The Pink Panther / YMMV

Entries in this series with their own YMMV pages:

open/close all folders

The films

Awesome Music:
- Henry Mancini's iconic, smooth and jazzy "Pink Panther Theme", of course. Each film would have a different version of it, but the original is the most remembered. Special mention however, goes to the funky rearrangement in Revenge of the Pink Panther, as well as the upbeat and catchy acapella rearrangement by Bobby Mcfarin in Son of the Pink Panther.
- There's his "A Shot in the Dark" theme, which was also used for The Inspector animated shorts.

Ensemble Dark Horse:
- And how; the 1963 version of The Pink Panther was meant to be the first in a series of films about the Phantom, the master thief played by David Niven who stole the eponymous diamond, but it ended up being all about Clouseau, because he ended up becoming the most popular character from that film.
- The animated Pink Panther character, too; he even got a couple of animated series.
- Dreyfus may count too. Besides Sellers' epic portrayal of Clouseau, his insanity caused by Clouseau is one of the other reasons people watch the films. Because of this, Dreyfus would even be carried over into the reboot.
- And don't forget Cato. He has a fanbase too. (There were plans to work him into the reboot, but they couldn't get Jackie Chan for the role.)
- Marie Jouvet, who carries the Clouseau-less parts of Trail after his disappearance. Instead of just being a Clouseau expy, she's depicted as a Straight Woman getting a glimpse into the inspector's mad world, and is helped by Joanna Lumley's strong performance. Some fans feel that Curse would have turned out a lot better if it had kept with her as the main character, instead of bringing in Clifton Sleigh.
Fanon Discontinuity: For some — if not most — fans, only the five films Sellers actually did count. As for Trail of... the scenes of Sellers it used can be counted as the deleted material from Strikes Again that they actually were; the rest of the film can be taken or left. Even some VHS and DVD packages of the films only include the Sellers entries to which MGM/UA has the rights (see Missing Episode in the Trivia tab). Many die-hard fans consider the post-Sellers films and the reboot movies to not count, and generally avoid them at all costs.
Funny Moments: The time that Clouseau... oh, you know what? This deserves a page of its own.
Growing the Beard: A Shot in the Dark is the first film that's actually about Clouseau, the first that introduces Dreyfus and Cato, and was the best reviewed film in the series.
Harsher in Hindsight: The title sequence to Curse depicts Clifton Sleigh as an Invisible Man. Not only was Sleigh's lack of presence compared to Clouseau one of the biggest criticisms of the film, but actor Ted Wass rapidly sank away into obscurity afterwards, and nowadays is better known as a director than for anything from his acting career. On the bright side, Ted Wass claimed he never wanted to be an actor in the first place, as directing was always his main interest; in fact, when he was cast in the series Blossom, one of the stipulations in his contract was that he'd be allowed to direct some episodes so he could jump start that career.
I Am Not Shazam: The Pink Panther is not Clouseau or, as MGM once stated, Sir Charles Litton, but the diamond that was stolen. For younger fans grown up more familiar with the cartoon spin-offs, they would be more inclined to wonder why the Pink Panther film series isn't called The Inspector film series.

