Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Konterr Brilliant and touching

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Feline Follies" is a 1919 4-minute black-and-white cartoon about Felix the cat. American director Otto Messmes made this one almost 100 years ago and he went one to become one of the defining animation filmmakers in the 1920s before the real boom of cartoons started a decade later. He is probably not a name to many anymore today, but the Animation Oscars Annie Awards honored him with their most precious award.The animation in this cartoon here is still really basic, that's why I cannot really recommend it, but the jokes are all fine and were reused in much more known films in decades afterward, such as the cat that is blamed for the chaos the mice made, or the mice having a party when the cat isn't home or people in the neighborhood complaining about cat noise. A solid watch all in all I guess, but really only for people who like old films.

MartinHafer "Feline Follies" is the first Felix the Cat cartoon, though it isn't exactly the Felix that was popular through the 1920s. The character looks similar and it was brought to the public by the same folks who made the Felix cartoons, though he is more like a real cat in this cartoon and they call him 'Master Tom'.The film begins with Tom going out for a walk and meeting a cute white female cat. They spend time together--much to the annoyance of everyone but the mice! And, in the end, the ending (which I won't divulge) is very, very dark--and the sort of cartoon parents probably would NOT let their kids see! So dark that I was actually pretty shocked.While this cartoon is much too normal for my tastes (except for the ending), it is historically important and worth a look if you are an aficionado of the history of cartoons.

tavm In what was the earliest appearance of Felix the Cat, Feline Follies, he is called Master Tom and is more cat-like here than in most of his subsequent appearances. In this one, he's a house cat guarding some mice in the kitchen. When he gets away for awhile to rendezvous with his girlfriend, the mice make a mess of the kitchen. He serenades her with his guitar while she dances. Later, some notes appear literally and become wheels for go-carts they ride on. When he comes back and finds what the mice have done, the female head comes and throws him out. He then goes back to his girlfriend and sees other cats in a crowd look interested in her. The cat then goes to a gas site where he finds a hose and commits suicide...Yikes, what a downer beginning for animation's first superstar character! Otto Messmer must have not of thought of long-term commitment when he created his famous feline. Good thing with a more appealing design, and a more lasting name in Felix, this character would eventually take over the silent animation world. So for many Felix enthusiasts out there, this is worth seeing for at least historical interest.

Lupercali Originally part of an 'issue' of 'Paramount Magazine' which consisted of Bobby Bumps in "Their Master's Voice" (by Earl Hurd), "Feline Follies" and Bud and Susie in "Down the Mississippi" (Frank Moser).This is generally thought to be the first Felix cartoon, though he's called 'Master Tom' at this stage, and bears only a fairly tenuous resemblance to his later appearance. The story is pretty uninteresting. Tom heads off for a rendezvous with his girlfriend, some mice come out while he's away and cause havoc, and he cops hell when he gets back again. There's little of the wit or inventiveness of the later 20's Felix cartoons, though significantly we do see Tom do some trademark Felix things, like pluck question marks out of the air and turn them into go-cart wheels.I find this cartoon interesting because to me it opens up the Messmer/Sullivan debate a little. It's more or less accepted now that Felix is Messmer's creation, but the fact that in this earliest supposed appearance he's called 'Tom' lends some credibility to the argument that Felix was a development of Sullivan's 'Thomas Kat' who debuted in 1917. I suspect the truth is that both guys deserve credit for Felix in one way or another, but what would I know? Anyway, a decent cartoon, and historically important, but not mind-altering.