There is good news and bad news regarding the next big screen incarnation of THE PINK PANTHER. The good news is that the painfully bad series starring Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau will not be continuing. The bad news is that the next movie will be a CGI/live action movie along the lines of ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS, SCOOBY DOO, and THE SMURFS.
The new caper film will focus on the Pink Panther character, rather than Inspector Clouseau, and will harken back to the tone shared by the original Friz Freleng and David De Patie cartoons as well as that of Blake Edwards’ films.
THE PINK PANTHER was originally a series of comedy films directed by Blake Edwards and starring the great Peter Sellers as the bumbling Clouseau. The title of the movies referred to a rare diamond and not an actual character. But, thanks to the popularity of the film and the iconic opening theme, the animated version of the anthropomorphic panther eventually got his own cartoon and became a popular character in his own right. While Roberto Benigni and Steve Martin both attempted to kickstart the series, neither was as good as Sellers.
THE PINK PANTHER series has been in existence for five decades and has won Oscars and Grammy Awards, but something tells me this is going to just be another blemish on that history. There have been almost no CGI/live action hybrid family films that have been any good, despite great box office numbers, so my expectations are very low for THE PINK PANTHER. Here’s hoping they can prove me wrong.