Customer Reviews

Felix the Cat: The Complete 1958-1959 Series

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this set, even before its appearance. Most of that centers around the claim on the cover to include "The Complete 1958- 1959 Full- Color Series". This set includes 31 episodes, a far cry from the 260 supposedly created. So what's going on? The Felix cartoons of this era are widely believed to run about four minutes each. The ones in this set run about seven minutes, almost twice as long. Possibly each episode was originally run in two parts. In that case, there would really have been 260 parts, making up 130 two- part episodes.

John Canemaker, in Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat, writes that Joe Oriolo's original plan was to create 260 episodes that could run as four minute individual episodes or a continuing quarter hour, depending on the station format. Many cartoons of the time ran as "cliff-hangers", multi- part stories that dropped off at the end of the episode, including Ruff and Reddy, Crusader Rabbit, and Underdog. This was so that the clowns and spacemen who were the live hosts of kids' TV could sprinkle cartoon shorts throughout their shows, which ran from Fresno to Binghamton. Oriolo's revival cartoon arguably had little to do with the original Pat Sullivan/ Otto Mesmer film shorts, but it was Joe who gave Felix his magic bag along with the show's personnel, which included the Professor, Poindexter, Rock Bottom, and Master Cylinder. Oriolo tried to follow the Hanna- Barbera successes of limited animation, and deliberately aimed his show at kids, which may be why it has remained such a favorite.

This set is beautifully packaged, with a graphic of the iconic cat on the cover, and includes a list of episodes. The case opens like a book and contains two one- sided discs. The plastic around the discs isn't very strong, and my set arrived with the plastic broken, but the discs still played OK. Disc one opens with ads for Rocky and Bullwinkle DVD sets and the Veggie Tales movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, and includes 16 Felix episodes running about seven minutes each, for a total disc running time of 120 minutes.

Disc two includes the remaining 15 episodes and three special features. These features are the same as on the Felix the Cat Collectors' Edition issued in 2001 through Sony Wonder. They include the first Felix cartoon, "Feline Follies" from 1919; an excellent interview with John Canemaker on the history of Felix called "Through the Ages"; and an archival promo reel for stations to use, including an ad in French and a black and white ad in Spanish (The Collector's Edition also included other features not on this set). The second disc running time is 112 minutes. The Collector's Edition included ten episodes on a single one- sided disc. On this set they are episodes number 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 21, 27, 29, and 30.

The episodes include;

Disc one: 1. The Magic Bag; 2. Into Outer Space; 3. Abominable Snowman; 4. Felix Out West; 5. Electronic Brainwasher; 6. Felix the Cat Suit; 7. Do- It- Yourself Monster Book; 8. Blubberino the Whale; 9. Ghostly Concert; 10. Captain No- Kiddin'; 11. Felix in Egypt; 12. Detective Thinking Hat; 13. Balloon Blower Machine; 14. Friday the 13th; 15. Stone Making Machine; 16. Penelope the Elephant.

Disc Two: 17. The Money Tree; 18. Oil and Indians Don't Mix; 19. The Glittering Jewels; 20. The Gold Car and County Fair; 21. Sheriff Felix VS. the Gas Cloud; 22. Felix's Gold Mine; 23. How to Steal a Gold Mine?; 24. Private Eye Felix and Pierre Mustache; 25. The Gold Fruit Tree; 26. The Flying Saucer; 27. Felix Baby- Sits; 28. Instant Money; 29. Master Cylinder- King of the Moon; 30. The Invisible Professor; 31. Venus and the Master Cylinder.

To my knowledge, this set is complete as advertised. I believe there were 31 episodes produced during the 1958-1959 time period. There were another 91 or so produced during 1960-1961, bringing the total to about 122. I don't know where the notion that Trans-Lux produced 260 some odd Felix cartoons during 1958-1959 came from. That would have been an incredible feat, even if each cartoon was only about 7 minutes in length. If someone has some evidence that there were indeed 260 shorts produced by Trans-Lux, I would sure like to see it.

The problem with this release is that there is no slipcover to hold the DVD package closed. At least mine didn't have one. So it can easily pop open. The cartoons look excellent and the menu is easy to navigate. If the packaging were better, I would have given it 5 stars.

Let's get this issue of "260 episodes" out of the way. Each "episode" of this show consisted of a first half with a cliffhanger pause and then a second half. The pause was there to allow a commercial, but the disc of course has no commercials, and so you get seven minute episodes with a minor "blip" in the middle. This DVD set is the first season of what was 130 episodes of the show, a number that tallies from lists in Lenburg's cartoon encyclopedia and elsewhere make clear.

And what a deliciously weird cartoon this was. The limited animation and UPA graphics become an aesthetic in themselves. Felix is, if we may overanalyze a bit, a fascinating abstraction, an oddly disconnected and almost pathologically happy being who serves only to frustrate "The Professor," who wants this magic bag Felix carries, although we are not told where Felix got the bag or what his purpose with the bag is except to be protected from anything the Professor pulls.

