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"Felix the Cat,
The wonderful, wonderful cat.
Whenever he gets in a gear up,
He reaches into his purse of tricks...
Felix the True cat,
The wonderful, wonderful cat.
You lot'll laugh so much, your sides will ache,
Your heart volition get pitter pat,
Watching Felix, the wonderful cat!"

I of the longest-lasting animated cartoon characters, Felix the True cat, created past animator Otto Messmer, fabricated his 1919 theatrical debut as one of several cartoon components in Paramount Screen Mag split-reels, and so graduated to a standalone series in 1922. He was the star of an experimental TV broadcast in 1928, and the basis for a classic (but unauthorized!) wall-clock design. Felix'south adorable appearance, witty personality, love of loftier living, and comically versatile tail helped him reach a level of popularity that he maintained until 1929, when Mickey Mouse'southward sound cartoons started to grow in popularity and studio founder/CEO Pat Sullivan refused to produce sound films, not helped by his descent into heavy alcoholism due to his wife'due south apparent suicide, and his subsequent decease.

After a brusque lived attempt at a Felix revival with sound and color during 1936 via Van Beuren Studios, the cat's theatrical career was one time over again put on ice, merely he still remained a popular character in newspapers and comic books. Somewhen migrated to a pop TV series that ran from 1958 to 1961, run by former Fleischer and Famous animator Joe Oriolo, who had served every bit an assistant for Messmer on his Felix comics. Despite having nigh nothing in common with the original cartoons, these Tv set shorts were a smash hit, and ultimately immortalized Felix every bit a popular-culture icon and introduced series mainstays like the Magic Bag of Tricks and the Professor. Jack Mercer, better known every bit Popeye, did all the graphic symbol voices in the Trans-Lux Felix serial.

Pat Sullivan, who ran the studio that made the Felix cartoons claimed during his lifetime to have invented Felix himself, but in truth he had virtually nothing to practise with creating the character or actually drawing the cartoons or comics (according to Hal Walker, one of the original artists on the silent cartoons, he was barely ever nowadays at his ain studio). This conventional wisdom lasted until the 1960s, at which time the Sullivan estate'southward decision-making involvement in Felix was bought out. Due to no longer having to placate Sullivan'due south heirs, surviving staffers named longtime pb animator Otto Messmer every bit Felix'southward true creator. Tellingly, later Felix collections and shows give Otto Messmer full credit for creating the character (along with Joe Oriolo as the serial "Godfather" for reviving the grapheme) and requite but a grudging mention of Sullivan in passing, not even listing him equally a creator of Felix in the terminate credits of The Twisted Tales of Felix the True cat.

During the mid-1980s, Felix co-starred with beau cartoon icon Betty Boop in a short-lived comic strip written and drawn by Mort Walker (ameliorate known every bit the creator of Beetle Bailey) and his sons. Felix as well starred with his friends and foes in cartoon creation software shipped with Apple Macintosh Performa computers. In 1991, he got his large screen suspension in Felix the Cat: The Moving picture (which had already received a limited premiere in 1988 and 1989 but gotten shuffled back to The Shelf of Picture Languishment for two more than years later), written and directed by Don Oriolo in an try to bring the serial dorsum into the limelight. It was both a critical and box office flop but VHS rentals and Tv set airings immune the film to proceeds a small cult following.

In 1995, Don Oriolo teamed up with studio Moving-picture show Roman to produce another revival of the Felix serial, this one being an attempt to bring the serial back to its urban, surrealistic roots, called The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. It was shown on CBS Saturday mornings after Felix appeared in commercial bumpers on that network. It was i of the most expensive shows produced by the studio, merely it sadly underperformed in ratings, and was cancelled only 8 episodes into its second flavour. A comic book revival of the Joe Oriolo Felix, The New Adventures of Felix The Cat, was also attempted by Don Oriolo around this time, just it was cancelled afterward a mere seven issues, although various oneshot comics would follow in the years later on.

