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JERRY BECK
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AMID AMIDI
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Pink Panther 2 opening titles
by jerry
February 17, 2009 9:20 am


In case you didn’t rush out to see the latest Pink Panther movie - here’s the part you really wanted to see: The opening titles. Karin Fong directed the sequence for Hollywood based Imaginary Forces. Anyone know who did the character animation?

(Via Motionographer)

02/17/09  9:27am

Pretty good. It’s like they mixed the DePatie-Freleng and the Richard Williams sequences together.

02/17/09  9:27am
Carrie L says:

Very cool!
As to who animated, some of it was done by Aimee Steinberger:
http://aimeekitty.livejournal.com/1046220.html

02/17/09  9:34am
misterdirk says:

Wow, me no like. There’s a mean quality to all the gags that just seems to violate the spirit of the old Pink Panther humor. This PP strikes me as too malicious. I guess it makes me miss the Golden Age, too : )

02/17/09  9:52am
Iain says:

I’m saving the credits glory for when I see them on the big screen tomorrow with the actual movie.

02/17/09  9:57am
AlphaTom says:

Wow, I didn’t realize that the Pink Panther was such a jerk. Seems a little more mean spirited than I remember.

02/17/09  10:24am
Mike Fontanelli says:

Witless.

02/17/09  11:54am
Hulk says:

Does this mean there are going to be more ‘Pink Panther’ and ‘Inspector’ Cartoons?

02/17/09  11:56am
Tim Rauch says:

beautiful! i enjoyed it thoroughly. kudos to all involved.

02/17/09  12:48pm
Anonymous says:

nicely executed, but when did Pink become such an asshole?

Is it ‘edgy’ ?

02/17/09  1:12pm
Roberto says:

Pink Panther seems too mean spirited, yes, and the gags are not hilarious, but it has some nice animation compared to the previous movie. As long as I remember the intro from the first movie was pretty simple.

Even the most average of these credit titles are a lot more classy and entertaining than the actual movies anyway. I like Steve Martin, but the first movie was quite bad and this one looks even worse.

02/17/09  1:41pm

No Jerry, I really didn’t want to see that. I guess Richard Williams has spoiled me.

02/17/09  2:37pm
JP says:

I miss the original “Inspector”. Perhaps he was remodeled to look a bit more like Steve Martin’s character.

02/17/09  3:15pm
uncle wayne says:

No….it was the ONLY things i “reeeeeally wanted to see!” Thank YOO (giantly) for that!! Gorgeous!!

02/17/09  3:19pm
Jason says:

I liked Richard Williams’ work, but nothing has ever surpassed the original Pink Panther opening credit cartoon from the original Pink Panther film. The Panther was far cuter and more likeable when he was more mischievous, more slinky and more of a quadruped. As a “big-foot” type of cartoon character, he’s kind of a cipher. The kind of toon only the French could love!

02/17/09  5:04pm

Judging by the first Steve Martin Pink Panther movie, this is parobably going to be the best part of the new one. Great design and animation, and clever gags. But I agree with those above that the Pink Panther is a little too mean here. In the original film titles and cartoons, he would rarely harm Clouseau or “the little man” directly. Unintentionally, yes, and sometimes out of self-defense or a practical joke. But dropping a statue on him? Smacking him in the face with an oar? Running him over with a car? Putting a lit bomb down his pants? Seems a little harsh to me!

02/17/09  5:16pm
mike says:

Loved it!!
Nicely done. Had a great flow to it - nice tie-in to the people being credited.

02/17/09  9:29pm
David Breneman says:

And we get… “Click Here to Download Plugin”. Oh ,yeah; Steve Jobs, Bill Gates’ not quite as Hitlerian younger brother, decided to yank Quicktime from the Linux distributuion because it was cutting into his lame Apple turf. I’d love to watch it, but not at the expense of buying into the “look and feel” lawsuit of the 1980s.

02/17/09  10:05pm
fanatic says:

Cool! I love Pink Panter!!

02/17/09  11:35pm

Thank you so much for posting this link! It was the one reason I wanted to pay to see this film, and now I don’t have to :)

02/17/09  11:45pm
Peter says:

The character animation was done at Rough Draft Studios by Gregg Vanzo, Aimee Steinberger, Derek Thompson and Jenny Meuller.

They did a great job. Glad you posted it.

02/18/09  1:39am

Oh, Jerry, how did you know this is the part of the movie I wanted to see? ;)

But seriously, the Pink Panther acted more like a Looney Toon than the Pink Panther we know. I agree that he was rather mean here. So it’s kinda’ off. Maybe PP was beating up Steve Martin for trying to replace Peter Sellers (or being so miscast)?

The animation was good, though! Almost as good as Richard Williams’ takes on the character.

02/18/09  6:36am

I snuck into the ending of this movie, and when I saw the 2d animation part of the pink panther, I was amazed and very happy. We need more 2d in movies, and frame by frame.

- Lavalle

02/18/09  7:24am
Angry Anim says:

I thought the animation was really well done and really appealing. I would of loved to have worked on this. “Witless”? “Richard Williams spoiled me”? Seriously? Come on.

Well done to all who worked on it.

02/18/09  10:22am
Melissa says:

If only the whole film was animated, I might just go and see it. Sitting through the first one was painful enough.

02/18/09  3:59pm
FP says:

Misfire.

02/18/09  5:50pm
T says:

No, they did not need the Panther doing all those overt things to witless Clouseau but someone on high probably wanted them in there. The slickest PP main title remains 1975’s “Return” but it’s 2009, Dick Williams retired and Ken Harris is dead. At this point, we should be glad there’s any 2D at all that’s not done on the cheap by people who never saw the original cartoons.

02/18/09  10:26pm
Steve Gattuso says:

It doesn’t feel true to either character, for reasons others have already gone into in depth. But you’re right about one thing: It’s the only part of the thing I was interested in seeing.

02/21/09  1:20pm
Christian says:

As I was watching it I kept thinking, “I like everything except the characterization.”

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