![]() The character of Cato was replaced with Ponton, and the character scrapped. ![]() Obviously, the idea of Fong is now ridiculously insensitive and un-PC, so naturally Chan turned it down. Cato Fong, the Peter Sellers Clouseau’s faithful manservant was originally going to be in The Pink Panther, the role being offered to Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan. The pronunciation of hamburger then reoccurs through The Pink Panther and its sequel and I still find it hilarious. If you haven’t seen it then you’re missing out on something special. Then you have the greatest scene in both movies, the accent coach training where Clouseau, attempting to mute his ridiculous cadence, fails to pronounce the word hamburger. Clouseau assaults him when he’s not expecting it, and Ponton must defend himself, nearly always subduing his friend. The ‘good one’ joke began as an exercise Clouseau does to try and keep Ponton (Jean Reno) mentally and physically aware of danger. Recurring gags in TV shows are commonplace nowadays, and when one is spotted in a film (usually once it has spawned sequels) audience members, such as myself, get excited. The logic in the first film felt a bit sounder than the second, but The Pink Panther 2 is still, on the whole, a far more enjoyable film. I enjoy The Pink Panther 2 for just those reasons – the whole thing goes globetrotting, and there’s a larger cast, meaning more suspects. The Pink Panther was a box office success, even though critics were sniffy towards it, and so a sequel came to life, this time with a wider scope and more stars. A long time ago I thought it was only Toy Story 2 that was more popular than the first, but that was a very long time ago. Sequels that supersede their original films are becoming less and less of a rarity. The sequel’s actually better than the first film Typically fans and critics hate these efforts, and luckily, The Pink Panther never falls into this trap. A lot of reboots often end in disaster because they try to give the original a full-on makeover, trying to make it too ‘current’. They self-consciously acknowledge the original movies with numerous visual and script references to the earlier films. What I really respect about the Martin movies is that they don’t try to fundamentally rework the Sellers creation. The Pink Panther has been done a few times over the years on big and small screen, but the Steve Martin reboot was easily the biggest and most prominent. Peter Sellers’ name is now permanently associated with the title of Clouseau, and he was never able to shake off this typecasting in the latter part of his career. If you’re inspired by this piece to revisit the Steve Martin movies, then look out for the more risqué visual jokes and you’ll find yourself surprised. The Pink Panther and its follow-up fall, roughly, into the same category (although neither film, clearly, approaches a Pixar standard) screenwriter Len Blum managed to shoehorn many saucy jokes that only a few would get. Pixar has the astonishing ability of appealing to the little ‘uns and the oftentimes reluctant adults (what willing parent would take their child to The Smurfs 2?), because they include slapstick jokes that younger audience members could lap up, and witty gags that only the grown-ups could understand. After a downturn in the 2010s, Murphy engineered a comeback of sorts with an award-winning performance as comic Rudy Ray Moore in 2019 biopic Dolemite Is My Name.The animation giant Pixar’s summer feature has always lured in feverish children and enthusiastic adults, which, if you really think about it, is where the company’s charm lies. The series was rebooted in 2006 with Steve Martin, who starred in two poorly received films, The Pink Panther and The Pink Panther 2, the latter released in 2009.Īfter achieving massive success in the 1980s on Saturday Night Live and in movie comedies such as Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop, Murphy moved into family pictures in the 90s and 2000s, with hits such as Dr Dolittle and The Nutty Professor, as well as voicing the key role of Donkey in Shrek. Alan Arkin played the role in the 1968 feature Inspector Clouseau, while Roger Moore cameoed as Clouseau in the 1983 film Curse of the Pink Panther. Sellers starred in four further Pink Panther films, with a fifth, The Trail of the Pink Panther, released in 1982 after Sellers’ death using out-takes from previous films. The Pink Panther was originally the name of a celebrated diamond that featured in the series’ first film, released in 1963 and directed by Blake Edwards with Sellers starring as Clouseau opposite David Niven.
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