Afterward the finish of Twisted Tales, the Felix series basically fell off the radar. It had a couple brief revivals, such every bit the Japanese/American-produced Baby Felix and Friends and the 2004 directly-to-DVD special Felix the Cat Saves Christmas, but nothing else came subsequently that. In that location were a couple more straight to video holiday specials planned for the series, but they never saw the light of day, and so-series owner Don Oriolo's attempts to make a CGI Tv revival went nowhere. In June 2014, the rights to Felix were bought by DreamWorks Animation (and then caused by NBCUniversal in 2016 when they bought out DreamWorks Animation), only Don Oriolo says he is still involved with what they do with the character. And so far, Dreamworks is only using the character equally a style brand, and in that location don't seem to be plans to make a new cartoon series with the grapheme, currently leaving the series hanging in limbo in the present. Until at present, it was confirmed in December 2020 that Wildbrain and Dreamworks television animation are working on a new Felix the Cat TV series. Additionally, in 2021 Source Point Press announced a comic volume series by Mike Federali and Tracy Yardley.

Has a Graphic symbol Sail and Recap Pages for the various different incarnations of the series.

Notable Felix the Cat films:

Feline Follies (1919): The debut of Felix the Cat.
Felix in Hollywood (1923)

Media Featuring Felix The True cat:

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Animated Cartoons

Felix the Cat (Otto Messmer) (1919-30): The silent (and, by 1929, audio cartoons) that started it all. Paramount Pictures distributed the primeval cartoons from 1919 to 1921, while Winkler distributed the shorts from 1922 upwards to 1925, the year when Educational Pictures took over the distribution of the shorts. In 1928, Educational ended distribution and several shorts were reissued past First National Pictures. Copley Pictures distributed the sound cartoons from 1929 to 1931.
Felix the True cat (Van Beuren) (1936): A cursory three short revival of the series, made by the Van Beuren drawing studio and distributed by RKO as part of Van Beuren's Rainbow Parade cartoon series.
Felix the Cat (TV Serial) (1958-61): Joe Oriolo's made-for-TV revival of the serial, distributed by Trans-Lux. It ran for around 120 episodes, and was syndicated in the '90s.
The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat (1995-97): A made-for-Tv revival produced by Motion-picture show Roman and aired on CBS, that attempted to be an amalgam of the Messmer and Oriolo eras of the series.
Baby Felix and Friends (2000-01): A Spinoff Babies Anime series, animated by the now-defunct Radix for a release in Japan, lasting 65 five minute episodes.

