Friz Freleng Gallery
Initially created by Friz Freleng for the opening title sequence of Blake Edward's, 1964 comedy farce THE PINK PANTHER, the cartoon character received reviews that were as good or better than the film itself! The new star had obviously clawed his mark, and a series of short subjects was immediately put info production.
Friz Freleng was the perfect man for the job. Having begun his career in the same small Kansas City studio where Walt Disney got his start in animation, Freleng moved to California in the late 1920s. He was soon helping fellow Kansas City animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising start up the series of "Looney Tunes" for Warner Brothers release. With the exception of one year with M-G-M in the mid-1930s, Freleng was a Warner Brothers stalwart, becoming Senior Director and supervising now-classic cartoons staring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Tweety for over 30 years. Freleng also directed the first cartoons starring Sylvester, Porky Pig and Yosemite Sam, ultimately winning four Academy Awards® for the studio.
When Warner Brothers shut down its animation department in 1962, Freleng teamed up with cartoon producer David DePatie to make animated commercials and industrial films. At this time, director Blake Edwards - himself an aficionado of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons and silent comedies - approached Freleng about providing animation for the opening moments of his next film.
David DePatie recalls: "We got together with some of our guys and came up with probably 100 to 150 different illustrations of the Panther. I remember very well that we took them over to Blake's office and spread them all out and that he knew exactly what he wanted. He went right over, pointed to one of them and said 'that's the guy!'"
"Then they asked us to do a storyboard," remembers Freleng. "They just flipped when they saw it! When we finally got it onto the screen and they previewed it, the comment from the press was that the titles were better than the picture."
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Pink Panther |
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Freleng simply made good cartoons, and kept making them year after year. He earned his studio three Academy Awards. Freleng's forte was musical cartoons. He animated the Pink Panther series. The diminutive and hotheaded Yosemite Sam was inspired by Freleng.
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