Customer Reviews

The Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection, Vol. 1: Pranks in the Pink

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you want a sample of Pink Panther cartoons without paying for the multi-volume collection, this is the DVD to get. It has the episode where Henry Mancini makes a cameo appearance and it has the two episodes where the Pink Panther speaks (Sink Pink and Pink Ice). These are the early cartoons dating from 1964-67. I have all three separate volumes, and, in my opinion, although there are gems on each DVD, the overall quality of the episodes (in terms of plot and how funny an episode is) declines with the later episodes. These cartoons are mildly amusing. Kids who grew up with the Simpsons would probably be bored, but they are fun for us Gen Xers who remember the reruns as well as Baby Boomers. The cartoons are definitely before the PC age; guns, violence, smoking; it's all here! Here are all the episodes:

The Pink Phink: According to the box, this ep. won an award. PP makes life miserable for a painter to ensure his new home is pink.
Pink Pajamas: PP crashes at the home of an alcoholic who calls his sponsor after seeing PP (probably a worse sign than seeing a pink elephant).
We Give Pink Stamps: PP is in a department store and hassles the custodian.
Dial P for Pink: PP foils a safe burglar. At the beginning, the burglar turns the dial on the safe and it turns on like a radio. He has to unplug it.
Sink Pink: The first episode with voices. A hunter in the safari hopes to build another ark to round up 2 of every animal-but he's missing a PP, which would make a great rug for the misses. PP, himself, speaks in this one.
Pickled Pink: (V) An alcoholic brings home PP and has to hide him from his nagging wife. He hides him in the fridge at one point and, when he comes back, he finds PP has turned blue ("Oh, hi Blue Panther, have you seen a Pink Panther?")
Pinkfinger: (V) The first with a disembodied voice. This one encourages PP to be a secret agent. I'm not sure if it's edited, but it ends weird (how did the voice end up in an underground cellar with a lion and why was PP so bummed at the end after getting his man?).
Shocking Pink: (V) (LT) The first with a laugh track which I find annoying. The disembodied voice berates PP for being lazy ("Why pay $7.50/hour for a plumber?").
Pink Ice: (V) PP the miner competes with two bumblers mining for diamonds. Another rare one where PP speaks!

The Pink-Tailed Fly: PP is harassed by a pesky fly.
Pink Panzer: Disembodied voice turns PP and his neighbor against each other.
An Ounce of Pink: PP buys a talking scale/fortune teller.
Reel Pink: PP goes fishing and uses an uncooperative worm and encounters a cantankerous crab.
Bully for Pink: PP tries out as a toreador. Why does the bull sound like an elephant?
Pink Punch: (Laugh Track) This ep is annoying. PP tries to advertise his beverage but a green asterisk insists on being the dot in the "i" in "Pink."
Pink Pistons: PP buys a little blue bug (don't worry, he paints it pink) and gets into a race with Granny Flash. Can you believe PP was able to get his money back from a used car salesman?
Vitamin Pink: PP's wild west vitamins give an escaped convict enough strength to break into a safe. PP is made sheriff to recapture him.
The Pink Blueprint: (Laugh Track) A carpenter is building a house from a blueprint but PP has other ideas.

Pink, Plunk, Plink: PP joins a symphony orchestra and insists on playing his theme song. Henry Mancini is seen in the audience (actually, he's the only one in the audience!).
Smile Pretty, Say Pink: PP pesters a photographer visiting Pinkstone National Park because he refused to pay the camera fee.
Pink-A-Boo: A mouse steals more than food from PP. At one point, PP dresses like a cat. Why would he need to? Isn't he already one?
Genie with the Light Pink Fur: PP tries being a genie in a lamp but has trouble finding customers.
Super Pink: One of my favorites! Even with the laugh track, it's funny. PP decides to be a superhero and keeps trying to save the same poor little old lady who must have the worse luck in the world.
Rock-A-Bye Pinky: PP hounds a snoring camper who keeps blaming his poor, loyal dog for his misfortunes (this storyline would be used in several PP eps).
Pinknic: PP is snowed in in a cabin where he has another mouse problem.
Pink Panic: Caught in a storm, PP winds up in a haunted house with a ghost and skeleton.
Pink Posies: PP hassles a gardener by replacing his yellow flowers with pink posies.