Comics

Felix the True cat (1923–66) The Felix the Cat paper comic strips, which ran for decades. A Sunday strip was also released alongside information technology, but was discontinued effectually 1943. The Sunday comics and comic books were e'er drawn past serial creator Otto Messmer (although the paper comics upward to 1929 were but partly drawn by Otto himself, with fine art recycled from the cartoons for artist Jack Bogle to use until Otto Messmer completely took over art duties from him) with artists Jim Tyer and Joe Oriolo moonlighting on them now and then. The daily strip concluded in 1951, and Otto retired from the comic books around 1954, with his former assistant Joe Oriolo taking over the art work from then on.
Felix the True cat (1938–47): The original Felix the Cat comic books, with stories occasionally released as part of Dell's Four Color comic series. Issues #15, 46, 77, 119, 135 and 162 feature Felix on the cover and take stories centered on him inside aslope other unrelated stories due to the comics anthology format.
Popular Comics (1936-1948): Felix likewise made frequent appearances in this Dell album comic. All Issues from #98 to #142 had Felix stories included in them.
Felix the Cat (1948–61): The 2nd run of the Felix the Cat comics, upgrading to a standalone series. Initially distributed by Dell for the first 19 issues, just jumped to Toby Press for issues #20-#61, and then Harvey Comics for issues #62-#118.
Felix the Cat And His Friends (1953) A three issue Spin-Off series, published under Toby Press.
Felix'southward Nephews Inky and Dinky (1957–58): A vii issue spinoff of the Harvey Felix the True cat comics, starring Felix's nephews Inky and Dinky. Published under Harvey Comics.
Felix the Cat (1962): Dell started another short lived revival of the Felix comic serial a year subsequently Harvey ended their run on information technology, lasting but 12 issues.
Betty Boop and Felix (1984–88): A crossover newspaper comic featuring Betty Boop, with Felix starring as her house pet in identify of her dog Pudgy. The comic was distributed past King Features Syndicate and was written by Brian, Morgan, Greg and Neal Walker, the sons of Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker. Curiously, Felix does not talk in this comic, and the Magic Bag is absent-minded.
The New Adventures of Felix the Cat ^notation AKA Felix the True cat & Friends and The New Adventures of Felix the Cat & Friends (1991): A 7 issue comic revival of the series.
The Nine Lives of Felix the Cat (1991–92): A v issue series distributed by Harvey Comics, reprinting classic Felix stories.
Felix the Cat (Harvey Classics): A 7 issue series that besides reprinted classic Felix the True cat comic books.
Felix the True cat in Black and White: An 8 effect serial, publishing new Felix comic stories in a cheaper B&W format.
The Comic Adventures of Felix the Cat (1983): A pocket sized reprint of vintage Felix newspaper comics.
Nine Lives to Alive: A Classic Felix Celebration by Otto Messmer: A 1996 compilation book roofing many of the 1920's and early 1930'south newspaper comics.
Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat Keeps On Walkin' (1991): A compilation of the fifty'due south era Felix comic books.
Felix: The Cracking Comic Tails: A compilation book by Yoe Books, bringing together several of the 50'southward era comic book stories.
How to Describe Felix the True cat and His Friends (1992): A oneshot shot that tells yous how to draw Felix and co.
Felix the Cat Video Wizard (1992): A tie-in comic book to Hudson Soft's NES video game.
Felix the True cat in True Offense Stories (2000)
Felix Cat-A-Strophic Wrestling Spectacular! (2000)
Felix the Cat's Blockbuster Movie Bonanza (2001)
Felix the Cat'south Idiot box Extravaganza (2002)
Amazing Jumbo Felix the Cat (2003)
Felix the True cat House of chiliad Ha Ha's! (2003)
Felix the True cat: Buy This Comic! (2005)
Felix the Cat Silly Stories (2005)
Felix the Cat's Greatest Hits (2002): Reprint volume published by Dark Horse Comics.

Film

Felix the True cat: The Movie (1991) A theatrical movie based on the Joe Oriolo Felix series, written and directed past his son Don Oriolo.
Felix the True cat Saves Christmas (2004): A Straight-To-DVD Christmas special.

Literature

Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World'southward Most Famous True cat (1991): An esteemed history volume virtually the serial and its artists prior to the early ninety's ^note Ironically, despite the title, there is no mention of The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, nor is there whatsoever mention of the Film, every bit both were released well later the book was published. authored by esteemed animator and animation historian John Canemaker.
Felix the Cat Paintings: A book compiling Don Oriolo's ain paintings of Felix the True cat.

Alive Action Boob tube

Felix the Cat Live (1972–85): One of the nearly obscure parts of the Felix series, a live action TV show featuring the cat (portrayed in costume). Read more than near it here.

Video Games

Felix the Cat (NES, Game Boy): A necktie-in game adult by Hudson Soft and released in 1992 (with a Game Boy port post-obit in 1993), based on the Joe Oriolo series.
Felix The Cat By Dragon Co., AKA Felix The Cat 3 (NES): An unlicensed platformer by Dragon Co. starring Felix, released in 1998. The plot is based on the Van Beuren Studios Felix short The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg.
Big Top'southward Drawing Toolbox, starring Felix the Cat (1994): A cartoon maker starring the Joe Oriolo era characters.
Infant Felix Creativity Middle (1997): A PC art game.
Baby Felix Halloween (2001): A Game Boy Color platformer game tie-in to Infant Felix & Friends.
Baby Felix Lawn tennis (PlayStation): A necktie-in game based on the Baby Felix & Friends cartoon.

