One of the great things about RU-vid. Great piece of animation history. DFE was a great studio. I always thought their TV product (obviously not counting their theatrical work) was a cut-above Hanna Barbera's. Always wondered how they got started, who DePatie was... etc. Great stuff. Seems like a great guy - the little dig at Chuck Jones at the end not withstanding.
Absolutely. Having been weaned on Saturday morning cartoons, it's cool to hear the stories of those faceless names that appeared on credits of so many shows I watched for so many years.
I had just learned the sad news that he passed away on September 23. I loved those DFE shows and the Dr Seuss animated specials when I was growing up. DFE films later became Marvel productions in the early 80s. He will be greatly missed.
I got to meet my cousin Friz only once back in 1971. It was a Sunday so I never got to see his studio but my sisters travelled there years before and got a tour of the studio and were given a huge stack of animation cels which I as a naïve kid took to grade school and that was the last I ever saw of them. I should have never brought them to school. One of my deepest regrets in my life. I had no idea how much they would be worth years later. There must have been 20 of them. Mostly Pink Panther and the Ant and Aardvark. Friz's sister Hattie was married to my Grandfather's father on my Father's side. I personally got to hold one of his awards for his work in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" . I can't remember if it was an academy award or an emmy.
Just learned about the passing of David H. DePatie tonight. Rest in peace to the Oscar winner at 91. A legend. He is now joined with Friz Freleng and company in Eternity.
I am 51 and grew up watching this! I remember I was about 6 o 7 years old and had to struggle with sleep until 8pm for the “The Pink Panther Show” because I LOVED IT! At that time in Argentina we didn’t yet have color TVs so now I get to watch them all over again on RU-vid with full color and great quality! Thank you for posting!
DePatie-Freleng's original cartoons were both funny and stylish, and they were versatile too; able to adapt to styles as divergent as Dr. Seuss, James Thurber ("My World... And Welcome To It") and Doug Wildey. They were a "class act."
I have took the VHS 📼 of "The Houndcats" (The Depatie-Freleng Cartoon) in 1972 from my old Aireville Terrace School 🚸 🏫 and Burley Oaks Primary School 🚸 🏫 in the village of Burley in Wharfedale in Yorkshire in England 🏴 the UK 🇬🇧, that was my leaving present gift, I had watched it when it was David H Depatie's Birthday 🎂 🍦 🍧 🍨 🍰 🍩 🍪 🍬 🍭 🍫 🍷 🥂 🥤 🍽️ 🍴 🥄 🎉 🎊 🎈 🎁 when he was 76 years old in 2005 and so I marked it on the day he was born on Christmas Eve on 24th December in 1929, so I did that for him and that was in England 🏴 in the UK 🇬🇧 and America 🇺🇸 in the USA 🇺🇸 in the same year 2005, I remembered and I got a good memory on those things and RIP David H Depatie (1929-2021).
A True Master animator! David DePatie was THE Best of the Best-and many of his and Friz Freleng's cartoons were great! my all time favorites from their TV history,was "SUPER SIX" and "SUPER PRESIDENT",which they did for Mirisch-Rich Television Productions and United Artists Television (1966-1967)-and they later did "BAILEY'S COMETS" for CBS in Fall 1973,and took-on "THE FANTASTIC FOUR" for NBC in Fall 1978-and "SPIDER WOMAN" for ABC in Fall 1979,which i believe,was their last Saturday morning cartoon series. but their real biggie here,was their 1975 NBC series,"RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE APES",in which the animation was supervised by the great Doug Wildey, who created "JONNY QUEST" at Hanna-Barbera in 1964. DePatie-Freleng also did the two ABC AFTER SCHOOL" specials in the 1973-1974 years,and also did a most unusual item-a live action TV movie,about Teen age pregnancy. then in 1977,they did "WHAT'S NEW,MR MAGOO" for CBS,and "BAGGY PANTS AND THE NITWITS" for NBC,which they used the "Gladys and Tyrone" charecters from the "LAUGH-IN" series-almost as strange as "PINK PANTHER AND SONS",which was an NBC Saturday morning series that Hanna-Barbera Productions did,in association with DePatie-Freleng and MGM/UA-and that was truly a first,in the animation business in Fall 1984! a truly great and wonderful studio!
In 1980, Marvel bought the Depate-Freleng studio to form Marvel Productions in the hopes to make their own cartoons of their iconic super heroes after they've already worked with them on 'Spider-Woman', and the second 'Fantastic Four' cartoon. Sadly, they've only produced a few shows like 'Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends', 'The Incredible Hulk', and the infamous 'Pryde Of the X-Men' pilot. Marvel Productions was more known for co-producing the Hasbro shows like 'Transformers', 'G.I. Joe', and 'My Little Pony', as well as 'Muppet Babies'. So Marvel barely made much of a dent with their heroes on 80's TV.
Did you know David DePatie's middle name is "Hudson"? I didn't find that out until I read Think Pink: The DePatie-Freleng Story. Another thing is that he's putting down Hanna-Barbera and Filmaton which are 2 of my all-time favorites.
David Hudson DePatie Jr. was a film editor at DFE and he is the first born(1950). The other 2 Stephen and Michael also worked at DFE(Steve was the music composer after Walter Greene left,and Michael worked at Marvel Productions as film editor).
