Félix el gato

The theme song always said " You'll laugh so much your sides will ache. / Your heart will go pit-a-pat, / Watching Felix the wonderful cat. " yet the cartoons were never funny. But still we kids watched.

Felix the Cat was the Mickey Mouse before Mickey Mouse! I wish Felix the Cat would get more attention and support. Sometimes I see people compare Felix the Cat to Mickey Mouse, but the truth is, Felix the Cat is older than Mickey Mouse! After some research, I found out the first Felix the Cat cartoon was made in 1919! And I'm tired of people comparing Felix the Cat to awful characters like Bendy and Cartoon Cat. But this review isn't going to be some long, boring rant about ridiculous bootlegs like Bendy and Cartoon Cat. Obviously this review is going to be about Felix the Cat. I'm glad the Felix the Cat creators eventually ended up adding characters like the Professor, Poindexter and Kitty Kat. And Felix the Cat's nephews (Inky and Winky) are good comic exclusive characters.

At the end of each little episode, the announcer (apparently Jack Mercer--as I see in the title page that he did every other voice on the program) would say this in a low, growly voice. In the background of the soundtrack, there would be a string section doing that sustained-one-note-suspense thing that we've all heard in a million different films. Used to scare the crap outta me--almost as bad as Koko the Clown popping out of that damned inkwell. Even though the sensibilities that went into this kind of animation helped to shape (warp?) me, and I love them to this day, sometimes I think that the old time animators were sadists who hated kids. Either that or I was just a wuss.

I've seen good reviews and horrible reviews here. Everyone has their points about this late '50s/early '60s version of Felix. But it's hard for me NOT to like these cartoons. Sure, their budget should have been higher. However, if you consider some of the true heavyweight talent that started with a blank screen and silence, these cartoons come with a pretty GREAT pedigree. Grim Natwick, the true creator of Betty Boop and chief animator of the character "Snow White" (in the 1937 feature of the same name - Walt Disney's FIRST FEATURE, by the way) animated a number of these. ALL the character voices were performed by Jack Mercer (who was the voice of Popeye The Sailor for FOUR DECADES+, no matter WHO was producing Popeye cartoons at the time).

Felix cartoons were first made as SILENTS in 1918, and ALL Felix cartoons that came after that, right up to the "acid-trip" Felix cartoons made by Film Roman bear the fingerprints of whoever made them. In whatever period they were made. So whatever YOU may think of these early TV Felix cartoons, you're entitled to your opinion. I'll just say "Righty-Oh!!!!"

The silent Felix cartoons were, for the most part, VERY good. Having no soundtrack, all they had to let you know what Felix was thinking or feeling was the artwork, at which the animators were extremely successful. You really can't compare the silents with the Trans-Lux TV Felix cartoons. However, in those TV cartoons, the producers were intelligent enough to hire Voice Actor extraordinaire Jack Mercer. He started at the Max Fleischer cartoon studio in New York City (that studio's original location was the reason for the urban settings of their cartoons.). Unlike the talented people at Warner Bros., Disney and many others, a large percentage of the settings of THEIR cartoons were rural. But watch a Betty Boop or a Popeye cartoon, and you'll fing they take place in urban locations. Jack Mercer was the voice of Popeye for FIFTY-plus years! Though many of the people who made the TV Felix cartoons made the rounds among the animation studios, each studio's product had a personality of its own, and that's where the talents of the artists and writers really shined. Sure, there are settings in, say, W-B cartoons varied and were definitely NOT urban, such as "The Awful Orphan" starring Porky Pig and Charlie Dog. It takes place on a farm, as do many others. But that's the beauty of any animated cartoon - you can make the setting ANY PLACE, on Earth or elsewhere in the known Multiverse. None of those locations are any more difficult to get to or any more expensive than any other. The reason, of course, is that everything you see and hear is the product of the Director's and animator's imaginations. Every cartoon by any studio was drawn at the same desks as any other.

I remember when I was a kid, and the Trans-Lux Felix cartoons were run every day. I watched them then and liked them! But if you told me then that all the characters were voiced by Jack Mercer, I'd never have believed you!