General Tropes for the whole Franchise:

Adaptational Personality Change: Felix'south personality is very inconsistent throughout the franchise. You take the rascally silent era Felix, the meek, kiddy Van Beuren Felix, the jovial and genial Joe Oriolo Felix, the teenager similar Twisted Tales Felix, etc.
Alternate Continuity: The Felix series is notable for the utter lack of consistency in itself, and it has several different continuities in information technology every bit a result. The simply things that truly stay consistent with all of them is that they star Felix himself (and fifty-fifty then, his personality is frequently subject area to modify) and that they often (but not e'er) share the Magic Bag of Tricks between them:
- The Silent Era Felix ^note which has some overlap with The Golden Age of Animation with the after b&due west audio cartoons, which is unmistakably ready in a surreal, comedic caricature of 1920'due south urban culture, with some fairy tale and fantasy elements sandwiched in. Felix is portrayed as a nomadic Anti-Hero who acts on his own in the bulk of these cartoons, with recurring side characters being kept minimal and only sporadically appearing. The newspaper comics and comic books are all derived from this era, just there is an overlapping menstruation between them and the Oriolo Felix due to Joe Oriolo taking over the art and writing chores for them effectually 1954 and running them upward to the early on 60's.
- The Van Beuren Era Felix (released as function of the studios Rainbow Parade drawing series), which is set up in Disney-esque, pure fairy tale settings with fiddling of the surrealism and absolutely none of the urban nature of the Silent era shorts. This Felix is portrayed as a meek footling kid who gets overwhelmed by large casts of oneshot characters. This is also the shortest running incarnation of the grapheme, lasting a meager iii short cartoons.
- The Joe Oriolo (and later, Don Oriolo) Era Felix (sometimes referred to as the Trans-Lux Felix), the longest running and almost well known incarnation of the serial. This era has such a unlike art manner, tone, and set up of characters and locales from the Silent cartoons that the just affair that ties them together is that they both star Felix the Cat, and even and so, the Oriolo Felix has a considerably different personality than the Silent era Felix. Felix occasionally gets to use his surreal abilities from the silent cartoons (such equally detaching his tail to utilise information technology as a disguise in "The Magic Pocketbook", and morphing information technology into a fist to punch back arrows in "Felix Out West") simply they're downplayed in favor of using the benefits offered past the Magic Bag of Tricks, which was introduced in this series. The Motion picture, Infant Felix & Friends, Felix The Cat Saves Christmas and the NES video game are also ready in this continuity.
- The Twisted Tales of Felix serial, which attempts to be an amalgam of the Silent and Oriolo eras of the serial, being a retro drawing throwback to the original Felix cartoons, besides as cartoons of the 1930s, such as those by Fleischer Studios. The Felix of this series is fully aware that he's a cartoon character.
- The Betty Boop & Felix newspaper comics, where Felix acts as a normal, non speaking business firm pet to Betty Boop, basically replacing Butterball the dog from Betty'southward own cartoons. The Felix of this continuity was a lot closer in personality to Garfield in that he was given acerbic things to say via thought balloons. He never spoke and had neither a detachable tail nor his Magic Bag of Tricks. Betty was very much the Jon Arbuckle to Felix's Garfield, an owner & her pet cat, and a lot of the sense of humour in this strip relied mostly on proper noun-dropping current celebrities and puns. Betty herself was the primary focus of the comic, with Felix himself usually existence off to the side. Eventually, Felix was dropped from the strip birthday when King Features Syndicate realized they didn't really accept the rights to use him, making information technology a solo Betty Boop comic from then on.
- And and so y'all have the oddity that is Felix the Cat Live!, a very obscure live-action Boob tube show which has about no ties to any of the previous continuities (although the classic theme song is even so used), and portrays Felix the True cat in live action costume.
Art Evolution: Felix has gone through several redesigns as the franchise ran its form. His early blueprint was almost foxlike in advent, with a big snout and corners that could poke out the eye of a tiger. By 1924, animator Nib Nolan redesigned Felix into his more familiar condom hosed form in social club to brand him cuter looking and easier to animate. The blueprint used in the Joe Oriolo cartoons and near all Felix works afterward (save Twisted Tales of Felix, which reuses the Bill Nolan blueprint) is a slicker accept on Felix's classic rubberhose appearance, giving him longer legs and stylizing him more than.
