The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther is the main and title character in the opening and closing credit sequences of every film in The Pink Panther series except for A Shot in the Dark and Inspector Clouseau. His popularity spawned a series of theatrical shorts, merchandise, a comic book, and television cartoons. He starred in 124 short films, 10 television shows and three prime time specials. The animated Pink Panther character's initial appearance in the live action film's title sequence, directed by Friz Freleng, was such a success with audiences and United Artists that the studio signed Freleng and his DePatie-Freleng Enterprises studio to a multi-year contract for a series of Pink Panther theatrical shorts. One of the Pink Panther shorts, The Pink Phink, won the 1964 Academy Award for Animated Short Film, and all of the animated shorts utilized the distinctive jazzy theme music composed by Henry Mancini for the 1963 feature film, with additional scores by Walter Greene or William Lava.

Other DePatie-Feleng Enterprises that go with The Pink Panther are The Inspector, the 1960s theatrical cartoons released through United Artists. The titular character is based on Jacques Clouseau, a comical French police officer who is also the main character in the Pink Panther series of films and is voiced by Pat Harrington, Jr. And in The Ant and the Aardvark, the cartoon follows attempts of a blue aardvark named Aardvark, to catch and eat a red ant named Charlie, usually doing so by inhaling with a loud vacuum cleaner sound.  Those 17 theatrical short cartoons were released by United Artists from 1969 to 1971. It stars voice of John Byner as both Aardvark and Charlie.