Felix the Cat is an American animated television series featuring the cartoon character of the same name. Like The Van Beuren Corporation before, Joe Oriolo gave Felix a more domesticated and pedestrian personality, geared more toward children, and introduced Felix's now-famous item of the "Magic Bag of Tricks", a satchel that can assume the shape and characteristics of anything Felix wants, and several new main characters such as Felix's arch-enemy, The Professor and his cigar-smoking bulldog sidekick Rock Bottom. The cartoons are divided into two parts, with the first part ending in a cliffhanger resolved after a commercial break. A second Felix series, The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, aired on CBS in 1995–1997.

Background

In 1954, Otto Messmer retired from the Felix daily newspaper strips, and his assistant Joe Oriolo (the co-creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost) took over, since King Features Syndicate wanted him to take over. Oriolo struck a deal with Felix's new owner to begin a new series of Felix cartoons for television. Oriolo starred Felix in 130 two part stories or total of 260 television cartoons produced by Paramount Cartoon Studios, and distributed by Trans-Lux. The show did away with Felix's previous supporting cast and introduced many new characters. These characters were all performed by voice actor Jack Mercer. Oriolo's plots revolve around the unsuccessful attempts of the antagonists to steal Felix's Magic Bag, though in an unusual twist, these antagonists are occasionally depicted as Felix's friends as well. While the cartoons were a ratings success, critics have dismissed them as paling in comparison to the earlier Sullivan-Messmer works. Oriolo aimed the cartoons at children. The series used limited animation (owing to a limited budget) and simplistic storylines. This TV series also helped introduce the character of Felix the Cat to audiences in Japan. A Japanese language dub of the series aired on NHK in 1960 and was rerun three years later on Fuji TV. Four decades later, Felix would be the star of his own anime series.

Characters

Theme song

The program is also remembered for its distinctive theme song. It was written by Winston Sharples and performed by 1950s big band singer Ann Bennett.

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (1958–59)

Season 2 (1960)

Home media

Eight episodes were released on VHS by Media Home Entertainment. In 2001, Golden Books Family Entertainment and Sony Wonder released a "Collector's Edition" DVD featuring ten episodes from the first season. This DVD was eventually reissued by Classic Media and Genius Products in 2006 and by DreamWorks Animation in 2014, under the title "Mischief and Mayhem". In October 2007, Classic Media and Genius Products released the entire first season on DVD under the title "Felix the Cat: Golden Anniversary Edition".