Badass Adorable: Felix isn't necessarily the fighting type, but when push comes to shove, he tin and will fight back, and he pretty much always comes out on elevation, with or without the Magic Bag.
Breakout Grapheme: Felix was originally conceived as a oneshot character for the film Feline Follies, which was made solely because another animator was tardy with his work for the Paramount Screen Magazine, and Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer agreed to fill in with a cartoon of their own. Felix'southward debut was then well liked by audiences that it immediately took off as a hit, graduated to his ain standalone series and became ane of the most iconic and influential cartoon characters of all time.
Captain Ersatz: Felix probably has the near ersatzes of any fictional character, including Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Foxy. Ironically, one of them (i.e. Mickey Mouse) would totally degrade Felix in popularity. Ironically, Felix himself was heavily based on Charlie Chaplin.
Cats Are Mean: Subverted. Felix is a jovial, helpful character in all of his incarnations, fifty-fifty in his rascally silent years, and rarely ever does anything that could be considered mean.
Cat Stereotype: The "black cats bring bad luck" stereotype is subverted with Felix. Indeed, his very name (Latin for "luck") alludes to information technology.
Comic-Volume Accommodation: Felix has starred in decades worth of newspaper comics and comic books, which are based on either the classic era Felix (pre-1958) or the Joe Oriolo era Felix. The newspaper comics made prior to 1929 even reused artwork straight from the silent cartoons and lifted stories wholesale from them every bit a consequence.
Cute Kitten: Felix is downright adorable looking, especially in one case he was redesigned.
Disneyfication: The Van Beuren and Joe Oriolo era of the series gave this treatment to the franchise, throwing out the surreal and darker elements of the Silent era films in favor of more cutesy style cartoons and Black-and-White Morality. In fact, the director of the iii Van Beuren shorts, Burt Gillett, was a onetime animator and managing director at Disney. The Joe Oriolo Felix is even given a Mickey Mouse-esque falsetto voice. Twisted Tales briefly tried to avoid this by going into a more surreal, Denser and Wackier direction, just its failure in ratings and turbulent production (namely then-owner Don Oriolo's dislike of the first season and its utter lack of ties to his father's take on Felix forcing his hand into its artistic process in the second season) ultimately acquired the franchise to relapse back to the softer Joe Oriolo incarnation of the character, both before and afterwards Twisted Tales was cancelled.
Disney School of Acting and Mime:
- Felix the Cat is i of the primeval examples of using this in animation, and it's justified, since almost all of the original B&W films were silent cartoons. Otto Messmer had studied histrion Charlie Chaplin extensively (even working on a drawing series based on him prior to creating Felix) and realized how important it was to get this kind of expressive interim into drawings. While the cartoons do employ speech balloons for the characters to talk, a lot of the personality is conveyed through the broad, hammy poses and animation.
- The Joe Oriolo cartoons and its spinoffs avoid using this due to their shoestring animation budget.
Early on Installment Weirdness: Feline Follies is so unlike from the residue of the series, that ane would be surprised to know its the debut of Felix, who is a relatively normal housecat named Master Tom in the drawing. Heck, the silent cartoons are so drastically different from the rest of the Felix series in tone and style that the just thing that ties them together is that they all star Felix. Also, there was no Magic Bag of Tricks at first—that iconic element of the series wasn't introduced until the Joe Oriolo era, when the series was 40 years into its life. At that place are likewise very few major or recurring characters aside from Felix himself and Kitty Kat, and no recurring antagonists—often, there wasn't any real antagonist at all in the original films. An urban and topical subtext is frequently nowadays in the silent cartoons, which is something that would cease up being dropped in the post-b&w Felix shorts (relieve Twisted Tales) in favor of pure fantasy and surrealism.
Excuse Plot: Plots are never the central focus of the serial, which are always wafer-thin, simplistic setups for either the characters antics or the gags.
