Hooray for Hollywood
Celebrity Week continues here at ReFrederator, as we go way back into animation’s jurassic period. From 1923, we see “Felix in Hollywood” — although it takes him half the cartoon to get there. What Felix eventually sees is a whole mess of prehistoric movie star caricatures . Ben Turpin, William S. Hart, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson and even Cecil B. DeMille all show up and hang around long enough to be recognized. The guy with the ears, by the way, is Will Hays, the first president of the Motion Picture Association, a rather un-charismatic fellow, who, tragically, looked a bit like a caricature in real life.
Otto Messmer, the director, animator and true creator of Felix the Cat, had made his living just a few years earlier making Charlie Chaplin cartoons, so he was more than up to the task of arranging the momentous meeting of cat and tramp. Along the way, Felix does a nice job mimicking Chaplin, but then again, he does a pretty decent job imitating an umbrella and a valise too — definitely a feline of many talents!
More movie stars tomorrow — this time in center stage.
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On May 2nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Wow. That was great. I haven’t seen very many of these old Felix’s at all. Does anyone know where I can find more of these oldies? Is there a nice DVD box set of them out there somewhere?
On May 2nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Not sure what the best high end DVD out there is. The explosion of ‘Dollar DVD’s’ in the big discount stores has produced a lot of public domain Felix collections, with quality all over the board. Some of them are not so bad. Maybe some other folks have some suggestions where to look.
On May 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Most of the Felix toons on the one dollar wonder discs are pretty good looking, except for the color productions that Commonwealth made. He seems to have lost his stern wife, and become more child-like in the later stuff. It’s not nearly as funny.