Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created by cartoonist and animator Otto Messmer. His image is instantly recognizable worldwide: squat, black body and huge, white eyes with a giant grin. Felix was the first cartoon character to attain a level of popularity sufficient to draw movie audiences based soley on his star power.
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2 Felix on television 3 Felix as a mascot |
Felix had his origins in cartoons starring an animated Charlie Chaplin that Otto Messmer animated while working at the studio of Pat Sullivan. Messmer subsequently took on freelance animation work for Paramount Pictures following World War I, and in 1919, he animated the short Feline Follies starring a black, grinning cat who moved and danced like Chaplin. This early Felix was blockier and longer-snouted than today's version of the character, but his familiar black body was already established since Messmer found solid shapes easier to animate.
Feline Follies was a success, and Paramount ordered more shorts starring the cat character. Paramount producer John King named the cat "Felix", after the Latin words felis (cat) and felix (good luck), and animator Bill Nolan helped Messmer redesign the character in 1922, making him both rounder and cuter. Felix's new looks coupled with Messmer's mastery of character animation, learned largely from his work on the Chaplin pictures, skyrocketed the character into the international consciousness.
At the height of Felix's fame in 1925, an estimated three-quarters of the world's population could recognize him. Pat Sullivan marketed Felix relentlessly, making up all sorts of tall tales about the character's origins as he claimed to have been its sole creator. Felix was everywhere. His image adorned clocks, Christmas ornaments, balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and even early experiments with television; a Felix doll on a stool was the first image ever broadcast. A Chevrolet dealer near downtown Los Angeles adopted the character in the late 1930s and today, the neon sign of Felix Chevrolet with its giant, smiling image of Felix the Cat is one of LA's best-known landmarks and continues to stand watch over both Figueroa Street and the Harbor Freeway. Meanwhile, the uncredited Messmer continued to create the cartoons behind the scenes as well as a comic strip beginning in 1923. This great success also generated a host of imitators. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Bosko, even Mickey Mouse were designed to look as much like Felix as possible.
The cartoons were a hit with the critics as well. They have been cited as wonderfully imaginative examples of surrealism in filmmaking. Felix has been said to represent a child's sense of wonder, creating the fantastic when it is not there, and taking it in stride when it is. His famous walk - hands behind his back, head down, deep in thought - became a trademark that was analyzed and re-analyzed by critics around the world. Felix's expressive tail which could be a shovel one moment, an exclamation mark or pencil the next, only serves to emphasize that anything can happen in his world.
In 1928, Felix's distributors urged Pat Sullivan to make the leap to "talkie" cartoons. Sullivan refused, and other characters, particularly Mickey Mouse, drew audiences away from the silent Felix cartoons. Eventually, Sullivan's distributors dropped him. The producer made preparations to start a new studio in California that would produce sound cartoons, but he died in 1933, leaving his studio in shambles.
Sullivan's brother licensed Felix to Amedée Van Buren's studio in 1936, which produced a few Felix shorts in color and with sound. The studio did away with Felix's established personality, however, and made him just another funny animal character. The new shorts saw little success, and after only three outings, Van Buren was dropped by his distributor.
In 1953, Felix's earlier shorts entered syndication on television, now with musical soundtracks. When Messmer retired from drawing the Felix comic strip in 1954, his assistant, Joe Oriolo took over. Oriolo struck a deal with Felix's current owner, Pat Sullivan's nephew, to begin a new series of Felix cartoons on television. Oriolo went on to star Felix in 260 television cartoons in 1959 and 1960. Oriolo gave Felix a new personality, more domesticated and pedestrian, and introduced now-familiar elements such as Felix's Magic Bag of Tricks, a satchel that could assume the shape and characteristics of anything Felix wanted. The program is also remembered for its distinctive theme music. The lyrics were as follows:
Felix was adapted as the mascot of the US Naval aviation squadron VF-31, early in World War II, replacing a winged meat cleaver. A carrier based night fighter squadron, they are known as the "Tomcatters" and their motto is "We get ours at night". They remain an active squadron. Felix the Cat, happily carrying a bomb with a lit fuse, appears on both cloth jacket patches and on the aircraft flown by this squadron.Felix in cinema
Felix on television
The show also introduced many new characters such as a sinister, mustachioed Professor, his intelligent but "nerdish" nephew, Poindexter, the bulldog-faced sidekick, Rock Bottom, as well as an evil, cylindrical robot, the Master Cylinder. The plots tended to revolve around the unsuccessful attempts of the antagonists to steal Felix's Magic Bag. Many characters, including Felix, Poindexter, Rock Bottom, and the Professor, were performed by voice actor Jack Mercer who also performed the voice of Popeye the Sailor. In a strange twist, these antagonistic characters were occasionally depicted as Felix's friends. These cartoons (and those of Oriolo's son, Don) proved popular, but critics have dismissed them as paling in comparison to Messmer's earlier works, especially since the series was targeted at children and not a general audience. Nevertheless, Don Oriolo continues to market the character today in projects such as (1991), and the television series Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat (1996) and Baby Felix (2000).
The wonderful, wonderful cat!
Whenever he gets in a fix,
He reaches into his bag of tricks!
The wonderful, wonderful cat!
You'll laugh so hard your sides will ache!
Your heart will go pitter-pat
Watchin' Felix, the wonderful cat!Felix as a mascot