The franchise started when Friz Freleng was contracted to make the animated opening credits sequence for the live-action Peter Sellers detective comedy The Pink Panther along with some later sequels. As Freleng later recalled: “Time magazine wrote it up and said it was better than the picture. [Director] Blake [Edwards] didn’t like that.” So eventually the character got his own Saturday Morning Cartoon, which flipped that dynamic by (initially) featuring this live-action opening credits sequence.
The thing I never realized before seeing the inside of that vehicle is that the Panther and Detective Closeau were clearly doing it with each other on the way to that movie theater.