Fantasy Kitchen Sink: In virtually all incarnations of the series, Felix's world has talking animals and humans living alongside each other in contemporary settings, with fantasy characters like King Neptune and Old Rex Cole appearing, surreal or sometimes supernatural phenomenon like ghosts, fairies and evil witches appearing, and Felix sometimes using a Magic Rug equally a transport. The Oriolo era keeps the fairy tale and fantasy elements, just also introduces scientific discipline fiction elements similar a mad scientist who wants Felix's Magic Purse of Tricks, a Brain in a Jar cyborg who lives on the moon, and the occasional encounter with friendly aliens like Martin Martian. It should exist noted that these elements weren't quite every bit prominent in the silent cartoons every bit it was in the after Felix serial, every bit the early cartoons were more than of a surreal cartoon caricature of 1920's urban culture than outright fantasy, merely there were a handful of episodes that were pure fantasy (I.east. Felix in Fairyland).
Friend to All Living Things: I of the well-nigh enduring traits of Felix through the series is his kind hearted, altruistic nature; if someone is in need of aid, be it a kid baseball player who got wrongfully thrown in jail and needs a stand up-in for his game, Uncle Tom at the mercy of Simon Legree, a clown about to commit suicide, a lost pet elephant who needs to be returned to her Rajah, or a Princess whose kingdom was overthrown past an evil dictator and his army of robots, he will not hesitate to assist, and he shows nigh no signs of maliciousness or veangefulness (although he was a lot more rascally in his silent cartoons). At most, he just gets agitated at someone whenever they wrong him. He even holds no ill will towards his curvation enemy, the Professor, and even helps him out if he winds upwards in problem.
- The Van Beuren Felix plays this trait up even more; in the opening of "The Goose That Laid the Gilded Egg", Felix is handing out gilt coins by the bucketful to the local poor, thanks to the aid of his gilded goose and her endless supply of golden eggs. And when the goose gets kidnapped past Helm Kid, her eggs are the terminal thing on Felix'southward mind—he's genuinely concerned for her prophylactic, and he even tries to put up a fight against the pirate before he captures her.
- In certain levels of the NES video game, Felix gets the ability to ride on turtles and dolphins if you grab a ability-upwards, and they help him by attacking enemies for him.
Four-Fingered Easily: Nearly all of the characters have their easily drawn this way.
Funny Fauna: Felix is this in virtually all incarnations of the series, save in his earliest appearances and Betty Boop & Felix, where he was portrayed as a normal housecat.
Irony: He's a black true cat who helps anyone he can, an utter defiance of the stereotype of black cats bringing bad luck. Granted, Felix doesn't e'er take the best luck himself (especially in the silent films), merely information technology's the thought that counts.
Long Runner: Felix has been around since 1919, making him the oldest surviving blithe cartoon star, and he's done a lot to earn that reputation; are talking about a character who has starred in over 200 theatrical cartoons (almost of which take non survived), well over 200 episodes during the Trans Lux era, two mod TV revivals (with a tertiary one seemingly in the works), a characteristic length movie and a straight-to-video film, decades worth of newspaper and magazine comics, an absolutely monstrous amount of merchandise, and a live action kids' series to top information technology all off.
Medium Awareness: The Silent era Felix is implied to be aware he's in a drawing, considering he can manipulate the symbols and words he thinks upward to his advantage, such every bit in "Felix Saves The Solar day", where he climbs up four question marks he created to achieve a jail jail cell. Twisted Tales makes it admittedly clear that Felix knows he's a drawing character—"The Underwater Kingdom" even has him remembering one of his past cartoon adventures, specifically the Van Beuren era curt "Neptune Nonsense".
Minimalist Cast: In the Silent and Joe Oriolo cartoons, the cast is basically reduced to Felix himself and a couple other characters at best, with the odd recurring extra. Felix is the merely major graphic symbol in the majority of the Silent cartoons, as Otto Messmer felt information technology was of import for the serial to take his personality be the center of attention and not get overwhelmed past a cast of extras. Even the handful of recurring characters present, like Kitty Kat and Felix's nephews Inky and Dinky, were but sparsely used in the original cartoons. And the Joe Oriolo cartoons only take Professor, Poindexter, Stone Bottom and Chief Cylinder every bit major recurring players. There's the odd side-character that pops up now and again, such equally Vavoom and Martin the Martian, only their appearances are exceptional at best. The Van Beuren shorts had Felix solitary every bit a major histrion, with a rotating cast of new side characters around him. Averted with Twisted Tales of Felix, as that series has a much larger cast of major and supporting characters.
