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Felix the Cat[]
The world's most famous cat, and the longest lasting cartoon character in history. In the hands of Otto Messmer, Felix was, first and foremost, a thinking character, a being with a wit as fast and sharp as a razor, who could improvise to any situation at the wink of an eye, with a wide range of emotions or thoughts represented by his large, expressive eyes, as well as his detachable, shapeshifting tail.
In 1936, years after Mickey Mouse had taken the throne of cartoon king from him and, combined with inept management, caused his theatrical cartoons to fall out of popularity, Van Beuren Studios took a shot at reviving Felix's animation career (as he was still very popular in the comic pages). Unfortunately, Instead of taking advantage of the possibilities layed down by the earlier cartoons, director Burt Gillett wrote off the surreal nature of Otto's Felix as "outdated" and proceeded to turn Felix into a cookie cutter Mickey Mouse clone with no distinguishable characteristics, and overshadowed Felix's role with his own large cast of characters in a lush, Disney-like setting. While there was the occasional bit of the original surrealism, it felt forced and tossed on, as if they were only done to remind the audience of what Felix is supposed to be like. While the shorts were fairly successful in spite of changing what Felix was about, the subsequent shutdown of Van Beuren Studios abruptly ended the series, once again putting Felix's animation career on ice.
In the late 50's, Joe Oriolo, a former assistant of Otto Messmer, took control of the Felix franchise and rebooted the series with the Trans-Lux Felix the Cat TV cartoons. For character, he went back to the original Felix template of him being a thinking character, but added some changes of his own, such as Felix's slicker, more streamlined design, as well as the series trademark "Magic Bag of Tricks", made to largely replace Felix's improvisational tail from the original cartoons. However, this magic bag helped establish the formula of these cartoons, of giving the villain of the pictures, the Professer, a reason to hunt down Felix.
- Anti-Hero: In some of the original cartoons.
- Art Evolution: Felix started as a four legged cat with corners that could poke out the eye of a tiger. In 1924, Bill Nolan redesigned Felix into the curvier, softer design we're more familiar with, and Joe Oriolo completed the evolution by slickening up Felix's design to read more clearly on TVs.
- Awesome Bag of Tricks
- Bag of Holding: The Bag of Tricks, natch. Anything can pop out of it, including an escalator, food and even a boxing kangaroo in the first episode of the TV series!
- Cartoony Tail: His tail can even detach and shapeshift! While he could still do this in the Trans-Lux cartoons, it was played down considerably in favor of the Magic Bag.
- Catch Phrase: "Righty-o!"
- Cute Little Fangs
- Deadpan Snarker: In the movie, at least. "Where are we, New Jersey?"
- The Determinator: Felix is a very ambitious critter.
- Cute Kitten
- The Everyman: In the Trans-Lux cartoons.
- Flat Character: The Van Beuren Felix.
- Flying Car: Okay, the Bag isn't a car, but it can fly, or even turn into a small rocket!
- Foil: To the Professor.
- Funny Animal
- Fun Personified
- In Name Only: The Van Beuren Felix shorts, and arguably the Trans-Lux cartoons aside from Felix himself.
- Loyal Phlebotinum: The Magic Bag of Tricks will only work for Felix, although the Professor refuses to accept this fact.
- Magic Wand: Er, Magic Bag, aways.
- Mysterious Middle Initial: A comic story had him operating as a detective under the name of Felix T. Cat. When asked, he says that the "T" stands for "The".
- Shape Shifter: Occasionally Felix has used this ability, most notably in "Felix in Hollywood".
- Species Surname
- Walking the Earth: Felix is never in one place for too long.
The Professor[]
The arch-nemesis of Felix in the Trans-Lux TV cartoons. His modus-operandi in life is to steal Felix's magic bag of tricks for his own use--failing to realize throughout the years that the bag will not work for anyone but Felix, for some reason.
- Affably Evil: Once you look past the whole "obsessively hunting for Felix's bag of tricks" thing, he's really not that evil.
- Aesop Amnesia: He never seems to accept that the bag won't work for him.
- Badass Moustache
- The Determinator: He will stop at nothing to get Felix's bag.
- Enemy Mine: In the Movie, he's forced into this with Felix due to having to save Oriana.
- Failure Is the Only Option: When it comes to getting that Bag of Tricks, he has as much luck as Wile E. Coyote does at catching the Road Runner.
- Mad Scientist
- Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate
- No Name Given: His name is just "The Professor". The episode "Captain No-Kiddin" even made fun of this, showing that he can't even remember his real name.
- Running Gag: If he fails in getting the bag of tricks, chances are he'll have a machine laying around his lab made solely to beat himself up for his failure.
Pointdexter[]
The nephew of The Professor.
- Minion with an F In Evil: He can be quite good friends with Felix and even helps him when the Professor isn't around to watch.
- Satellite Character: His personality depends on his interactions with the Professer and Felix.
- Smart People Wear Glasses
The Master Cylinder[]
A bizarre giant robot that resides inside of the moon, where he reigns supreme as King. He was initially a pupil of the Professer until his original body was destroyed. He also made an appearance at the end of the Felix movie, in a very out of nowhere twist, complete with upgrades!
- Evil Is Hammy
- Humongous Mecha: Particularly in his movie appearance.
- Meaningful Name: He is literally a giant cylinder, after all. It goes further in the movie, where Cylinders are expanded to become a whole legion of robots.
- Tin Can Robot
- Took a Level In Badass: In his appearance at the end of the Felix movie--they even compare the newer version with the original, side by side! Subverted however, by the fact that Felix beats him by throwing a book at him.
Rock Bottom[]
The professor's sidekick who happens to be a bulldog.
- Bully Bulldog
- Cigar Chomper
- Dogs Are Dumb
- Dumb Muscle: And he's aware of it.
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Rock Bottom: Excuse me, boss, I forgot what I'm supposed to do. I'm so stupid! |
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Vavoom[]
A little Eskimo with a voice loud enough to literally knock over trees! Named after the sound he makes whenever he opens his mouth.
- Cute but Cacophonic: Moreso in his early appearances, when his underbite wasn't so obvious.
- Improbable Weapon User: His VOICE is his weapon!
Kitty Kat[]
Felix's girlfriend, who appears mostly in the later comics.
- Hartman Hips
- Ms. Fanservice: In some of the merchandise she appears in.
- She's Got Legs: In the provided image. There is also an italian good luck charm of her in a swimsuit, complete with even thicker legs! See it here.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics
The Duke of Zill[]
The villain of The Movie.
- The Faceless: With the exception of a brief glimpse of his original human form, we don't see his face at all in the movie, which is completely hidden by his glass helmet-fishbowl thing. Strangely, one trailer for the form showed that his eyes were original meant to be visible, but this didn't make it into the final film for some strange reason.
- Freudian Excuse: Was possibly driven insane by the accident that left him permanently trapped inside a life support suit.
- Hollywood Cyborg
- Mecha-Mooks: His vast Cylinder army.
- Sequel Hook: Upon his defeat in the film, he disappears and says "I'll be back." Well, it's been almost 20 years and he STILL hasn't come back!
Princess Oriana[]
The Princess of the land of Oriana from The Movie.
- Another Dimension
- Distressed Damsel
- Dumb Blonde
- Good Is Dumb
- Interspecies Romance: Between Felix and Oriana in the movie.
- Steampunk
- Swiss Army Tears