Neptune Nonsense

I am a fan of the early Felix the Cat cartoons. I am talking about the silent ones they made from 1919 to about 1929. The films were, more than anything else, fun--with a strange surrealistic style about them. Felix was a joker--and occasionally a bit of a jerk--and I liked it that way. Well, the series petered out in the talking picture era--mostly because the cartoons lost their zip. The surrealism was gone and the cartoons became dull. A few years after their initial demise, Van Beuren Studios attempted to revive the series. Now considering that they only made three Felix cartoons, you can pretty much guess what the public thought. As far as I am concerned, the public got it right. Although the Van Beuren cartoons looked a lot better (with color and really nice animation), they changed Felix--making him a nice-guy. The public didn't want a nice-guy--they wanted FELIX!

As I watched "Neptune Nonsense" I was struck by how bad this film turned out to be. I'd already seen another one of the Felix films from the studio, the disappointing "Bold King Cole". Little did I realize that "Neptune Nonsense" would be a lot worse! Felix is just too nice, too sweet and too dull here.

The plot, if you even care, involves Felix going fishing in the ocean for a goldfish so that his other goldfish could have a friend (yes, I am a fisherman and I know goldfish are freshwater creatures). Felix is pulled into the water and spends the rest of the cartoon underwater (how he breathed, I have no idea). The fish catch him trying to catch a goldfish and they take him prisoner. But, when King Neptune learns why he did this, he gives him the fish and sends him home...how sweet! And, how boring!! Despite nice animation, this cartoon has nothing else going for it and is Felix in name only.

Felix the Cat greets all his pets with the same charm and warmth but finds Annabel the goldfish to be under the weather. Surmising that she is lonely in her bowl by herself, Felix sets out to find a mate for her in the sea. His quest to find another goldfish though is made harder due to a misunderstanding that he is trying to catch fish to eat!

I am not familiar with the roots of Felix the Cat so I decided to check out a couple of the original RKO short films to see why he is a famous character. This cartoon appears to be typical which is to say that it is a good example of the stable at the time. The plot is simple enough and gets Felix into this underwater world of fish that is created to reflect the "real" world in certain ways. It is colourful and creative and you can see that a lot of quality is in each frame. It is all put to the music which is wonderfully dated (not meant in a bad way that word) and it's these aspects that make the film so appealing from my point of view. It is very much of its time and it does make one feel slightly warm inside to watch it, which does rather make up for the fact that the clean and wholesome material of the period didn't really do a great deal for me – it didn't make me laugh or impressive me overly with the creativity in the writing even if it did in the design.

Overall then this has the charm and cute appeal that one might expect from films of the period and Felix is very much the core of this cuteness but beyond this warm feeling modern audiences might find it all a bit too simplistic substance-wise even if visually and musically it is a retro-treat.

Felix feels sad for his lonely little goldfish and decides to get him a friend. He tries fishing but that fails. Ultimately, he must stand in court and explain himself. The animation is good but the story drags on. There are the usual fish cartoon stereotypes. There is a very racy, topless mermaid who caters to Neptune that surprised me.

Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.

Like 'The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg', 'Neptune Nonsense' is most interesting for being a Felix the Cat cartoon that is in colour and has sound. As far as the Van Beuren "Rainbow Parade" cartoons go, all three Felix the Cat cartoons, of which 'Neptune Nonsense' is perhaps the best, are among the best of the "Rainbow Parade" series. Not great as such, being fairly bland compared to the earlier silent black and white Felix the Cat cartoons which had more vigour and humour of the surreal/absurdist kind. Also worth the while, despite how all of the above sounded.

A lot of strengths in 'Neptune Nonsense'. The best being the pretty great animation, one of the best looking of the "Rainbow Parade" series, having more refinement in the drawing than usually seen, and one of the best looking Felix the Cat cartoons. Compared to the animation in the Cubby the Bear, most of the (human) Tom and Jerry and other cartoons of Van Beuren, their production values came on a long way when switching to colour. The background detail is meticulous and even better are the ravishing colours that pop out at you.

Just as good is the music score, it is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. The synchronisation is sharp and neat. Wasn't bored, while not completely excited.

Really enjoyed the fun and cute without being too cute fish characters, some sweet and amusing material with them and the creatively rendered underwater world. There is a good deal of charm here and most of it isn't too saccharine.

However, the story is over-familiar and very thin, with not an awful lot new brought to the table. Quite a lot of it is total nonsense as well. The ending can be seen from quite some distance away and any messaging is lost unde the excessive sugar that it has.

Felix is likeable enough and strong enough a personality to be a good lead character but there is a preference too for his original personality, one that was much stronger, if not as likeable, and one that set him apart from other silent animated characters from that era.

In the laughs department, 'Neptune Nonsense' is lacking. Not completely humourless, but there isn't enough and not much that sticks in the mind anyhow. For Felix the Cat, with the surreal/absurdist humour missing, this was pretty tame, how he caught up with the boat was an exception.

Overall, decent but not great. For "Rainbow Parade", it's pretty good. For Felix the Cat, it underwhelms somewhat. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Neptune Nonsense (1936)

** (out of 4)

Felix's best friend, a fish, is lonely in his bowl by himself so the cat jumps in a pond to find him a friend but the fish's down there get the wrong idea. This film is from the company Commonwealth so I'm guessing they were working on a low budget because the film looks that way. Even though the budget is low the screenwriters came up with some pretty nice scenes including one where a group of fish keep eating one another. I'm going to guess the ending was meant to be some kind of message but that pretty much gets lost.