Felix the cat is one of the most famous American cartoon characters. The original owner of the character, Pat Sullivan insisted that he also created Felix. His claim was disputed by Sullivan's lead animator, Otto Messmer though. Felix is contemporaneous with Mickey Mouse and was initially competing in popularity with Disney's creation. At the dawn of "talkies" and after the introduction of "Steamboat Willie", Felix's success started to fade.
Some of the more interesting topics that Felix cartoons deal with include the Prohibition, alcoholism, and in one particular cartoon, there is a character contemplating committing suicide. (Definitely PG-13 material!)
I found "Woos Whoopee" on youtube and thought the looping (reusing the same couple of frames to get more movement/more screen time) was really successful and almost seamless. The alcohol infused hallucinations reminded me of Emile Cohl's surreal "Hasher's Delirium".
Note the racist and sexist overtones...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxailD4Ofq4
(Information from http://www.felixthecat.com and wikipedia)
Posted by Eszter
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