Okay, this is not our grand pappy’s Pink Panther, but the new film does mark Steve Martins return to slapstick comedy. This movie is not particularly bad but is definitely not what it could’ve been.
France is playing China in a big soccer game and the coach enters the field he’s wearing the Pink Panther diamond on his hand. As France scores a last minute goal to win the game, the stadium erupts and everyone rushes to the field to congratulate the coach. When the sea of admirers part, the coach is dead and the diamond is missing.
Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) has a problem. The dead coach? No. He has been nominated for France’s Medal of Honor seven times and has never won. He thinks that he can engineer a win by assigning a complete idiot to the case of the murdered coach and when the idiot bumbles it, steps in and solve the case thereby guaranteeing him the Medal of Honor. He needs the perfect idiot. That idiot is Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin), a bumbling police officer from a small village.
Dreyfus brings him to Paris, makes him an Inspector, and assigns him to the case. He also assigns Ponton (Jean Reno) as Clouseau’s partner and to also report back to him how Clouseau’s case is going. To keep Ponton on guard Clouseau commits to attack him without warning, sound familiar? The suspects include the coach’s girlfriend pop star Xania (Beyonce Knowles), casino owner Larocque (Roger Rees), and Bizu (William Abadie) the soccer star. Dreyfus suspects the Chinese government and heads in that direction. Will Clouseau bumble onto the keeler?
The original was really aimed towards an older audience and technically the Clouseau character wasn’t really going to play a large part. Fortunately the actor cast as Clouseau, Peter Ustinov, had to drop out. Peter Sellers was cast in the role and when Blake Edwards saw what he was doing with the role, the part was expanded. We now tend to forget that David Niven was the star of the original film since Sellers dominates the movie (at least in our memories of the film, Niven probably has more screen time).
The real deal
Sellers literally inhabits the role and it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. As I said, I feel the original was aimed towards an adult audience but kids of all ages found something to laugh at in the clueless Clouseau. Edwards has tried to revive the series twice with somewhat poor results. MGM decided that they wanted to look at reviving a franchise that they owned and chose the Pink Panther.
That brings us to the Steve Martin version. I think, and Levy mentions this on the commentary, that this version was aimed at kids (aka families) from the beginning. He even talks about how some gags were softened for them. Not sure that aiming it toward families is a bad thing, but just struck me as opposite from the original (which when you think about it got its fame from happy accidents, not engineering).
Now to Steve Martin, frankly I thought it always seemed that it is Martin doing a fonny accent. Sellers WAS Clouseau. I doubt anyone can replicate Sellers’ accent. I should also mention that Martin was not aiming to ape Sellers or do Sellers’ accent. However, I did not know this going into the movie (you learn this in a featurette) and judged Martin somewhat harshly in my first viewing of the film. I kept thinking of Kevin Kline or Jean Reno in the part (Reno in the part really sounded interesting to me) when they appeared alongside Martin on the screen. However, on my second viewing Martin’s Clouseau didn’t bother me as much.
Edwards called one of his sequels Curse of the Pink Panther and I’m almost starting to think that Sellers reaches out from the beyond and sabotages these productions. I say this because during post production of Pink Panther Sony purchased MGM, and this movie was pushed back and re-engineered. In one of the featurettes, the producer mentions that next year is the 40 year anniversary of the original film. The original was made in 1963. Add 40 years to that and you get 2003, so the producer was telling us this fact in 2002. The film did not debut in theaters until February 2006! I recall seeing the trailer (and honestly the kids and I laughed at it) probably a good two years before the movie finally came out. Levy mentions several reshoots in the commentary. Anyway, these delays caused the movie to have an air of failure about it.
am-buuur-gueeeeeer
The Pink Panther is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by director Shawn Levy. There are also eleven deleted scenes totaling about 24 minutes and include an optional commentary by Levy. There are at least two comedy sequences that were deleted from the film (Clouseau on the plane and Clouseau and Ponton on the way to the royal palace). Next are three featurettes.
The first runs 22 minutes and is called “Cracking the Case.” It has interviews with Steve Martin, director Shawn Levy, executive producer Ira Shuman (who talks about next year being the 40 year anniversary of the original), Kevin Kline, writer Michael Saltzman, Beyonce Knowles, actress Kristin Chenoweth, Jean Reno, production designer Lilly Kilvert, and costume designer Joseph G. Aulist. The second is 8 minutes and entitled “Animated Trip.” It covers the animated opening credits sequence and has interviews with animation director Bob Kurtz, animator Eric Goldberg, and animation editor Ken Smith. The last is 10 minutes and entitled “Deconstructing the Panther: Creating the Palace scene.” It has interviews with some of the first featurette participants but adds 1st assistant director Marty Eli Schwartz and stunt coordinator Dominique Fouassier. The next features are called “Sleuth Cams” and are basically behind the scenes shots.
There are three sleuth cams, Killer Press conference (6 minutes), Soccer set up (5 minutes), and Curtain call (6 minutes). The production company toyed with the idea of doing a CGI opening credit sequence and it is also included here and has an optional commentary by Levy. There’s also a music video for “Check it Out” by Beyonce Knowles. Another music video for “A Woman Like Me” (which is the final song sequence in the movie) with an optional commentary by Levy. Next is a “Think Pink” commercial for Sweet and Low that features the animated Pink Panther. Finally there are previews, but the trailer for the Pink Panther is not on this disc (a pet peeve of mine when the trailer for the movie you’re watching is not on the disc).
I almost forgot, but there is a booklet inside the case with a preview of a new book called “Pink Panther: The Ultimate Guide to the Coolest Cat in Town!” by Jerry Beck. It covers all ten of the feature films and sounds really good. Inside the booklet are some samples from that book, including an interview with Steve Martin, a bio about the animated character, and a remembrance of animator Friz Freleng.
Is it worth the Medal of Honor
Pink Panther is not too bad if you’re 8-10 year old, and my daughter enjoyed it. However, if you’re above that age you may laugh a few times with long stretches in between. Fans of the original series will undoubtedly hate this update (although they really weren’t trying to eclipse Sellers – an impossible feat anyway). I’m going to rate this 2.5 stars for you young’uns who know nothing about the original film. However, if you’re a fan of the original then you’ll need to knock .5-1 star off of that rating (though the disc does have an impressive amount of special features).
The Pink Panther is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a July 17th release. Visit the DVD’s database for more information. Pink Panther: The Ultimate Guide is now available in hardback at Amazon . Visit the book database for more information.
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