Felix the Cat (TV series)

Infobox Television
show_name = Felix the Cat


caption =
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creator =
starring = Jack Mercer
country = USA
language = English
network = CBS
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Felix the Cat was the first television series featuring the famous cartoon character and Felix the Cat and introduced his magic bag of tricks.

In 1954, Messmer retired from the Felix daily newspaper strips, and his assistant Joe Oriolo took over. Oriolo struck a deal with Felix's new owner, Pat Sullivan's nephew, to begin a new series of Felix cartoons on television. Oriolo went on to star Felix in 260 television cartoons distributed by Trans-Lux starting in 1958. Like the Van Beuren studio before, Oriolo gave Felix a more domesticated and pedestrian personality, geared more toward children, and introduced now-familiar elements such as Felix's Magic Bag of Tricks, a satchel that could assume the shape and characteristics of anything Felix wanted. The program is also remembered for its distinctive [http://felixthecat.com/multimedia/mp3s/Felix%20the%20Cat%20theme(old).mp3 theme song] written by Winston Sharples:

:"Felix the Cat,":"The wonderful, wonderful cat!":"Whenever he gets in a fix,":"He reaches into his bag of tricks!"

The show did away with Felix's previous supporting cast and introduced many new characters. These include the sinister, mustachioed Professor; his intelligent but bookish nephew Poindexter (with an IQ of 222); the Professor's bulldog-faced, bumbling sidekick Rock Bottom; an evil, cylindrical robot and "King of the Moon" named The Master Cylinder; and a small, unassuming and friendly Inuit named Vavoom, whose only vocalization is a literally earth-shattering shout of his own name. These characters were 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. The cartoons proved popular, but critics have dismissed them as paling in comparison to the earlier Sullivan-Messmer works, especially since Oriolo aimed the cartoons at children. Limited animation (required due to budgetary restraints) and simplistic storylines did nothing to diminish the series' popularity.Solomon 37.]

Characters

*Poindexter - Poindexter, first introduced in 1958, he is the young nephew of the Professor, the arch-nemesis of Felix. He is depicted as a stereotypical scientist; he is very intelligent and always wears thick glasses, a lab coat, and a mortarboard. A button on the chest of his lab coat acts as a control for whatever device the plot calls for. He helps his bumbling uncle concoct elaborate schemes to get Felix and capture his Magic Bag, though at times both are depicted as Felix's friends. He has been voiced by Jack Mercer (1958-1960), Rob Paulsen (1991-2004), and Cam Clarke (1995).

Notes

External Links

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* [http://www.entertainmentrights.com/programming/article_257.asp]