The voice work is also neat. Popeye's Jack Mercer does both Felix and The Professor (as well as later additions Poindexter and Rockbottom). You can hear echoes of Popeye now and then in the rendition of The Professor, and occasionally, Felix speaks without mouth movement a la the ad-libbing in the earliest Popeye cartoons, and The Professor garbles here and there in a way reminiscent of Popeye's "scatting."

At the end of each one, Felix squawks "Righty-oh!" and then does a trademark laugh that anyone who grew up watching TV in the sixties or seventies remembers fondly -- but which is oddly detached from what went on before. Felix is primally attached to seeing his assailant defanged to the point of this ritual celebration of such with us, every single time -- "Righty-o! AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAH!!!" But "Righty-o" what? What was "Righty-o"? And why the laughter when often Felix had been close to death a minute before?

These cartoons are not only cheap, but vaguely surreal -- people partaking of mind-altering substances would thoroughly enjoy hitting "Play All" and watching endless ones in sequence. I, for one, have seen them more or less sober, but still urge folks to check out how the Felix we remember from our childhoods is actually a tad psychedelic. "Righty-o!!!"

I am very pleased (that's right, pleased) to be proven wrong in my previous review. With the help of Jerry Beck of Cartoon Brew, I was able to clarify some details about this set, that I was incorrect about.

Although as I claimed earlier there were indeed 260 cartoons produced, (a fact John Canemaker bears out in the interview included in this set) it appears that the set is indeed complete within the context of the 1958-1959 heading. According to Jerry, Classic Media is working very closely with the Oriolo family on this one and their information about the cartoons in that portion of the timeline (1958-1959) is right.

This means I owe the folks at Classic Media one big apology. Under the circumstances they deserve praise. While, I wish the set were larger, more along the lines of their HarveyToons release, perhaps they have their own reasons for doing it this way. I only hope it doesn't mean that the rest of the collection will remain unavailable. There are still a lot of great Felix cartoons still to come, including VaVoom! and the return of the Master Cylinder!

I defended the HarveyToons set (incomplete though it was)on the argument that while it wasn't really the whole shebang that it was a great value for the price. I will defend this set on the grounds that it is complete for the years prefaced and if not extraordinary value that HarveyToons was, fairly priced none the less.

It shares the same handsome packaging design that HarveyToons did and the cartoons all look great. Though some folks don't like the open book style of the sleeve (w/no outer sleeve) it seems just fine to me. The discs are quite secure in their holders and not likely to fall out. If anything, it takes too much effort to release them.

So, yes, I'm happy and hope the set does well so that we may see the remaining 229 episodes commited to disc. What are you waiting for? Place your order!

Now that I've finished this slice of humble pie, I think I'll have another with the folks at Classic Media.

Felix the Cat rocks! What fun it is to once again see Felix and his magical bag of tricks. Poindexter, The Professor, Rock Bottom..... they're all there; what fun. Although I agree with previous reviews that the packaging could be a tad better, all in all I was quite pleased with this set.

As to the dispute over whether or not this is a complete 1958-1959 set, I found the following information via the net, to wit:

"In 1953, Official Films purchased the Sullivan-Messmer shorts, added soundtracks to them, and distributed to the home movie and television markets. Messmer himself pursued the Sunday Felix comic strips until their discontinuance in 1943, when he began eleven years of writing and drawing monthly Felix comic books for Dell Comics. In 1954, Messmer retired from the Felix daily newspaper strips, and his assistant Joe Oriolo took over. Oriolo struck a deal with Felix's new owner, Pat Sullivan's nephew, to begin a new series of Felix cartoons on television. Oriolo went on to star Felix in 260 television cartoons distributed by Trans-Lux starting in 1958."

Felix starred in 260 cartoons by Trans-Lux "starting" in 1958. So perhaps this is the entire run of Trans-Lux Felix cartoons from the stated time frame after all.

At any rate, it's great to have the tricky cat back.

Rock on, Felix!

OMG! I couldnt wait to get this dvd! Felix the Cat has to be one of my fondest childhood memories! I remember coming home from school, finishing my homework, eating a snack while watching Felix, The Professor, Poindexter, Rock Bottom, and Master Cylinder! If you're a fan of Felix, this is the one to get. I'm still laughing at how the professor grumbles after a sentence. These cartoons are even funnier now that I'm a adult!

For my money, this recently-released DVD set of the Trans-Lux TV cartoons starring our favorite feline ain't worth the plastic they're pressed on. One of the most unique, and beloved, features of the original cartoons was the fact that one complete story arch was split into two separate cartoons, about 4 minutes each, and the end of Part 1 always had Felix and/or pals in a dangerous situation, at which point the Trans-Lux logo would come on and Jack Mercer would intone, in his best eerie voice, "What will happen to Felix in the next exciting chapter of the adventures of Felix the Cat!?!" Then we saw a commercial or went back to the live host of the program, and then we heard the entire opening theme song AGAIN, and settled down to Part Two, to see how Felix managed to escape death this time. Consciously designed to be a kiddie version of the great theatrical cliffhangers of the 1930s and 1940s, the two-part format made the Trans-Lux Felix very special, and is in fact, their heart. Seeing them chopped into boring but coherent 7.5 minute toons is just another cynical attempt to sterilize vintage TV ephemera to make it more palatable to baby-boomers who are too lazy to recall the original format, or jaded younger viewers who couldn't give a damn either way. Releasing these classic Felix toons without the cliffhanger format is like releasing early SEINFELD episodes without Jerry's standup intros and exits - worthless. The same was true for the several VHS releases of the Felix toons. Too bad when neither the producers, nor the fans, care enough to retain a program's original format.