Minimalism: Both the silent cartoons and the Joe Oriolo cartoons have very simplistic cartoon artwork. The original cartoons in particular usually have backgrounds with nearly no detail at all except for a few bones shapes.
Negative Continuity: Nearly all of the Felix cartoons and comics have no continuity at all—for starters, Felix committed suicide in his first film, merely is back no worse for wear in time to come films. The Oriolo era is the sole exception, varying between having some very low-cal continuity going on in them to having no continuity at all, due to some of its episodes having story elements that completely contradict each other. Twisted Tales has the occasional continuity nod hither and there, but it mostly falls dorsum on negative continuity equally well.
New Chore as the Plot Demands: Felix never has a consistent task throughout the franchise, due in part to the fast and loose continuity and varying settings and timelines of some of the cartoons. In Felix Turns the Tide, he works for (or lives with) a Deli shop owner, and joins up with the army in the same drawing. In "Felix in Hollywood", he lives with a starving role player and somewhen gets a job as an actor himself. In episodes that star Poindexter like "Felix Babysits", the Professor hires Felix equally a babysitter, and in other episodes even hires him every bit a lab assistant. In "Stone Age Felix", he's briefly seen belongings an function chore, but in episodes like "Detective Thinking Hat" and "The Invisible Professor", he acts as a private detective. In an episode of Twisted Tales, "Five Minute Meatball", Felix works as a meatball delivery male child.
Rogues Gallery: The silent cartoons rarely had whatsoever real villains at all, and certainly no recurring ones, simply starting with the Joe Oriolo cartoons, the series started building upwardly a modest group of villains to challenge Felix. The Professor, Rock Bottom and Master Cylinder, all hailing from the Oriolo cartoons, are considered the master antagonists of the franchise, accompanied by a few minor or oneshot villains like General Clang, Gulpo (King of the Blobs), the ranch possessor Bart and The Duke of Zill. Twisted Tales added a much larger roster of new villains due to its liberal apply of the Villain of the Week formula, such as Peking Duck, The Sludge King, Jeepers Creepers, Fuzzy Bunny and Oscar.
Rubberhose Limbs: The Trope Maker, introduced by both Otto Messmer and Neb Nolan in the original silent cartoons. The standard character designs for the series rely on this, but some characters avoid the template, such every bit the stylized, UPA-esque characters introduced in the Oriolo era serial.
Shades of Disharmonize:
- The silent cartoons tended to have Grayness-and-Grey Morality, since in that location are very few articulate cut villains—nearly of the humans Felix encounters are jerks at worst (although there was the odd exception, such as Simon Legree in Uncle Tom'south Crabbin) and Felix himself is mostly merely fighting for survival or has a self serving agenda and is inappreciably an ideal hero, especially since he tends to earn the ire of humans or other animals (i.e. mice, chickens) by stealing their food or trying to eat them.
- The Oriolo cartoons, on the other hand, rely entirely on Black-and-White Morality in their conflicts.
Significant Name: Felix'south name is Latin for "Luck", which fits the characters defiance of the "blackness cats bring bad luck" stereotype.
Sliding Calibration of Accommodation Modification: The Van Beuren and Joe Oriolo series, as well as Felix The Cat Live and Betty Boop and Felix are all Blazon 1 (In Name Only) takes on the original Felix series, with elements of Type 3 (Businesslike Adaptation) forced on the former two due to restrictions imposed on those cartoons that didn't exist during the original silent cartoons. Twisted Tales of Felix is a Type 2 (Recognizable Adaptation) take on the serial, merging elements of the silent cartoons and Joe Oriolo cartoons together.
Sliding Scale of Animal Cast: The series mostly falls into type 3 (Creature Bandage With Humans As Small-scale Characters), but the Joe Oriolo cartoons fall into blazon five (Equally Human being and Fauna Cast), and Betty Boop & Felix and Felix the True cat Alive autumn into type 6 (Human Cast With Animal Protagonist).
Sliding Scale of Animation Elaborateness: The silent cartoons are basically pre-Boob tube Express Animation, while the Joe Oriolo cartoons, Twisted Tales, Baby Felix & Friends and Felix The True cat Saves Christmas fall into the "Planned limited tv Animation" side of the scale. The Van Beuren shorts and The Movie land on the "Traditional Animation in regular feature films" part of the scale.
Sliding Calibration of Anthropomorphism: The series mostly falls on the Funny Animal part of the Animal Anthropomorphism scale.
