English Version | Fantasy Pink

07 May 2021
By Diego Armés

There’s one for everyone, of all shapes and sizes, including some with a bad temper. Yes, because being pink doesn’t mean you’re all fluffy. Princesses and panthers, birds and pigs; this is the color that paints many of the characters in our imagination.

“It all happened very fast”, inspector Jacques Clouseau would have said, “but I can assure you that that thing you call Pink Panther is not a panther at all.” The surprise was universal. Clouseau would insist – pointing to his own eyes with his pointer and index fingers, in a finger bifurcation, as if saying “I know what I saw, with my own two eyes”: “It’s everything but a panther.” And, at least for once in his life, inspector Clouseau would be right. The Pink Panther is not a panther. Or wasn’t. It wasn’t even a feline being. It wasn’t even an animal, nor any other kind of living thing. “I am sure it is a rock”, said the inspector that Peter Sellers brought to life and immortalized. And again, for just a fleeting moment, Jacques Clouseau would be correct – it wasn’t any of those things: it was a diamond. That is precisely how it, the Panther, appears: at the beginning of the saga, in The Pink Panther, there is a precious stone that titles the movie. The diamond, which is pink, is called like that because of a crack it has in its center that resembles, in a way and when seen from up close, one of those felines jumping. It so happens that, for the generic of the movie, Hawley Pratt and Friz Freleng created that cartoon, that sleek animal, of languid gestures and very particular elegance. A cartoon that moves to the rhythm of the magnificent music composed by Henry Mancini (that deruderúm – derúm – deruderuderúm deruderaaaaan) that, if all goes accordingly, would have already popped up on the reader’s mind by now. The Panther’s charisma, together with the singularity of Mancini’s music, quickly gained popularity and it didn’t take long before a bunch of other short animations came around. The Pink Phink, 1964, was one of the first of those short films, and it impressed the Academy in such a way, it ended up winning the Oscar for Best Short Animated Film. In total, 124 short films were produced of The Pink Panther, between 1964 and 1978. All movies included the word Pink on the title. Not only of panthers does pink live when it comes to fictional characters. In fact, regarding felines, there is one that alludes to the famous creation of Pratt and Freleng: Snagglepuss, a mountain lion which was also pink, also possessed human traits, though instead of sleek manners such as the Panther’s, it had some sort of mediocre robust posture, characteristic of Hanna-Barbera universe of cartoons. It’s curious that the mountain lion was released in a series by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in 1961, after the prototype had been presented in 1959 – please recall that The Pink Panther comes around in 1963. Not meaning to insinuate anything, we’ll let this information up in the air. Snagglepuss had two seasons up and running and a total of 32 episodes. Still, in the feline universe, we had the undeniable and seductive Arlene, a true cat in all senses of the word, but especially in the literal one: from 1980 onwards, it embodied regularly the stripes of Garfield.

Swine and Company

Pigs are pink. There are exceptions, of course, but generally speaking they are pink. Sadly, there are not a lot of ways to say this: fiction’s most famous pig is pink. We’re talking, as it can be easily understood, about Miss Piggy. The unavoidable cartoon of The Muppets, created by Jim Henson, Miss Piggy’s character is the result of the creativity and dedication of Bonnie Erickson, who designed it, and of Frank Oz, that characterized it and even gave it a voice until 2002. The pig – it is absolutely unfortunate that we must refer to such a distinctive character in this way, but it’s not our fault – that pumped Kermit’s heart, simultaneously confusing its brain, has a diva personality, does karate and speaks French – or, at least, has the habit of sprinkling her sentences with expressions of Victor Hugo and Voltaire’s language, of Albert Camus and Flaubert. Those who know about the subject say that the creators of Miss Piggy were inspired by jazz singer Peggy Lee. Less fluent in French, as well as every other language, is the pig – this is awful to say, but it is what it is, and we must proceed – Porky Pig. Stutterer like few others and cute like no other, Poky is, besides softly pink as it should be, one of the oldest creations by Warner Bros. Its first appearance dates back to the distant year 1935. Its trademark is the line “Th-Th-The, Th-Th-The, Th-Th... That's all, folks!” at the end of every Looney Tunes episode. Porky Pig, that was also the star of Merrie Melodies, appears in 153 cartoons of the golden age of animation studios in Hollywood. Also born in an ancestral era, but the one of cartoon’s, Piglet is introduced to us on the books of Winnie-the-Pooh, from A. A. Milne, in 1926. Piglet is described as a tiny animal, usually shy. But this doesn’t stop him from, when the occasion demands it, overcoming his fears and being brave. Piglet is, as the name suggests, a pig, only a little one, a piggy. Finally, the less popular amongst older generations, but surely much more famous amongst children nowadays, there is Peppa Pig, the main character of the British cartoon.