It was a great idea to release the re-mastered episodes of Felix the Cat (1958-1959). The series capture the essence of Felix -- naive and smart -- great for people of all ages.

This review is in regards to "Felix the Cat: The Complete 1958-1959 Series." I have to say that because some of these reviews are for the wrong DVD (thanks, Amazon).

This set is NOT complete. Total false advertising. I can name 7 episodes from the top of my head that just aren't here! And that's going on my childhood memory... I'm sure there are more that I forgot.

If you want the complete series, and really want it to be "complete," hold out on this one.

Episodes Missing:
32. The Termites of 1960
33. Moo Moo Island Oysters
34. The Mouse and Felix
35. King Neptune's S.O.S.
36. Relax-a-Lawn Chair
37. The African Diamond Affair
38. Felix's Prize Garden
39. Finally, The Magic Bag is Mine!
40. Felix and the Rhinoceros
41. Felix-Finder and the Ghost Town
42. Snoopascope, A Magic Bag of Tricks
43. Stone Age Felix
44. The Gold Silkworms
45. Felix and Vavoom
46. The Jubilee Dime
47. Movie Star Felix
48. Youth Water
49. Game Warden Felix
50. Master Cylinder Captures Poindexter
51. Atomic Drive Explosion of Master Cylinder
52. Supertoy
53. The Jewel Bird
54. The Atomic Rocket Fuel
55. The Hairy Berry Bush
56. General Clang and the Secret Rocket Fuel
57. The Rajah's Elephants
58. The Exchanging Machine
59. The Leprechaun
60. The Master Cylinder's Spacegram
61. The Leprechaun's Gold
62. Felix and the Mid-Evil Ages
63. The Capturing of the Leprechaun King
64. Martin the Martian Meets Felix the Cat
65. The Professor's Committed No Crime!
66. The Martian Rescue
67. The Portable Closet
68. Redbeard the Pirate
69. A Museum, The Professor, and Rock Bottom
70. The Professor's Instant Changer
71. The Vacation Mirage
72. Cat-Napped
73. The Sea Monster and Felix
74. The Diamond Tree
75. King of the Leprechauns
76. The Magic Apples
77. Oysters and Starfishes
78. The Haunted House
79. Gold Digger Vavoom
80. The Wizard and Sir Rock
81. The Coal Diamonds
82. Out West with Big Brownie
83. Love-Sick Squirt Gun
84. Mechanical Felix
85. The Ski Jump
86. Felix and the Beanstalk
87. The Milky Way
88. The Super Rocket Formula
89. The Weather Maker
90. The Giant Magnet
91. The Instant Truck Melter
92. The Pep Pill
93. Leprechaun Gold from Rainbows
94. The Magnetic Ray
95. The Instant Grower
96. The Professor's Ancestor? The Wizard
97. Luring the Magic Bag of Tricks
98. The Uranium Discovery
99. Chief Standing Bull
100. The Strongest Robot in the World
101. Stairway to the Stars
102. Cleaning House
103. Vavoom Learns How to Fish
104. The Golden Nugget
105. The Genie
106. Felix and Poindexter Out West
107. The Bad Genie
108. The Rajah's Zoo
109. The Loan Business
110. A Treasure Chest
111. The Essence of Money
112. Mercury's Winged Sandals
113. The $10,000 Vacation
114. Brother Pebble Bottom
115. The North Pole and a Walrus Hunt
116. Cleopatra's Beauty Secrets
117. The Trip Back from the North Pole
118. The Golden Whale Baby-Sitter
119. North Pole Jail Hole
120. Felix the Handyman
121. Public Enemies Number One and Two
122. Horse Thieves
123. Adventures of Felix
124. Felix the Cat Bottles the Genie
125. Felix the Cat Finds the Golden Bug
126. Felix the Cat Finds a Genie

At last, Classic Media does pull a rabbit...err cat...out of the hat, and what a glorious set, containing what is considered to be the full run of cartoons in this series from 1958 through 1959. It doesn't suggest this, but it is my hope that the run is continued to include the cartoons created from 1959 to 1960 and from 1960 to 1961, because I'd seen other toons in the series issued on VHS that included VAVOOM and there was also a great Felix birthday party episode. If it is true that Classic Media is working closely with the Joe Oriolo estate to keep this treasured series alive, then I'm sure that we will see the rest.

This treasury is especially a tribute to the voice work of Jack Mercer who provided all the voices here. Perhaps a special feature on a forthcoming second volume, if proposed, is some history on the man behind the voices, along with that great bit of film played often on syndication that had Mercer, in his besst cliffhanger voice, stating "what will happen next to Felix the Cat? Tune in and find out..."

For now, however, this is a jewel in the crown. Let's continue to see what else that little bag of tricks can do!