Sliding Scale of Continuity: Most of the franchise falls into Level 1 (Negative Continuity) but the Joe Oriolo cartoons and Twisted Tales occasionally autumn into Level 3 (Subtle Continuity) while withal having generally nonexistent continuity.
Sliding Scale of Endings: The silent cartoons and Twisted Tales tend to end with bittersweet and occasionally downer endings, sometimes ending with either a Happy Catastrophe or just No Catastrophe at all. The Joe Oriolo cartoons always end with a Happy Ending without exception.
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: It varies between each series. The silent cartoons and Twisted Tales varied between both sides, but mostly leaned towards the Cynicism side of the scale, just the Joe Oriolo cartoons land squarely on the Idealistic side of the scale.
Sliding Scale of Plot Versus Characters: Falls on the "Less Plot Than Characters" side. The serial always relies on wafer thin plots that are a formality for the characters and their antics.
Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: The series lands squarely on the Surreal end of the scale, peculiarly in regards to the Silent cartoons and Twisted Tales.
Sliding Calibration of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Felix falls right on the silliness end of the scale.
Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue: The serial zigzags between both ends of the calibration. The silent and golden historic period cartoons are heavily dependent on visuals (especially the Silent cartoons by necessity, which only had sporadic dialogue in the form of speech communication balloons). The Joe Oriolo cartoons are heavily dependent on dialogue, since they used Express Animation. Twisted Tales went dorsum and along between using both approaches.
Spelling for Emphasis: In one episode, Felix is cheered on by people chanting, "Felix! Felix! F-East-Fifty-I-X! Yay, Felix!".
Suddenly Speaking: In the later B&W cartoons when they briefly upgraded to sound, he is technically given a voice, but it'southward a very unintelligible one. The 3 Van Beuren shorts and the Tras-Lux TV cartoons give him more consistent voice piece of work, especially in the latter.
Static Character: While Felix's personality is inconsistent throughout the various series, 1 thing that does stay consistent is that Felix never undergoes grapheme development in whatever of them. The aforementioned goes for every other character in the series. This is because, like with many other old cartoons and comics, the series focus is e'er on cocky contained gag episodes with little to no continuity between them, making character evolution moot.
Thinking Tic: Felix'southward famous "Thinking Walk", where he paces around, leaning forward with his arms behind his dorsum while he thinks well-nigh what to do next. Information technology's considered to be the first example of an blithe character being shown to have thoughts and emotions rather than only existing for gags, and has appeared in virtually every incarnation of the character.
Universal-Adaptor Cast: Felix can bear witness up in any place or fourth dimension, past or present, depending on what the stories demand. Otto Messmer cited this as a major attribute of why the series was so popular.
Otto Messmer: "...he could be an alley cat one time, salvage the mean solar day for the losing Yankee Baseball Club the next, and then be the pet of a rich princess. He would go to Arabia, to Mars - not only the barnyard. That's what made him famous."
Vague Age: Like many famous drawing characters, Felix'southward age is never made clear in whatever of the cartoons. This is almost notable in the Joe Oriolo series, where he is shown to be living past himself and is trusted by the Professor to await after his nephew Poindexter, simply is occasionally referred to as a kid. The Van Beuren shorts consistently portrayed him every bit being kid similar in personality, only apparently quondam enough to own his ain business firm and run his own business organisation.
Vocal Dissonance: Felix has gone through numerous voice actors, and there is fiddling if any attempt at all to keep the voices truly consistent with each other, well-nigh egregiously with the Twisted Tales Felix, who went through two completely different sounding actors across seasons.
Walking the Earth: Felix is a nomad almost of the fourth dimension, frequently traveling all effectually the Earth, and he doesn't take a consistent place of residence in whatsoever of the serial.
Weirdness Magnet: Felix himself isn't also unusual of a character equally far as a talking and walking cat goes, but he attracts a lot of bizarre events and characters his way throughout a lot of his cartoons.
White Gloves: Felix is notable for not wearing them, and the numerous times his hands disappear against his body demonstrate the problem this trope addresses.

Culling Title(s): Felix The Cat

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/FelixTheCat

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