Felix Win's Out

Felix joins the circus. He has a glorious career ahead of him, but when he steals a magic flute to promote the romance between the fat lady and the human circus, he earns the ire of the ring master and is fired.

It's a nice, imaginative episode of the series, and it definitely has a children's vibe to it, what with the old-fashioned venue and parade of elephants. Director Otto Messmer deals with the small budgets by looping, and animating small parts of the frame, allowing the motion to focus the audience's eyes. Live action movies did the same, but it's more noticeable in cartoons like this one.

Felix the Cat is headed for the excitement of the circus. He begins practicing tricks with the clown. He witnesses the Fat Lady and the Human Skeleton breaking up. He decides to help the Fat Lady. He makes the her skinny and the circus MC fires him for it. He then recruits the Trained Fleas to cause havoc among the animals. The MC relents and hires him back.

Felix is an interesting early successful cartoon character during the silent era. He is still recognized today even though the sound era was not kind to him. He has some goodness and also a lot of edge. More than anything, he does what he wants. He's a pro-active character. It makes him very compelling.

Have you ever felt like Felix, at the opening of this old cartoon? He's walking, head down, dejected and thinking, "Gee, this is a dull town. Nothing ever happens here."

Well, things are looking up when he sees a sign on a fence that says, "Circus To-Day at the Fair Grounds." (By the way, why was the word "today" hyphenated for so long in our country?) Felix then sees another thing you don't see anymore: an elephant parade, where the elephants walk down the street with their trunks holding onto the tails of the one ahead of them. I wonder when those parades stopped?

Felix then sees the clowns and other animals all in the parade and jumps up and down saying, "This is the life for me." He's ready to get out of that dull town and join the circus and in no time, he's learning his new craft.

In a bizarre scene, Felix eavesdrops in a tent that features "The Skeleton Man" and "The Fat Lady." The former proposes to her, she accepts, and then sits on his lap with disastrous results as the man changes his mind about her. Felix has a heart and thinks, "I wish I could help that girl - nobody loves 'em fat." He devises a plan, thanks to a magic flute. Without divulging what happens, I'll just leave it at saying this is pretty imaginative material. Poor Felix: for his human efforts, he gets fired!He vows to make them take him back, and how he does so is the rest of this cartoon.

Although not exactly a funny cartoon, overall it's still entertaining and offers both low-key comedy and a nice human touch. It's different, let's put it that way.

At 10.5 minutes, this is a long cartoon and is part of the Felix The Cat: The Otto Messmer Years" DVD.