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Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett
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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

coverLumivision Corporation
1997 DVD edition

Felix! (1919-1928), black & white and color, 60 minutes total, not rated, including Paramount Magazine [Feline Follies] (1919), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Felix Saves the Day (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Felix in Hollywood (1923), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Felix Dopes It Out (1924), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Comicalamities (1928), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Futuritzy (1928), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Felix Woos Whoo-pie (1928), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, and Otto Messmer at Work (19??), color, ? minutes, not rated.

Lumivision Corporation, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 1 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; super jewel DVD case; $29.99.
Release date: 30 September 1997.
Country of origin: USA
This first Felix the Cat DVD collection, one of the first silent film DVDs altogether, features a number of silent era Felix cartoons that range in print quality from good to very-good, but are presented in quality video transfers.

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.
SlingShot
1999 DVD edition

Felix! (1919-1928), black & white and color, 60 minutes total, not rated, including Paramount Magazine [Feline Follies] (1919), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Felix Saves the Day (1922), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Felix in Hollywood (1923), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Felix Dopes It Out (1924), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Futuritzy (1928), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Comicalamities (1928), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, Felix Woos Whoo-pie (1928), black & white, ? minutes, not rated, and Otto Messmer at Work (19??), color, ? minutes, not rated.

SlingShot DVD, DVD9816, UPC 0-17078-98162-9.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc, 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in windowboxed 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 10 chapter stops; standard DVD keepcase, $19.99.
Release date: 19 January 1999.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 9 / additional content: 6 / overall: 7.

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.
Other ANIMATION FILMS of the silent era available on home video.
 
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