Just Here for Godzilla:
- Many critics have argued, especially in the wake of the reboot, that as popular as they were these were never great films, or even good ones. They were loved for Peter Sellers' performances and the animated title sequences, which was why continuing the series after his death didn't work. Interestingly, the Biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers has an invented scene where Sellers uses the premiere of one of the films to insult Blake Edwards, calling him a hack, and then claiming that people only come to see him perform. The scene is intended to paint Sellers in a bad light, but when you consider this trope, he could be seen as speaking a blunt truth! In the series' fanbase, there are those who put up with the non-Sellers films for more of Dreyfus and/or Cato's hijinks.
  - The original 1963 film illustrates this very well, ironically. People who watch the original film, expecting it to be about Clouseau, are typically disappointed that it is a '60s caper with a Villain Protagonist trying to seduce a princess and everyone else spending most of the running time discussing sex. Clouseau shows up for maybe a third of the film, and the scenes without him drag. It does contain a car chase scene that would be at home in the other movies.
- Many who disliked the 2006 remake have said that the only good thing about it is the animated title sequence. Same goes for the attempted 1993 series revival, Son of the Pink Panther.
Magnificent Bastard: In Inspector Clouseau, Clyde Hargreaves uses his position as the son of a prison warden to form a gang of master criminals who know him by the codename Johnny Rainbow. When his lieutenants are arrested in the aftermath of a train robbery, Clyde easily breaks them out of prison one at a time. Clyde's master plan is to have his men all disguise themselves as Inspector Clouseau and rob the thirteen biggest banks in Switzerland simultaneously. They do so by tricking the bank managers into thinking that they're turning the money over to Clouseau as part of a plan to trap the thieves. Clyde smuggles the money—hidden in chocolate wrappers—across the border on an inconspicuous slow-moving barge while the police focus on watching the airports. Even when Clouseau foils their getaway, Clyde and his men still escape with some of the money.
Memetic Mutation: Clouseau's Funny Accent and Misprononcations (like "beump" instead of "bump"), all courtesy of Peter Sellers.
- "I would like a damburgah!" for Steve Martin's Clouseau in the reboot.
- Dreyfus getting his Twitchy Eye because of Clouseau and trying to kill the latter.
- The hilarious fights between Clouseau and Cato.
Mis-blamed: Trail and Curse came in for a lot of criticism over the apparent decision to re-hire David Niven as Sir Charles Lytton (rather than just bringing back Christopher Plummer) and then have Rich Little overdub his weak voice. However, according to Robert Wagner, who played Sir Charles's nephew George, Niven's voice actually was still quite audible during filming; the actual problem was that Niven's health deteriorated sharply after that, leaving him bedridden and unable to speak by the time they needed to do ADR looping. And while they could theoretically have just dumped Sir Charles's scenes from Trail, as they aren't essential to the plot, it would have been a much bigger problem with Curse, to the point where Blake Edwards' choices boiled down to either hiring a sound-alike to overdub Niven's lines, or reshooting the film's entire third act.
