The Great Felix the Cat or What Makes a Good Cartoon

During the silent film era the popularity of Felix the Cat was incredible. There had never been an animated character before Felix that reached anywhere near his popularity. He was not only one of the most famous cartoon characters of the 1920's but one of the most famous movie stars as popular as any of his live action counterparts. During the 1920's animation was still something that amazed audiences and lead many to ask "how do they move?"


With this in mind here is an article from Screenland Magazine in 1922 written by Ernest Mass.

"The entire secret to successful cartooning for the screen lies in that painstaking mathematical problem known as timing. No one in this field today exemplifies this fundamental principal with more expertise than Mr. Pat Sullivan, creator of the famous Felix the Cat series. For Felix is undeniably the nuttiest, dippiest, craziest cat that ever lived on screen or off.

"The animation in these feline extravaganzas is conceded to be perfect. Mr. Sullivan has elevated the raising of an arm, the turning of a head and the movement of the body to a fine art. The Felix walk is a classic and the acrobatics of Felix's tail are incomparable.

"And speaking of this caudal appendage that curls itself question marks and does all matter of inconceivable things, brings us to another consideration that from the standpoint of the audience is absolutely of first importance.

"Above everything else an animated cartoon must be humorous - must be full of laughs. Every foot must be funny. An audience seems to expect more from a four-hundred-foot cartoon than it does of the ordinary two-reel hokum that passes for a regular comedy, which can get by on the strength of just a few mildly amusing scenes.

"And let those who may think that the job of an animating cartoonist is a bed of roses consider that it takes in the neighborhood of three thousand drawings to complete one of these subjects. Imagine the amount of labor in turning out anywhere from one hundred fifty to two hundred drawings a day.

"But it is all part of the game, says Mr. Sullivan, who predicts the day when the animated cartoon will run upwards of twenty thousand drawings - when it will be not only an added feature of the program but the main feature and drawing card of the program     

"More and more are showman beginning to realize the peculiar box office value of this entertainment.

"Mr. Sullivan is present engaged on several new animating methods. The exact nature of these novelties must of course remain secret for the present, but it is safe to assert that once they are revealed there will be many to attest to the originality of these inventions by immediately proceeding  to imitate them."

Below is a Felix the Cat cartoon, from around the time when this article was written.

  


I am not fully sure what exact new animating methods the article was referring to but there is no doubt that in future Felix cartoons, his design was more appealing and the character animation showed the innerworkings of Felix's mind even better.


-Michael J. Ruhland