classic theme tune either no matter how many times you hear it, and there are some amusing and not bizarre sound effects(got to love the sound effects of the man getting angry when Pinky gets stuck in one of the machines). The pacing(although perhaps a tad rushed at the start) has non-stop energy, ensuring that the cartoon is never dull, while the gags are timed very well and all great fun, the worst one still managing to be amusing. If there was a personal choice for the best, it would be the bear shooting Pinky with the dart gun. The story may be formulaic but it's also fun, so that doesn't matter quite so much. Pinky is cool and manages to be very funny without speaking a word, there are occasions here where you do feel sorry for him. Overall, for a late Pink Panther cartoon Pink Arcade was great and one of the better ones. 9/10 Bethany Cox