Let’s leave pigs alone now and focus on other creatures. On birds, for example. They also come in pink. In this case, and contrary to what the color may often suggest, we’re not talking of that much of a fluffy bird. Here, we’re referring to a very grumpy female, named Stella. In fact, “grumpy” is what describes the context from where Stella comes from, and her usual company. This bird of undefined species is part of the Angry Birds crew, a bunch of peculiar birds that don’t have wings and were invented by a Finns digital gaming company named Rovio Entertainment. The game, that Rovio initially developed for iOS, was so successful – it sold more than 12 million copies on Apple Store – that it ended up expanding to other platforms and, later on, the plot and characters were adapted to an animation series. In the game version, players shoot the birds against their targets using a hook – yes, because these are wingless birds, it’s always good to remember. On the animation show, the Angry Birds are led by Red on the revolt against the Pig King, who stole their eggs. In this plot, Stella, our pinky, has the ability to create bubbles that allow the floating of certain objects. Since we’re talking of really cute beings, maybe this is as good of a time as any to recall two of the top cutest to ever exist: Pinkie Pie and Cheer Bear. They belong to different narratives, but have characteristics in common, like the fact that they’re both four-legged pink animals. Pinkamena Diane Pie is the full real name of Pinkie, one of the characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The series, created in the 80s, came along after the release of a line of toys with the same name developed by the giant North American toy manufacturer Hasbro. In the original story, Pinkie, a hyperactive terrestrial pony who loves parties, is one of the leading characters. On the show, besides the terrestrial ponies, there are also Pegasus (ponies with wings), unicorns (ponies with a magical horn), alicorns (ponies with wings and a magical horn) and also crystal ponies. Unlikely? Then just wait until we move on to Care Bears, who heal the world by filling it with love. The thing is that it is precisely what our Cheer Bear is, an actual overdose of a potentially fatal mix of cuteness and tenderness. Cheer Bear always sees things on the positive side, it spends all its time supporting the other characters who, sometimes, feel low, it gives strength to its friends and is always available to help everyone. At least, that’s what it did back in 1981, when the series was created. In the meantime, it grew up and it is possible that today, it is signing a column somewhere titled “Know yourself” or “Living is not a burden”, or something like that. As far as Care Bears go, those spend their lives hugging each other and attacking their evil enemies with rays of love and other sentimental concoctions equally as torturous.

Pink People

It is from Japan that the biggest group of human (or almost) characters with a pink skin tone come from. Chibiusa, Miyuki Takara, Ichigo Momomiya, Yuno Gasai and Buu Buu, all of them are pink, almost all of them human, almost all of them women. The exception is Buu Buu (Majin Boo, in the original) from the comic book and animated series Dragon Ball and its successors. Buu Buu is a creature from the majin race born out of Bibidi’s black magic. It would be necessary to explain the majority of the drama plot of Dragon Ball in order to understand the reach of its origin, but what is important to retain is the following: Buu Buu appears on Dragon Ball In 1994, meaning, almost ten years after the creation of the comics. At a certain point, Buu is antagonistic; afterward, it resolves its evil issue by dividing into two: one becomes one of the good guys and joins the Z warriors; the other is not that good of a guy, becomes known as Oob and is not pink, thus the story ends here. As for the female figures, which are all nearly 100% human, let’s start with Chibiusa Tsukino, from the show Sailor Moon. Chibiusa’s character is very interesting because she can travel through time: she comes from the XXX century, on purpose, to help the Sailor Soldiers and starts off as an apprentice when she first joins the group. Little Chibiusa, that wears her pink har tied up in a funny way (almost looking like she has bunny ears), is not in fact, how she is called. Her birth name is Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity. However, in order to differentiate herself from Sailor Moon, whose name is also Usagi, the character is named Chibiusa. Another who is also very pink and with a vaguely feline-looking figure, is Ichigo Momomiya, the protagonist and heroine of the comics and anime Tokyo Mew Mew. Ichigo is the first of the Mew Mews after her DNA is mixed with the one of an Iriomote cat, which gives her this feline look, which includes cat hears and tail, together with other not so visible characteristics, such as her avid appetite for fish, or her impressive flexibility. What are Mew Mews, you may ask? They are girls whose DNA was merged with the one of cats. Isn’t it obvious? Towards the end of it, we are left with Yuno Gasai and Miyuki Takara. The first is the female protagonist of the series Future Diary, a comic written and illustrated by the brilliant Sakae Esuno, where he plays with time and the divine powers through exhaustive connotations in smartphones. Miyuki Takara, on the other hand, is one of the leading ladies of the comedy series Lucky Star. Miyuki is a rich, refined, polite and intelligent girl, distinguished by – at least, from the male characters’ point of view – the accentuated curves of her body. Many pink characters were left off this list. From Babs Bunny (Looney Tunes) to Courage (Courage, the Coward Dog); from the unlikely sea-star Patrick Star (SpongeBob SquarePants) to the enraged Ren (Ren & Stipy), or the Peach (Super Mario) and Bubblegum (Adventure Time) Princesses. There are so many personas, stories and adventures that fill our imagination with their imperative touch of pink, that it is more than likely it is becoming the queen-tone of fantasy itself.