Felix the Cat: The Video Game

One of my favorite video games growing up was "Felix the Cat" from Hudson Soft on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I still have the game cartridge somewhere. It was released in 1992 and follows the game mechanics started by "Super Mario Bros. 3" in 1988. In the game, the Professor has kidnapped Felix's girlfriend, Miss Kitty. Felix has to go from world to world defeating his rogue's gallery--Rock Bottom, the Master Cylinder, King Neptune, and maybe one other, I can't remember. Boss battles are repeated in the game. This is a very playable game and if you would like to try it out, it was rereleased by Limited Run Games and Konami in 2024 and is available on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation.

The game honestly isn't too hard. It starts out with your typical green hill, soothing music level like so many of these games started out with to lure you in with a false sense of security. The first world is so easy, just walk to the right and punch/shoot these cute animals. Each world has its own unique set of weapons to help you get across the level. The game is very generous with power and extra lives. To keep your magic, you have to keep your hearts up. To keep your hearts up, you have to drink milk which comes out in threes with every 6 or so Felix heads. Every 10 Felix heads gives you a heart which fills your magic meter and gives you an extra life or changes your power. Every 100 Felix heads gives one extra life.  You can also get an extra life by shooting random Professor heads in the sky. You get an extra 500 points by touching random Miss Kitty heads that are also in the clouds.

All the weapons you have are serviceable. The magic stars seem to kind of have a delay and the airplane is a bit hard to control. Also, during the air levels, you have to keep "jumping" to stay in the air so going back and forth from jump to fire is hard work on your thumb. But the worst weapons, and it's really just because of the world, are the rowboat and the dolphin. These games always have to have a water and ice level and they always have to be the hardest levels. You keep bouncing up and down while in the water so it's hard to dodge enemies and aim your weapon.

Despite your first end level boss being the Professor, you battle the Professor again after the ice level and at the end of the game. He also repeatedly calls Felix to taunt and threaten.

Why does Felix keep going home? You need to save Kitty!

The last battle takes place on the Moon. Felix turns his Magic Bag into a spaceship, I guess, and heads off into space. The spaceship is the only weapon you have in this level and if you get hit, you die. You then arrive at the Professor's moon base, which is made out of large gold bricks, and, thanks to many Magic Bag "secret" rooms, beating the Professor is pretty easy.

You rescue Kitty and head back to the Earth together. The End.

Phone Bemoan

from Heathcliffcomix Instagram

The boys all just came from running over Garfield. What's Scratchy doing here? He's not a comic strip character.

January 11, 1987

I guess building a snowman is a young man's game? I don't know. I've never built or helped build a snowman in my life.

Why is Brutus sitting on the giant snowball?

He should memorize a number or two. Businesses still tend to have landlines. You can also ask someone to borrow their phone. "Can I borrow your phone?" "Yeah, sure." "Damn it!" "What's wrong?" "None of my numbers are in your contacts!"

Brutus needs to be honest with himself that even with phone numbers memorized, Wilberforce would be useless in an emergency.

In case you missed it, I believe I have found myself a new nemesis in The Brain. Although I don't think I'll go to this well as much as I do with Capt. Kid. If you would like to support me or this website, you can throw some money at my Support page.

This Is All Arnie's Fault

Felix is definitely not doing dry January. I mean, you've seen this month. Enjoy this special Pat Sullivan Felix strip, one of the few original illustrations of Felix he did.

August 24, 1986

Women, amirite?

What is Gladys complaining about? Look how easy it was to board this airplane! Shut up and enjoy the flight. Unless, she's not nagging and Brutus is just assuming she is. Maybe she's angrily asking why Wilberforce isn't coming with them. He doesn't get dinner or a vacation.

Someone on GoComics asked why the plane was delayed so long. I would assume it's because of the snow that's up to their knees.

It will never not amaze me that Brutus takes a plane from Cleveland to Pittsburgh which is, at most, a two and a half hour drive. I guess if Veeblefester is willing to pay for it, then who am I to question it?

As I move away from social media, more things that were exclusive to my social media will be posted here. The first entry was an updated and expanded post on Trail Park in Baldwin City, Kansas, a small park commemorating the Santa Fe Trail. If you would like to support me or this website, you can buy me a cup of coffee over on Ko-fi.

Young Vs. Old

Felix the Cat, June 4, 1933

Most of the early Felix comic strips deal with Felix wanting to be adopted. Everyone is always so mean to him. I'd adopt him.