Moral Event Horizon: Dreyfus jumped off the slippery slope in A Shot in the Dark when he kills 4 innocent bystanders and blows up five other murderers and one blackmailer trying to kill Clouseau. In ''Return'', he inadvertently kills his psychiatrist when imagining himself strangling Clouseau to death, shoots Francois in the arm mistaking a real gun for his lighter (AGAIN), and kills the film's Big Bad when Clouseau ducks to check his fly. Finally, in ''Strikes Again'', he escapes the insane asylum and, after another failed attempt to kill Clouseau, goes Bond Villain and threatens to destroy the world unless they kill Clouseau, destroys the United Nations building, and arguably ruins the life of a good scientist. When he had Professor Fassbender kidnapped and forced to build a Disintegrator Ray using Fassbender's daughter Margo as leverage, therefore forcing Fassbender to be an accomplice against his own free will, the Professor likely got arrested along with Dreyfus' surviving henchmen, who followed Dreyfus willingly unlike the Professor. He likely was able to get a reduced sentence to help prosecute Dreyfus' henchmen since Fassbender wanted nothing to do with Dreyfus' madness and criminal gang anyway, but with Dreyfus destroyed (assuming Revenge and the post-Peter Sellers sequels didn't happen), Jean Tournier killed pretending to be Clouseau in order to try killing Clouseau himself (despite Dreyfus' warning), and one of the kidnappers killed by Fassbender's butler Jarvis after mortally wounding Jarvis, the sentence wouldn't be reduced as much. So Margo would have to spend time without her father, not to mention dealing with the murder of their butler, all thanks to that raving lunatic Dreyfus!
My Real Daddy:
- While Blake Edwards was the creator,^note producer and director of the original film series, just about everyone will agree that it likely wouldn't even have gotten past the first film without the involvement of Peter Sellers.
- Likewise, while De Patie Freleng Enterprises created the animated titles for the first film, Richard Williams' title sequences for Return and Strikes Again are the ones remembered most fondly by fans.
Questionable Casting: Steve Martin as Clouseau. Kevin Kline would've been the better choice to play Clouseau in the reboot, but for some reason he was cast as Dreyfus.
Replacement Scrappy:
- Two, in Clifton Sleigh (in Curse) and Jacques Gambrelli/Clouseau Jr. (in Son of), since both characters and actors were fighting a losing battle with the memory of Clouseau. Many fans didn't appreciate it very well that there could be other people like Clouseau in the world. However, Clifton and Jacques II are a bit more sane and sophisticated then Clouseau Sr., and are simply klutzy while Clouseau is a total fool.
- For some fans and/or critics, anyone who is not Peter Sellers and still gets to play Clouseau. YMMV, though Alan Arkin and Steve Martin portrayed Clouseau very well, Sellers is and always will be the one and only Clouseau. Trail of even lampshades this at the beginning of the credits with a tribute message to Sellers saying "To Peter, the one and only inspector Clouseau."
Seasonal Rot: Trail, Curse and Son all exhibit how bad the series is without Peter Sellers.
Sequelitis: Exhibited several of the symptoms listed at the trope entry in the 1970s films, but no one seemed to mind much until Sellers was gone.
- 1968's Inspector Clouseau is this towards The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark for many fans, simply for not featuring Sellers and Blake Edwards.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The thoughts on the original series after Peter Sellers died.
Tough Act to Follow: The franchise has had a notoriously tough time continuing on without Peter Sellers. Although several attempts to continue the franchise were made, most of them underperformed at the box office and receive mostly negative reviews from critics and audiences. Even those who like the later films can agree that Peter Sellers is what made the first 5 films work so well and that without him, it's just not the same. It's gotten to where several actors who were considered to play Clouseau post Sellers have declined the role entirely, simply because they know they can't fill Sellers' shoes.
Values Dissonance: In the Sellers films, Clouseau often refers to Cato as "you yellow x" or "my yellow x". The reboot dropped Cato and replaced him with Ponton, a French policeman, and the second film makes Clouseau an insensitive lecher who blatantly stereotypes everyone he meets by nationality or ethnicity, and plays it for laughs.^note

