![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Animation-Trails-logo.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\nThe late \u201860\u2019s were not entirely devoid of characters knowledgeable of their existence in screen or print media, nor of interaction with offscreen narrators and animators \u2013 despite the relative shortage of studios offering product. Lantz, Terrytoons, and Paramount had largely dried up on creativity to call attention to the medium. Warner would contribute only one entry during this period, curiously set in its final theatrical production. But various sparks would continue to emerge in several Disney special featurettes, and within a select few of the productions from newcomer studios of ex-Warnerites Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones.<\/p>\n
\tPink is soon attired appropriately for the assignment, in low hat and trench coat, smoking a traditional British pipe. He steps out on the street, and soon spots two suspicious characters conversing. Hiding in the shadows, Pink observes one of the two hand a written note to the other, which the second reads, crumples up, then tosses to the ground. The second suspect then knocks on a door, whispers something to a pair of eyes behind a sliding panel, and gains entry to the sinister-looking place. Pink and the narrator presume the note contains a password, but Pink doesn\u2019t understand when he reads from the note the words, \u201cTSALB MIH\u201d. Nevertheless, Pink approaches the door, and when asked by a voice inside, \u201cWhat\u2019s the password\u201d, displays the written note. A pistol emerges from the peephole, and fires a shot in Pinky\u2019s face. The narrator apologizes for his oversight, now realizing that the note\u2019s words were \u201cBlast him\u201d backwards.<\/p>\n \tPink receives an anonymous phone tip on the whereabouts of the leader of the spies. The sequence reuses and slightly refashions a gag from Daffy Duck\u2019s \u201cStork Naked\u201d, with the informer, really the chief spy, setting up a crocodile pit behind the front door, concealed by a throw rug. As Pink enters, he walks along a board at one side of the open doorway, narrowly missing the rug and pit. The spy comes out of hiding, hustling Pinky back toward the pit, but falls himself by mis-stepping onto the rug. In a twist upon the old gag, one crocodile jumps out of the pit, and pushes Pink in too. Both Pink and the spy leap out of the pit, their outfits considerably worse for wear from the mauling.<\/p>\n \tPink returns to the city, his fur and trench coat still in disreputable shape. He hears screams of \u201cHelp! Let me out!\u201d and violent roars coming from below what appear to be the latched metal doors of a street elevator. Pink unlatches the doors, and is greeted by the frantic voice of \u2013 the narrator. \u201cOh, thank goodness it\u2019s you, old boy. They have me trapped down here with a ferocious lion.\u201d This is all Pink needs to hear. He shuts and re-latches the metal doors again, then calmly walks away, leaving the screaming narrator to his fate. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Pinkfinger.jpg\")
Pinkfinger<\/strong> (De Patie \u2013 Freleng\/UA, Pink Panther<\/em>, 5\/13\/65 \u2013 Friz Freleng\/Hawley Pratt, dir.) \u2013 Pinky is reading a novel or magazine about secret agents in his living room. A British -accented narrator\u2019s voice (Paul Frees, using the same voice he would concurrently use as the Chief in Hanna-Barbera\u2019s \u201cSecret Squirrel\u201d), intrudes his way into Pinky\u2019s quiet evening, advising him of the wonderful opportunities available for secret agents, and his chance to be a hero. Pinky waves off the narrator\u2019s suggestion with his hand, as highly unlikely nonsense. But the narrator informs him that there is really a nest of spies within a stone\u2019s throw of him \u2013 and to prove it, tells Pinky to throw a stone out the window. The pebble Pink throws quickly bops the head of an unseen stranger, who grumbles loudly in mock-Russian accented gibberish. Pink is convinced to volunteer, and the narrator adds, \u201cWith my help, it should be a clincher.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Pinkfinger-Secret-agent.jpg\")
Pink and the narrator detect a meeting taking place inside a tenth-story window, of the \u201ctop brass\u201d in spies hatching a master plan. Pink pantomimes to the narrator that he has an idea on how to snap a photo of the gang in the act, and is soon inching his way across a narrow ledge outside the windows. However, he miscalculates how many windows are connected to the same room, and is seen passing past one of them. Out of the next window ahead, the spies toss a banana peel onto the ledge. Pinky \u201cslips up\u201d, and falls off the building, into a trash can below. Pink tries again, floating up to the window with a balloon fastened around his waist. He snaps a photo with an instant-developing camera, then pulls out the picture to check if he has the evidence he needs. The photo merely depicts a single agent, with a revolver pointed straight at him. Pink scrambles against the air in futile attempt to flee, as the spy shoots down his balloon.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/The-Pink-Panther-Pinkfinger-600-300x225.jpg\")
A spy is seen boarding a taxi, heading for the train station. Pink pursues closely in a second cab. The two vehicles reach a tunnel, where the road is reduced to a single lane. They are traveling side-by-side at the time, so both cabs arrive at the station squashed into narrow shape at half their original width. Pink follows aboard a departing train, pursuing the spy into the next car. The spy pauses inside the doorway of the car to light a bomb, awaiting the panther\u2019s entrance. But Pink slams the door open, flattening the spy against the wall behind it, and the bomb explodes after Pink passes, revealing the charred spy as flat as a pancake. Pink enters the next car, and to his shock finds all but one seat already occupied by an entire gang of spies. The narrator instructs Pink to play it cool, and Pink takes the remaining seat, pulling out a cigarette lighter to light his pipe. The lights in the car go out, and when they come on again, Pink\u2019s pipe has been replaced by the lit fuse of another bomb, and all other seats in the car are entirely empty. Pink quickly opens a window, and tosses the bomb out \u2013 blowing up the station office of an unsuspecting telegraph operator along the side of the track. Finally, Pink corners one of the spies at his destination \u2013 a railroad bridge, one archway of which the spy enters, carrying an arm full of dynamite to plant inside. The sticks of TNT are wired to a detonator left outside the archway, and Pink casually approaches the detonator to push the plunger down. While the spy is blasted without having finished the installation so as to destroy the bridge, Pink too takes a blast of the explosion from within the arch, and brings the criminal to justice in his own blackened and frayed condition. <\/p>\n