Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Felix! (1919-1928)

Contents: Paramount Magazine [Feline Follies] (1919), Felix Saves the Day (1922), Felix in Hollywood (1923), Felix Dopes It Out (1924), Comicalamities (1928), Futuritzy (1928), Felix Woos Whoo-pie (1928) and Otto Messmer at Work (19??).

Felix the Cat was created by Pat Sullivan, but was largely the work of Otto Messmer, the man who animated the films and drew the newspaper comic strips. According to the introduction to this Bosko Video program, Messmer directed and animated more than 175 Felix cartoons in the years 1919 through 1929. During that time, Felix the Cat was one of the world’s most-popular animated characters, with several short films in circulation at any one time throughout the 1920s and a profitable line of Felix the Cat merchandise.

Despite Felix’s high popularity, he died a quick death as a movie star when Sullivan refused to enthusiastically transition his meal ticket character to sound films. Some of the silent cartoons were rereleased with new product featuring poorly recorded and poorly synchronized sound effects by Copley Pictures Corporation in 1930, but it was too late. Disney’s Mickey Mouse was the new reigning king of the cartoon short. Pat Sullivan’s wife may have committed suicide or accidently fallen from a hotel window in February 1932; Sullivan’s own death came a year later from alcoholic complications — two tragic deaths brought about by the end of Felix’s motion picture career. However, it was animator Otto Messmer, the man who knew Felix best, who benefitted in the long run, for he continued drawing Felix for the Sunday papers until 1943 and continued the daily strip until 1967. Messmer died at the age of 91 in October 1983.

— Carl Bennett

The collection has been reissued by a string of companies that have inherited the original masters prepared by Lumivision Corporation for laserdisc release in 1993.

This collection is recommended in all of its versions for its high-quality video transfers from good to very-good prints.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This rerelease DVD collection is of similar quality to the disc noted above, since it utilizes the same windowboxed video masters prepared by Lumivision Corporation. The badly-scanned and reproduced artwork from the Lumivision packaging doesn’t bode well to consumers, but everything is functionally the same on this disc as the previous edition, from the music to the use of the Lumivision logomark to begin the program.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .