I haven't posted anything from the Depatie / Freleng studios yet, so let's remedy that today. Depatie /Freleng studios was born when Warner Bros. closed their animation studio, leaving director Friz Freleng and producer Dave Depatie out of work. The two men decided to form a partnership. Warner Bros., in an extremely generous gesture, rented the new team the old animation studio and equipment for a few dollars a year. The studio survived doing commercials and industrial work (the Charlie Tuna commercials were among their early works) until Blake Edwards asked them to design a logo for his upcoming movie, The Pink Panther. The resulting character, a sauve looking panther with a cigarette holder, delighted Edwards so much that he decided to have them create an animated opening to his movie. The animated opening to the movie, with the Hank Mancini theme music, was a rousing success, with many critics stating that the opening titles were better than the picture that followed. This lead to United Artists asking for a series of Pink Panther cartoons. The first one, "The Pink Phink" won Friz Freleng his fifth Oscar for best animated short subject. Here it is, from 1964: The Pink Phink.
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