Studio: Van Beuren Studios
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Produced by: Amedee J. Van Beuren
Short Synopsis
Felix the Cat is feeding his pets: a bird, two dogs and a goldfish named Annabelle. Annabelle is miserable; she is lonely in her bowl. Felix sets out to find her a companion. He goes fishing with her bowl, and he is dragged underwater by the fish he is after. On the sea floor he searches through a forest of seaweed and coral and finds a goldfish, but it cries for help, and Felix is arrested by an undersea policeman in a tall helmet. He is put on trial before King Neptune, accused of wanting to eat the fish. Felix explains that he only wanted to bring Annabelle a friend. Neptune believes him and lets the goldfish go home with him, and Annabelle has company at last.
Why It Matters
- The undersea court, with its helmeted policeman and a whole kingdom of fish passing judgement on a cat, is pleasantly odd, and the soft colour of the seabed backgrounds shows Van Beuren putting real money into the look of its films. Felix is drawn rounder and more childlike than in his silent heyday.
- It belongs to Felix's brief 1936 revival, when Van Beuren licensed the character from Pat Sullivan's estate for three colour cartoons in its Rainbow Parade series. The revival did not last, but it gave the silent star a colour outing in cinemas, and his softer, childlike personality here anticipated the television Felix of 1958.
Notes and Trivia
- It is the second of the three Van Beuren Felix cartoons, after The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg and before Bold King Cole.
- Some copies in circulation are badly faded, with the colour reduced to greys and blues.
- See also: Feline Follies (1919), Frolics at the Circus (1920).