The Pink Phink won the 1964 Academy Award for Animated Short Film, and subsequent shorts in the series, usually featuring the Pink Panther opposite the Big Nose, were successful releases. The first entry in the series, 1964's The Pink Phink, featured Pink harassing his foil, a little white-mustachioed man who is actually a caricature of Friz Freleng (this character is officially known as Big Nose), by constantly trying to paint the Little Man's blue house pink. 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 cartoon shorts. 1 DePatie-Freleng/United Artists cartoons.
