Animation companies: DePatie-Freleng Enterprises

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Origins

DFE was founded by Warner Bros. Cartoons alumni Friz Freleng and partner David Hudson DePatie after Warner dissolved its in-house cartoon studio. Many of the animators who had worked at Warners 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 only Oscar for The Pink Phink in 1964, receiving a further nomination for The Pink Blueprint in 1967.

List of theatrical and television cartoons

DePatie-Freleng created more cartoons to be released for theaters and television. They are as follows:

Theatrical series:

* The Ant and the Aardvark
* The Blue Racer
* The Dogfather
* Hoot Kloot
* The Inspector
* Looney Tunes (for Warner Bros.)
* Merrie Melodies (for Warner Bros.)
* The Pink Panther
* Roland and Rattfink
* Tijuana Toads

Television series:

* Bailey's Comets
* The Barkleys
* Crazylegs Crane (shorts)
* Doctor Dolittle
* Fantastic Four
* Here Comes The Grump
* The Houndcats
* Misterjaw (shorts)
* The Oddball Couple
* Return to the Planet of the Apes
* Spider-Woman
* Super President
* The Super 6

The Pink Panther series of cartoons became the basis of a Saturday morning television series, The Pink Panther Show, which also included cartoons of The Inspector and The Ant and the Aardvark. Like most animated television comedies at the time, The Pink Panther Show contained a laugh track. They also include The Inspector (loosely based on the main character of the live-action Pink Panther movie series.

Other cartoons and television series

DFE made the animated overture from the television show I Dream of Jeannie, created and produced by Sidney Sheldon for Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures between 1965 and 1970. The studio also produced the innovative animated sequences in the 1969-1970 television series My World and Welcome to It, based on the drawings of James Thurber. They also created Return to the Planet of the Apes which ran on NBC from 1975 to 1976 and The Oddball Couple, which ran on Saturday mornings on ABC from 1975 to 1977.

They also produced TV specials (notably a line of Dr. Seuss adaptations made for CBS including 1971's The Cat in the Hat and 1973's Dr. Seuss on the Loose), and together with Hanna-Barbera Productions and Filmation were responsible for most of the cartoons shown on Saturday morning in the U.S. by 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.

In 1981, Freleng retired. DePatie sold the company to Marvel Comics, and it continued under his lead as Marvel Productions. Marvel sold their back catalog to Saban Entertainment in the late 1990s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DePatie...ng_Enterprises