"In the Pink of the Night" is a 6-minute cartoon starring the Pink Panther and obviously a title reference to the popular Academy Award winning feature film "In the Heat of the Night" which came out shortly before this. But back to this one here: It's basically about the Panther's struggles with getting out of bed and making it to work on time. The cuckoo is supposed to help him with that difficult task, but in the end he proves to be a partner in crime. I have seen some Pink Panther short films, but I cannot say that this one here is among my favorites despite the contributions of famous cartoon directors Arthur Davis and Friz Freleng. None of the jokes are really funny and I only kinda liked the ending. Not recommended.
The above is my review from summer 2015 and now, almost 10 years later, in 2024 I gave this one another watch:
I stand with my overall rating of 2/5 still and with the thumbs-down as a whole. The comedy in here in this film from now 55 years ago was not good enough to win me over. There are pretty much three chapters: First is all before the cuckoo including a depiction of all the alarm clocks the panthers has destroyed, the second chapter includes all the fighting with the cuckoo and the third then is what happens after the Panther threw the little bird off the bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge? Well, it just seemed not too realistic how much of a guilty conscience the Panther now has all of a sudden, just like how it was such a twist that oh so reliable cuckoo now became as lazy as the panther in the end. I could have looked past these flaws if the gags had been really funny, but just like back then I would say the only thing that made me smile from these under 6.5 minutes was really how the birdie is in bed too at the end and does pretty much exactly what the Panther was doing at the beginning. I mean I was woken up by a telephone ringing this very day (I kid you not) and I still have a hard time relating with the Panther here. Besides, even if I know it is a stylistic decision, the animation is just inferior to many older cartoons. This became especially visible the moment the Panther stepped out of his house the first time here. I also might have liked the outcome more if it had more connection with the aforementioned film it references in the title than just playing during nighttime. Which is not even the case for the entire film. All in all, this MGM cartoon is one you should skip, but I guess you don't need the recommendation because by the time you think about watching this one, you have seen many other Pink Panther cartoons already for sure. It is not one of the most known from the series at all. It is still among the earlier releases, but also not very early.
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