It was from old comic strips that I learned where the phrase ix-nay came from. "Nix" is a mostly obsolete way of saying "No". Most likely due to The Three Stooges shorts, "ixnay" and "amscray" (scram) entered into the American lexicon, becoming the only Pig Latin words to become mainstream.

Those kids are worried about a goat but are perfectly fine with a cat the size of a small child being able to talk and ride a bike?

Speaking of Felix the Cat: The Felix the Cat Nintendo game is available on the Nintendo Switch now! Help Felix save Miss Kitty from the Professor. This port retains it's playability, it's cuteness and originality, and great music. If you've never played it, I highly recommend it.

September 14, 1965

Is this something kids did back then? Draw circles on the ground and goad other kids into fights? I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I don't like either of these kids. I kind of want them to beat each other to bloody pulps.

Instead of drawing a small circle around himself and challenging Hurricane Hattie to a fight, Wilberforce is gutting Uncle Ted like a fish. "How does it feel to be old, Uncle Ted? You are probably closer to death than I am to my birth and I'm 9. Is the Grim Reaper a constant sight in your peripheral vision? Get wrecked, old dork!"

Felix the Cat: The Movie

Felix the Cat: The Movie was released in 1988. It was an American-German-Polish-Hungarian produced animated movie that didn't see an American release until 1991 and then it was just direct-to-video. There have been no official DVD releases of this movie in North America.

Felix the Cat was created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and/or Otto Messmer for Pat Sullivan Productions. Felix became the most popular animated star of the silent movie era. The animated shorts, combining adult humor with childlike fantasy was a hit with moviegoers. The last Felix short came out in 1930 after a disastrous attempt at adding sound to the shorts. Sullivan died in 1933. Messmer would continue the Felix the Cat comic strips and would illustrate the comic books. He would die in 1983. A short-lived attempt to revive Felix occurred in 1936 but only produced three shorts.

Joe Oriolo, an assistant of Messmer's on the comic strip, purchased the rights to Felix and, through Paramount, produced 260 Felix cartoons to distribute to television networks. The series debuted in 1958 and gave Felix much of his appearance and personality--the magic bag of tricks, a rotation of villains, and catchy theme song. After Oriolo's death in 1985, his son Don continued marketing Felix producing a new comic book series from Harvey Comics, a Nintendo video game, a series of bumpers for CBS Saturday morning cartoons, a new 13-episode series, and this movie.

Felix the Cat: The Movie was written by Pete Brown and directed by Tibor Hernadi who would go on to direct 86 Red Bull commercials between 1992 and his death in 2012. Currently, Felix the Cat is owned by NBCUniversal.

GAAH! Satan! Burn it with fire!

We are introduced to Felix through a floating disembodied head. This part, done by CGI in one of the first uses of motion-capture animation, stands out starkly as the rest of the movie is done with traditional hand-drawn animation. Felix tells us about Oriana and it being in another dimension and is very excited to tell you this tale. Perhaps, a little too excited.

We are introduced to Princess Oriana who rules the Kingdom of Oriana (o...k) and she is a kind and peaceful ruler. She wants to give back money to her people much to the dismay of her adviser Grumper and has disbanded the army believing the people will defend the kingdom if anything happens. As fate would have it, something is happening. The Duke of Zill begins invading the kingdom. Oriana tries to flee and find the dimensporter to summon a hero from another dimension. They activate the dimensporter but Zill and his robotic cylinders find Oriana and take her captive. A single tear with her cries for help are sent through the dimensporters and happen upon Felix the Cat. Despite saying he won't hurt it, Felix continuously swats at the tear as it cries "Help me." This chase scene between Felix and the tear goes on for nearly five minutes and then we get a short song called "Sly As a Fox" which are about foxes that has nothing to do with the story. The tear leads Felix into an abandoned mine where there happens to be a dimensporter which transports Felix to Oriana to rescue Oriana.

"Help me, Felix Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

After a couple mishaps with his magic bag, flooding the dimensporter chamber, and dancing sea creatures, Felix lands in the Land of Zill and meets Pim who offers to take Felix...somewhere but really just wants his magic bag despite not knowing that it's a magic bag. Meanwhile, back in our dimension, The Professor and Poindexter are tracking down Felix and find the mine. They then follow Felix to Oriana.

Felix and Pim. No, I don't know why Pim looks like an 1840s prospector.

