Monday, March 28, 2022

Felix Goes to War!

Felix Turns the Tide (aka "The Inventor") (1922)
Director: Otto Messmer
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

When the rats and cats go to war, Felix does his patriotic duty, joins the military, and faces the enemy on the front lines.


"Felix Turns the Tide" is a fast-moving cartoon from the silent era as Felix the Cat was reaching the height of popularity. It starts out violently whacky (with rats and cats blowing each other smithereens on a WWI-type battle field) and ends up in the area of the completely insane as Felix brings in some highly unusual reinforcements for the cats. The craziness is bookended by some cute and amusing scenes, as Felix saying goodbye to his friends on the home-front and then as he returns from the war. 

If you enjoy the early Felix the Cat cartoons, I am certain you will love this one. In addition to being firmly set in that crazy world where intelligent, tool-using cats live and work along side humans, it's one of those relatively rare tales where Felix is a straight-up hero in every way. (Just beware--after watching this, you may find yourself thinking twice before you eat sausages again

The version embedded below (for your convenience, easy viewing, and a guaranteed seven minutes of fun weirdness and cartoon violence) was retitled for distribution to television stations in Australia.


(This is the second Monday in a row where we've posted something with a war theme. We didn't really plan this, but maybe we need to start Military Mondays, to go along with Wonder Woman Wednesdays and Firearms Fridays?)

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