The cartoons

Adaptation Displacement: While the original live action films are still generally well known, general audiences nowadays tend to be more familiar with the cartoons than they are with the films. This is especially the case amongst younger audiences, many of which grew up watching the cartoons over the films and thus, are not as familiar with the films as older audiences are.
Alternate Character Interpretation: In "the Pink Package Plot", is that Angry Guard Dog only doing his job or did he realize all along that package is a bomb?
Awesome Music:
- Of course, the classic jazzy theme by Henry Mancini is present here as well and plays in most of the cartoons.
- The intro to the 1993 cartoon, which is an upbeat rendition of the classic theme.
- While Pink Panther and Sons is considered by many to be the worst animated series related to the character, most fans will admit that the theme song is pretty awesome.
Bizarro Episode: Hamm-N-Eggz, Voodoo Man, 7 Manly Men. The original series itself had quite a few of these (hell, the entire series itself could be considered a Bizarro Episode for Western animation as a whole), and a few even have Gainax Endings, like for example Pink S.W.A.T.: the Panther tries to vacuum up a fly that's been pestering him the whole episode, but the vacuum ends up vacuuming the Panther, the background and then itself.
Designated Villain:
- The Little Man/Big Nose can qualify as this, especially in the early shorts; a lot of the time, he's just doing his own thing when the Pink Panther interrupts everything, and he suddenly becomes prone to a majority of the slapstick in the cartoons.
- The dog in "Slink Pink" is certainly aggressive towards Pink Panther, but it's hard to fault him; he's simply trying to protect his master from an intruder, and keeps getting on the wrong end of his master's rolled-up newspaper thanks to Pink's trickery.
Genius Bonus: In Pink at First Sight, Pink Panther lip-syncs to an opera song to impress the owner of the delivery service. The song in question is "Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci, in which Canio, a clown, sings about his depression over his wife cheating on him. Pink Panther is also a usually-comical figure who is feeling depressed due to love-related issues (though in this case, it's that he doesn't have someone to love at all.)
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The original shorts were almost entirely free of dialogue, which gave them a massive cross-cultural appeal because the humor needed no translation. It was by far the most successful in Europe as many generations there fondly recall the trippy exploits of the Panther.
Growing the Beard: As the series progressed, so did the quality of writing.
Harsher in Hindsight: Rich Little, who voiced the Pink Panther at the end of "Sink Pink" and in "Pink Ice", had to dub an extremely ill David Niven in Trail and Curse.
Ho Yay: In The New Pink Panther Show: Manly Man, and Eggz the chicken from Hamm-N-Eggz, who falls into Camp Gay territory.
More Popular Spin-Off: The cartoons are far more popular and widely beloved amongst audiences than the film series it spun off from. Especially amongst younger audiences. Nowadays, they're often the first thing people think of when thinking The Pink Panther as opposed to the films (perhaps not helping is that what is widely held to be the best and funniest movie in the series doesn't have "Pink Panther" in the title).
Seasonal Rot: A mild case with the shorts produced for The All-New Pink Panther Show, which don't experience anywhere near the drop-off in quality that the latter live-action films did, but suffer from cheaper animation, less memorable gags, and largely ditching Henry Mancini's theme in favor of less memorable original music.
Squick: The hot dogs sold by Wanda's Wieners in "Wiener Takes All" - they're black, shriveled and always buzzing with flies.
Tear Jerker: "Pink Daddy": A stork mistakenly delivers a baby crocodile to the Pink Panther's home. Despite all the difficulties it causes him, he does his best to raise it, only for it to eventually run off and find its real parents. Rather than be relieved, the poor panther anxiously tries to reclaim it. As the stork arrives to clear things up, the child finally reunites with its tearfully happy mother. The rejected panther's angry reaction does little to hide that he has been terribly hurt. The stork watches and silently shares his pity with the viewers.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- The Laugh Track added in syndication did the later theatrical shorts no favors. Not helped at all by it being used in a series with almost no dialogue, which made it even more distracting and annoying than usual. "Better" still is that there appear to be no clean versions in existence anymore, so all home video releases include the laugh tracks.
- Anytime the Pink Panther is given dialogue tends to be met with this reception from fans who tend to prefer him as a Heroic Mime. The 90s cartoon being the most infamous example.
Unintentional Period Piece:
- "Psychedelic Pink" is truly a product of the late 1960s; just the title alone gives it away!
- "Think Before You Pink" has the Pink Panther trying to cross a busy intersection with a pedestrian crossing signal that uses the words "DON'T WALK" and "WALK." After the 20th century ended, the number of pedestrian signals with said words began to quickly decrease, due to many of them being replaced with modern signals using orange hand and white walking body symbols (along with countdown timers at busier or more dangerous intersections).
Values Dissonance: "The Pink Package Plot" from 1968 involves the Pink Panther forced at gunpoint by a terrorist to deliver a ticking Time Bomb package to a foreign embassy. Just the setup alone wouldn't fly in today's terrorism-paranoid world (especially not after the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks).
The Woobie: Pink at First Sight is one of the few times Pink Panther ever seems depressed, and boy, does it hit hard. You can feel his misery at the beginning when he walks past all the happy couples on Valentine's Day, while he's seemingly the only one alone. Then there's that shot of him sitting on his bed in a dark, dingy apartment...

YMMV / The Pink Panther

Edit Locked