Feline Follies

People who grew up in the latter half of the twentieth century know Felix the Cat as a streetwise type carrying around a bag of tricks that he has to keep safe from enemies plotting to use it for nefarious purposes. Well, the cat's origin was nothing like this. His debut was this obscure 1919 cartoon that billed him as Master Tom. No bag of tricks, and no Professor or Poindexter or Rock Bottom. Just the cat, a love interest, and some mishaps.

There's apparently a debate about who the cat's creator was. Whoever it was, this cartoon is pretty routine. I understand that Felix's popularity began to wane with the advent of sound cartoons. There was a Felix the Cat movie in the late '80s, but it sounds like it was one of those demented kinds movies. I'd say that the 1950s-'60s cartoon was the best incarnation of the wily cat. This short is just for historical reference.

Felix The Cat, arguably one of the most recognizable cartoon characters, was introduced to the animation world in November 1919's "Feline Follies." The short four-minute cartoon was so popular during its release that it spurred on a decades-long series of cartoons of Felix.

In first two cartoons, the cat was called Master Tom. It was in the third short, Dec. 1919's "The Adventures of Felix," the cat was given its lasting name. Debate rages on who the cat's creator was, studio owner Pat Sullivan or his lead animator Otto Messmer. Even open for discussion was who gave the cat its Felix name. Messmer claims a John King of Paramount Magazine labeled the cat while the third cartoon was being composed. But Sullivan, from Australia, said he did, using a Down Under term for a part of western Victoria. What is undebatable is Felix became the first popular character in cartoonland to draw in viewers into movie theaters.

The 1920's was the highpoint of Felix's unmitigated celebrity status. Animator Bill Nolan gave the cat the appearance today's public is familiar with. He rounded the edges of Felix in 1924 to give his face a cuter, more huggable features. The cartoon became a bimonthly anticipated cartoon, with critics loving its surrealism while others appreciated Felix's paralleling a child sense of wonder to the world's incongruities.

Aptly, in one of the first images ever broadcasted on its newly-invented television, RCA selected a Felix doll for the honor of its NBC debut experiment in 1928. Even today, Felix The Cat images can be found as school mascots, marching as a Macy Day Parade balloon and in comic strips.

"Feline Follies" is the first Felix the Cat cartoon, though it isn't exactly the Felix that was popular through the 1920s. The character looks similar and it was brought to the public by the same folks who made the Felix cartoons, though he is more like a real cat in this cartoon and they call him 'Master Tom'.

The film begins with Tom going out for a walk and meeting a cute white female cat. They spend time together--much to the annoyance of everyone but the mice! And, in the end, the ending (which I won't divulge) is very, very dark--and the sort of cartoon parents probably would NOT let their kids see! So dark that I was actually pretty shocked.

While this cartoon is much too normal for my tastes (except for the ending), it is historically important and worth a look if you are an aficionado of the history of cartoons.

This story takes place in "Pussyville." I am not making that up, nor am I touching that line. Similar to Felix The Cat in looks, we have "Master Tom" as the main figure in this story, which has literally no sound nor sound-effects, just title cards, courtesy of "Paramount Magazine" and a few comic-strip balloons

Basically, the story is Master Tom wooing a female. Their "trysting place," as the card puts it, is a garbage can. We also see what happens when "the cat's away," as five mice trash the house. They're funny to watch.

Without saying more, the ending of this cartoon is really unexpected. It literally made my jaw drop.

Overall, this is extremely primitive and dated but so bizarre that you can't take your eyes off it. It was part of the Popeye The Sailor 1933-1938 DVD set. Look for it under the bonus feature, "From The Vault."

Originally part of an 'issue' of 'Paramount Magazine' which consisted of Bobby Bumps in "Their Master's Voice" (by Earl Hurd), "Feline Follies" and Bud and Susie in "Down the Mississippi" (Frank Moser).

This is generally thought to be the first Felix cartoon, though he's called 'Master Tom' at this stage, and bears only a fairly tenuous resemblance to his later appearance. The story is pretty uninteresting. Tom heads off for a rendezvous with his girlfriend, some mice come out while he's away and cause havoc, and he cops hell when he gets back again. There's little of the wit or inventiveness of the later 20's Felix cartoons, though significantly we do see Tom do some trademark Felix things, like pluck question marks out of the air and turn them into go-cart wheels.

I find this cartoon interesting because to me it opens up the Messmer/Sullivan debate a little. It's more or less accepted now that Felix is Messmer's creation, but the fact that in this earliest supposed appearance he's called 'Tom' lends some credibility to the argument that Felix was a development of Sullivan's 'Thomas Kat' who debuted in 1917. I suspect the truth is that both guys deserve credit for Felix in one way or another, but what would I know? Anyway, a decent cartoon, and historically important, but not mind-altering.