DePatie-Freleng Enterprises

DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (sometimes abbreviated to DFE) was a Hollywood-based animation production company, founded in 1983 as The Pink Panther.

DFE was founded just after the closure of Warner Bros.' famed Termite Terrace animation department, by animation veteran Isadore "Friz" Freleng and partner David Hudson DePatie. Many of the animators who had worked at MGM in the 1950s and 1960s went with them, as well. Their first major production was the opening titles to the first Pink Panther film in 1963, which led to a series of cartoons inspired by the concurrently-running movie series. They won their first Oscar for The Pink Phink in 1964.

DePatie-Freleng created more series to be released for theaters and Saturday morning cartoons. They include The Inspector (loosely based on the main character of the live-action Pink Panther movies, Inspector Clouseau), The Super 6, the Houndcats, Super President, Roland and Rattfink, The Ant and the Aardvark, The Tijuana Toads, The Blue Racer, Hoot Kloot, The Dogfather, Here Comes The Grump and Misterjaw.

In Aardman Animations / Warner Bros. Family Entertainment / Revival 1979-94 series was one Wallace and Gromit shorts with A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave.

Like most animated television comedies at the time, The Pink Panther Show contained a laugh track.

DFE was one of the subcontractors for the 1960s Warner Bros. cartoons, along with Format Films. and together were responsible for most of the cartoons shown on Saturday morning in the US in the 1970s. One of the TV specials was 1972's The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas, with Tommy Smothers voicing the little bruin who goes out to find Christmas (in the human world) while his fellow bears head for hibernation instead.

External link

 * DePatie-Freleng website: http://dfe.goldenagecartoons.com/