For the fan of the Pink Panther that doesn't want to wast money on the later low budget 1970's cartoons. Here is the first part of the classic 1960's cartoons.

1964
The Pink Phink (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
Pink Pajamas (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
1965
We Give Pink Stamps (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
Dial 'P' for Pink (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
Sink Pink (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
Pickled Pink (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
Pinkfinger (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
Shocking Pink (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
Pink Ice (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
The Pink Tail Fly (Friz Freleng, Hawley Pratt)
Pink Panzer (Hawley Pratt)
An Ounce of Pink (Hawley Pratt)
Reel Pink (Hawley Pratt)
Bully for Pink (Hawley Pratt)
1966
Pink Punch (Hawley Pratt)
Pink Pistons (Hawley Pratt)
Vitamin Pink (Hawley Pratt)
The Pink Blue Print (Hawley Pratt)
Pink, Plunk, Plink (Hawley Pratt)
Smile Pretty, Say Pink (Hawley Pratt)
Pink-A-Boo (Hawley Pratt)
Genie with the Light Pink Fur (Hawley Pratt)
Super Pink (Hawley Pratt)
Rock A Bye Pinky (Hawley Pratt)
1967
Pinknic (Hawley Pratt)
Pink Panic (Hawley Pratt)
Pink Posies (Hawley Pratt)

From the beautiful graphics on the package cover to the 27 cartoons within, this classic release is in every way a delight. So why not five stars for the felicitous feline? Simply because of the annoying ad you have to skip every time to watch a cartoon. What's more, the ad urges viewers not to steal movies. Ironically, it's addressed to people who actually bought the DVD, the only audience you can be sure didn't steal these cartoons by illegally downloading them.

So this becomes a prolonged exercise in punishing the innocent (I've checked two other volumes in the series and they both have the ad). Why doesn't MGM pay to put their anti-theft message on television where the guilty parties can view it instead of making the buyer pay to see it? I don't know if the deluxe set with all the individual discs in it also has the ad on every disc, but the menu opens with the same graphics, so I suspect it does.

Although I waited for this release with anticipation, it's not worth it having to skip the ad every time to get to the cartoons. Enough is enough. It's time to rebel. As with Shout Factory releases, I will not be running to buy any more MGM cartoons on DVD until I know they are not bogged down with ads.

Ive always wanted to see a Pink Panther cartoon and now I have. I especially like it because it started on my birthday,December 18;just for me (eventhough I wasn't born yet)These are the great cartoons from 1964-67 starring the pink feline.

1.The Pink Phink:PP competes with the Janitor over whether their house should be blue or pink.
2.Pink Pajamas:PP tries to get a good night sleep but a guy with a drinking problem comes and calls another drunk guy for help.
3.We Give Pink Stamps:This one's my favorite. PP now lives in Gambles Departmant Store but can't let the Janitor see him. So he uses various store products to hide.
4.Dial "P" for Pink:A burglar tries to destroy a safe where PP lives.
5.Sink Pink:The first episode with voices. The first where PP talks. A safari hunter from Texas tries to bring her daughter Norah a furpiece so he builds Norah's Ark to round up all the animals, especially PP.
6.Pickled Pink:A guy takes PP home woth him. But beware of his temperamental wife. She complains about bringing a bum home.
7.Pinkfinger:The first episode with a disembodied voice. PP volunteers to be a secret agent and stop a Russian man.
8.Shocking Pink: The first with a laugh track. A disembodied voice tries to get PP to stop being lazy.
9.Pink Ice:The second and final episode where PP speaks.PP is a miner and two other miners,Hoskins and Devereux try to steal his diamonds.

