1. Big Cartoon Forum

    You WIll Need To Reset Your Password!!!

    We just moved hosts on this system, and this has caused a few updates. One is the way we encode and store the encoded passwords.

    Your old passwords will NOT work. You will need to reset your password. This is normal. Just click on reset password from the log in screen. Should be smooth as silk to do...

    Sorry for the hassle.

    Dave Koch
  2. Big Cartoon Forum

    Are You Just Hanging Out?

    Just lurking? Join the club, we'd love to have you in the Big Cartoon Forum! Sign up is easy- just enter your name and password.... or join using your Facebook account!

    Membership has it's privileges... you can post and get your questions answered directly. But you can also join our community, and help other people with their questions, You can add to the discussion. And it's free! So join today!

    Dave Koch
  3. Big Cartoon Forum

    Other Side Of Maleficent

    I have been looking forward to Maleficent with equal amounts of anticipation and dread. On one hand, she is easily my favorite Disney villain, so cold and so pure, and I want desperately to see more of her and her back-story. On the other hand, she is easily my favorite Disney villain, and I would hate to see her parodied, taken lightly or ultimately destroyed in a film that does not understand this great character. The good news is that this film almost gets it right; but that is also the bad news.

  4. Big Cartoon Forum

    BCDB Hits 150K Entries

    It took a while, but we are finally here! The Big Cartoon DataBase hit the milestone of 150,000 entries earlier today with the addition of the cartoon The Polish Language. This film was added to BCDB on May 9th, 2014 at 4:23 PM.

  5. Big Cartoon Forum

    Warner Brings Back Animated Stone-Age Family

    Funnyman Will Ferrell and partner Adam McKay are working on bringing back everyone’s favorite stone-age family. The duo’s production company Gary Sanchez Productions is in development on a new Flintstones animated feature.

  6. Big Cartoon Forum

    Disney To Feast In France

    The follow up to Disney’s 2013 Academy Award Winning short Paperman has been announced, and it will premiere at France’s Annecy International Animated Film Festival. Titled The Feast, the short looks to be based on the same stylized CG techniques used on last years Paperman, a more natural and hand-drawn look to computer animation.

  7. Big Cartoon Forum

    Renegades of Animation: Pat Sullivan

    Pat Sullivan became famous worldwide for his creation of Felix the Cat. What most animation histories gloss over is Sullivan’s checkered past and longtime standing as a wildcat renegade. He didn’t follow the rules. And he made damn sure to fully protect his intellectual properties.

"A Cat and a Kit" & "The Last Life"

Discussion in 'Silent Animation' started by EyeOdyssey97, Dec 2, 2013.

  1. EyeOdyssey97

    EyeOdyssey97 Newbie New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2013
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    3
    I recently began to research the old Felix the Cat shorts from the 1920's, studying the art style and how the frames are laid out. And I discovered on Wikipedia a list of the silent shorts in which Felix made appearances. A couple of shorts I wasn't aware of before really stood out, one being "A Cat and a Kit", which has the earliest animated product placement I am aware of (1925). The said product is for General Electric's Mazda Lamps. Let's just say, they weren't aiming toward subtlety.

    "This looks like a place to buy good lamps."

    That's what Felix said after looking at the said "good lamps", then the camera makes a closeup to them with the brand name in bold lettering. Very subtle guys.

    "Now that you've got good lamps"

    Wow, are these guys even trying?

    That aside, the short had some good visual gags. One of my favorites is a scene in which Felix uses the moon as a headlight. The main plot of the short involves Felix trying to reach his wedding. The intro surprised me though. We first see Felix talking on the phone with his soon to be wife, but his main body is completely white. I first assumed this to be his wedding suit, it being white since a black suit would blend in to him. But then he pulls his fur out a drawer and puts it on. In that case, is his wife (who is seen as white) furless, like a Sphynx cat? That was the point when I realized that I was over analyzing a cartoon about a cat who uses his tail to shape shift into miscellaneous objects.

    I eventually made it to the Educational Pictures shorts. A large chunk of them were lost. While looking, one other short caught my eye, The Last Life. Oddly enough, that was the last short of the Educational Pictures run. This can't be coincidental. I assume it was a big fourth wall gag, like the ending of Blazing Saddles. But who could really tell, it was lost. The IMDB article on it provides no facts beside the stuff we already know. It was made in 1928, it was directed by Otto Messmer, and it was a short. Are there any articles out there that have any details on this short?
    • Like Like x 1
  2. peterhale

    peterhale Moderator Staff Member I SUPPORT BCDB!

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2013
    Messages:
    552
    Likes Received:
    39
    Trophy Points:
    135
    David Gerstein's "Classic Felix Encyclopedia" gives this synopsis for The Last Life:
    I always loved the Messmer Felix - I remember seeing some 16mm films when I was a child. One gag particularly delighted me: standing on the telegraph wires outside Kitty's window, Felix plucks a spire and a dome from the skyline background in order to present her with an ice cream cone.
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2013

Share This Page