Welcome to another installment of Your Saturday Bowl of WTF! Today’s entry is a lost classic of the golden silent era: Felix the Cat in Germ Mania, from Otto Messmer and Pat [the rapist] Sullivan. We at ThadBlog are proud to be parters with Stathescope (the archive of Tom Stathes) so we may present this product of absolute sheer genius.
This is an example of a “good WTF.” It’s what animation is all about; an exploitation of the human imagination, and an emphasis on unique funny drawings and movement. I defy anyone to name an animated film made in modern times that even comes close to having the amount of pure fun seen here.
And Felix.. what a great character! I would have to say after sampling a good helping of [surviving] silent cartoons that the cat is the only one to have a really shining and interesting personality. His contemporaries can be amusing and entertaining, but Felix is the only one that lives and breathes (and dies). And none of the endearing characters in cartoon history that came after can deny they took a page out of the feline’s book.
Oh, and enjoy the Official Films soundtrack too!
[wpvideo YFRnM43U w=400]
I was always under the impression “WTF” was supposed to leave you puzzled with what it is you just saw. But this one’s pretty clear. It’s an entertaining and captivating film.
I’ve always liked Felix. He’s a beautifully expressive character and there are clever and surprising bits in the silents I’ve seen. In terms of narrative, I wish the germ had done a little more than chase Felix, and the ending’s a bit weak, but that’s to be expected, since I gather the cartoons were designed as a string of gags around a basic theme.
The golf bug is my favourite sequence.
I’d rather watch a bunch of these than the so-called “breath of life” cartoons of a couple of decades later.
Give Official Films a groaner point for using the “boiinngggg” that surfaced on those TV Popeyes in the early 60s and other lame cartoons.
“It’s what animation is all about; an exploitation of the human imagination, and an emphasis on unique funny drawings and movement.”
Very well said. Cartoons should be about bringing otherwise impossible creativity to life. It’s one of the few mediums where reality can be completely stretched with little boundary, so long as the creative helm is talented enough to pull it off (videogames is a similar medium in that regard). It’s unfortunate that cartoonists of today don’t seem to utilize animation’s full potential.
Why Paul “the rapist” Sullivan, Thad?
Look it up.
It was statutory rape, Thad. Or “rape in the 2nd degree”. Sullivan arranged a quickie marriage to the woman he was accused of raping, but he still spent about 2 years in jail.
Of course this is not the Joe Oriolo “wonderful cat” of 1958 but the silent original. Pat the rapist was a title that I thought referred to his taking credit, but it turns out along with allegedly Fatty Arbuckle another early celebrity rape charge [only Arbuckle was innocent], and an early statutory one along with “In Like” Flynn and Chaplin.
Still a major pioneer, though.