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The non-Pink Panther work of Depatie-Freleng is not to everyone's taste, but I've always enjoyed their work--the surreal visuals, always first-rate music, and quality voice talent and sound effects. Basically, the Ant and Aardvark series is cut from the same cloth as The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, or going back more, Tom and Jerry, with the Aardvark (called an "anteater" in the cartoons)being the aggressor and the Ant the pursued. The series had an incredible Dixieland musical score featuring such west-coast jazz legends as Shelley Manne, Pete Condoli, Tommy Tedesco, and the great bassist Ray Brown. I could LISTEN to these just for the music. Some of the series entries have a laugh track, some don't--this one doesn't. It's also one of the most Roadrunner/Coyote-influenced ones. The "instant hole" could have been an Acme product from over at Warner Brothers. Also, for some reason, the backgrounds used in this particular cartoon remind me of George Herriman's KRAZY KAT, which is some ways is the granddaddy of this whole genre. You can find sets of these cartoons without much trouble on the internet. I highly recommend them to people who like both The Pink Panther and Roadrunner or Tom and Jerry. And don't let me forget the wonderful voice talent of John Byner, who portrays BOTH characters, giving the Aardvark a Jackie Mason-like borscht-belt tone and the Ant a Dean Martin-like casualness.
