The Pink Phink

The Pink Phink is a 1964 animated short comedy film, directed by Friz Freleng and Hawley Pratt. It is the first animated short starring Blake Edwards' Pink Panther.

Plot
The Pink Panther and an unnamed painter (known as the "Little Man") compete over whether a house should be painted blue or pink. Each time the painter attempts to paint something blue, the panther thwarts him in a new way. At the end, the painter inadvertently turns the house and everything around it pink and the panther moves in. But just before he moves in, he paints the white man completely pink. The painter gets upset and bangs his head against a mailbox. The Pink Panther then walks into the house as the sun sets.

Academy Award
The Pink Phink was the first Pink Panther animated short produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and by winning the 1964 Academy Award for Animated Short Film, it marked the first time that a studio won an Academy Award with its very first animated short.

Credits

 * "The Pink Panther Theme": Henry Mancini
 * Producers: David H. DePatie, Friz Freleng
 * Director: Friz Freleng
 * Co-Director: Hawley Pratt
 * Story: John W. Dunn
 * Animation: Don Williams, Bob Matz, Norm McCabe, LaVerne Harding
 * Layout: Dick Ung
 * Backgrounds: Tom O'Loughlin
 * Film Editor: Lee Gunther
 * Production Supervision: Bill Orcutt
 * Music score: William Lava

Laugh track
The Pink Panther Show contained a laugh track when the Pink Panther cartoons were broadcast on NBC. Most American broadcasts currently air with the laugh track muted; however, The Pink Phink airs with the original laugh track intact on the Spanish language Boomerang TV channel, and the France Channel Gulli.

Popular culture

 * An episode of the animated series Dexter's Laboratory entitled "A Silent Cartoon" is a homage to this short; the short features Dexter (filling the role of the painter) trying to construct a blue laboratory, while an all-pink version of his sister Dee Dee finds clever ways to turn the blue lab into a completely pink lab.
 * In the 2009 series Pink Panther and Pals, a scene from "A Pinker Tomorrow" in which the Pink Panther tricks the Little Man (Big Nose) to cover the outside of the house in paint, is homage to the original short.