As Felix and Pim arrive at Progress City, Felix is double-crossed and is taken captive by Wack Lizardi, who manages a circus in the city. Felix is thrown in jail and his magic bag is taken to Lizardi. The bag won't work with Felix so Lizardi says if Felix wants to eat (and see his bag again) he has to perform in Lizardi's circus. Felix initially refuses to he's locked back up where he meets some mizzard (mice-lizard hybrids). While locked up, Lizardi begins his show with a tribute to Zill.

"We are contented because he says we are."

I honestly don't hate this character design.

Like all villain songs, it's vastly superior to every other song in this movie. The first act in the circus are the mizzards tap dancing which the audience doesn't like--both the circus audience and the movie audience. The tap-dancing goes on for nearly four minutes. Felix is the next act and his act is that he talks and has a magic bag. Felix rips some jokes before performing with his magic bag. The crowd goes wild and Felix becomes a permanent feature at the circus.

Turns out Oriana (the princess not the kingdom) is now a dancer in Wack's circus and every night Zill watches Oriana dance like some sort of pervert. Oh, I forgot to tell you, the Duke of Zill is Oriana's uncle. Felix attempts to talk to Oriana after her performance but she doesn't listen and walks away.

The mizzards talk!

Felix befriends the mizzards who create a hole big enough for him to go through so he can visit Oriana (the princess not the kingdom). There are so many pointless scenes in this movie. Oriana isn't so sure about Felix being the dark hero but she tells him the story of her family and Oriana. The Duke was a great inventor and brilliant scientist who was disfigured during a lab explosion. Outfitting himself with a mechanical shell, the Duke became Doctor Doom The Duke of Zill after he was banished from Oriana for liking war too much. He gained the strange creatures of Zill as followers and built an army of cylinders and cubes as his military. Why are the Professor and Poindexter even in this movie?

Felix asks to perform with Oriana when she dances so Felix joins the band, playing saxophone with his magic bag. Emitting magic bubbles, Felix is able to float him, the band, Pim, and Oriana out of the circus and to freedom. Zill, watching this, freaks out, falling down the stairs, and injuring his back. They make the Duke of Zill out to be this smart, strong, and sinister villain but all that is brushed away with one pointless scene trying to be funny. It's just another of a bunch of disappointments in this movie.

Free! We're free! Wait. We still have half the movie to go.

Felix, Oriana, and Pim begin to make their way to Oriana with cylinders and cubes hot on their trail. Felix then realizes that he has left his magic bag behind despite it being in the screenshot posted above. Luckily, Professor and Poindexter catch up to Felix and they just so happen to have Felix's magic bag. Felix and the gang arrive at some hair forest in the shape of a face for some reason, it's not explained, and have to cut their way through the hair. Some more filler happens and Pim finds a boat to take them the rest of the way to Oriana.

"Hmm. The castle is around here somewhere..."

Princess Oriana is voiced by Maureen O'Connell, you probably haven't heard of her and despite a career spanning five decades, she has no credits of note. She kind of sounds like Didi Hill, Hank's stepmother on King of the Hill. It's very strange.

Felix tries to lasso Zill but his magic bag is confiscated and everyone is taken prisoner. Zill says he won't harm them if Oriana gives him the Book of Ultimate Power. She refuses so Zill sics his cylinders on her friends. She makes the book appear but Zill discovers it is useless to him. Zill has no use for Truth, Love, and Wisdom.

Still better than Cheryl Strayed's Wild.

The Duke of Zill unleashes the Master Cylinder on our heroes, an evil-er update of the Master Cylinder from the 1950s cartoon and the thing that controls the cylinder and cube army. There's no way that our heroes can overcome this.

Here are the blueprints if you want to make your own Master Cylinder..

Felix picks up the Book of Ultimate Power and throws it at the Master Cylinder. The Cylinder malfunctions and shuts down destroying the entire army and melting the Duke of Zill who promises that he will be back. So to recap: We've spent one hour and ten minutes getting to a villain that takes less than thirty seconds to defeat. Felix just threw a book. That was all it took. Oriana goes back to normal, everything is hunky-dory.

Yay.

Poindexter gives us an infodump that the purity of the gold binding on the book interfered with the circuitry of the Master Cylinder or some garbage thus explaining why everything blew up. Oriana decides to shut down the dimensporter so Felix will never be able to come back. Felix, the Professor, and Poindexter are sent back to their dimension. But not before Oriana says Felix has a heart of gold and he agrees with a "Righty-O!"

Oh, thank God it's over. Unfortunately that disembodied Felix
head is back.

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