10.The Pink Tail Fly:PP can't sleep because of a pesky fly.
11.Pink Panzer:A disembodied voice starts a war between PP and Harry (his neighbor)
12.An Ounce of Pink:PP buys a Talking weight Machhine but it's too talkitive and PP constantly has to put a coin in to complete the sentances.
13.Reel Pink:PP tries to fish but one of his worms does not cooperate and there's a crab after PP
14.Bully for Pink:PP becomes a matador
15.Pink Punch:PP advertises a new drink,Pink Punch but the asterisk for the "i" in "pink" keeps turning green
16.Pink Pistons:PP buys a new car and an old lady tries to destroy it
17.Vitamin Pink:PP introduces Vitamin Pink,an energy booster. A criminal ate and tried to rob the 1st,2nd,3rd and 4th National Banks.
18.The Pink Blueprint:The Janitor is using a blueprint to build a house while PP is using a "pinkprint"

19.Pink,Plunk,Plink:PP tries to play his theme song at a concert. lol
20.Smile Pretty, Say Pink: Because the Janitor refused to pay for his picture, you-know-who sneaks up on the Janitor so PP's picture will be taken
21.Pink-a-Boo:A mouse tries to eat all of PP's food.
22.Genie with the Light Pink Fur:PP tries to be a genie
23.Super Pink:PP becomes a superhero. But he always saves the same person and she never needs saving
24.Rock-a-bye Pinky: Janitor and his dog are camping. PP can't sleep so he sets various traps. Like many episodes, his dog gets blamed
25.Pinknic:A mouse tries to eat PP
26.Pink Panic:PP stays at a haunted house to get out of a storm
27.Pink Posies:Similar to The Pink Phink. The Janitor plants yellow flowers and PP replaces them with pink posies

Publishers:DePatie Freleng,MGM and United Artists

Yes, it's true that there's no Inspector episodes or Ant and Aardvark episodes. I wish these Pink Panther episodes were available intact just the way I saw them as a kid, but I must say that getting all the classic 1960's Pink Panther cartoons on a single disc for this price is a steal.

It's probably not best to do a Pink Panther marathon. As cool as the music is, it gets a little repetitive after a while, even though it seems that the makers of these cartoons did try to come up with variations on the classic theme.

On the up side, all us Pink Panther fans know that the music is much of what makes these cartoons great, and it really is great to pipe this music from your DVD player through a nice sound system while watching these classics with great DVD quality.

One way to really enjoy this might be to keep this disc near your home theater system and watch one or two cartoons before your movies over the course of a few weeks. Then the music doesn't get to you so much, and after all, these were meant to be watched every Saturday morning, not sat through one after the other for hours.

I thought that Volume 2 was better than Volume 1, but this is a very well put together DVD. I saw half of the films, and laughed like crazy when the Pink Panther would outsmart everybody in those films. The last time I watched these 1964-1967 cartoons was in 1980, when they showed 30-minute shows of these films on local TV stations. They showed the 1965 and 1966 films, even some from 1967 and 1968 a lot. It's like time never faded away--these films are still fresh and watchable today and fit well in today's Internet/IPod world. They repeat the music a lot in most films, but Henry Mancini's score music is still catchy--it's still in my head a good 26 years later (Yes, I do go out a lot--I don't get too overaddicted to TV too much)! I still hum to some parts from those films even up to today! Sometimes, the Pink Panther films borrow a bit from the Warner Bros. cartoons--especially the funny Road Runner/Wily E. Coyote chases, the Acme Manufacturing products, the anvils, the falling off of a cliff to the ground and so forth. This is a fun DVD that can be watched by everyone of all ages! So funny!

This is a great collection of Pink Panther cartoons. I was impressed by the length and volume of this dvd, But the icing on the cake is these are still FUNNY as hell. My nephews one 4 and one 10 both laugh at this together....along with me of course. This is great value and fun .

I thought I was the one who would enjoy this DVD the most, since Pink Panther was my favorite cartoons when I was little, well Surprise!...My 5 years old son fell in love with this Pink Panther collection! A good to have DVD.

On a recent visit to see my grandchildren I noticed they were watching the old Pink Panther cartoons, that I watched as a child, and they were laughing and giggling. I decided to buy them the DVD so they could watch Pink Panther anytime they wanted. Great to watch my old favorites which now I share with my grandchildren!

I recently found that i liked the old-school pink panther episodes. This is a great collection of them. I enjoyed watching all of them. Definitely recommended.