History Trivia / FelixTheCat

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The series suffers this on all fronts, and is part of why the character suffers from MainstreamObscurity these days--making matters worse is that Don Oriolo sold the rights of the series to Dreamworks in 2014 (which were then acquired by NBCUniversal when they bought out Dreamworks), who seem to be content with sitting on the character and not rereleasing anything related to him;

* GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld: Zigzagged; Otto Messmer never owned the rights to his own creation, and even though Pat Sullivan claimed before his death that Otto is the owner of Felix, Sullivan's estate secured the rights to the character while Otto worked on the comics. Eventually, Otto's assistant and friend Joe Oriolo inherited the franchise (having worked out a licensing deal with Pat Sullivan's nephew, and later buying out the rights to Felix from him altogether), and it passed on to his son, Don. The franchise today is owned by Dreamworks since 2014 and then by [[Creator/{{NBC}} NBC]][[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal]] since 2016 when they bought out Dreamworks Animation.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The series suffers this on all fronts, and is part of why the character suffers from MainstreamObscurity these days--making matters worse is that Don Oriolo sold the rights of the series to Dreamworks in 2014 (which were then acquired by NBC/Universal when they bought out Dreamworks), who seem to be content with sitting on the character and not rereleasing anything related to him;

** Prior to 2024, the NES and Game Boy Felix the Cat video game has never received official rerelease. However, It was announced that the game would get official rerelease by Konami for Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 and Playstation 5 which was released in March 28.

** Prior to 2024, the NES and Game Boy Felix the Cat video game ha never received official rerelease. However, It was announced that the game will get official rerelease by Konami for Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 and Playstation 5.

** The NES and Game Boy Felix the Cat video game have never been rereleased either, and its unlikely they ever will be.

* FranchiseKiller: The box office failure of [[WesternAnimation/FelixTheCatTheMovie the Movie]] and the ratings failure of [[WesternAnimation/TheTwistedTalesOfFelixTheCat Twisted Tales]] put an end to Felix's career outside of merchandising, save for the obscure "Baby Felix" series in 2000 and the low key direct-to-video film "Felix the Cat Saves Christmas" in 2004. A CGI TV revival was planned, but it was shelved once Dreamworks (and then NBC / Universal once they bought out Dreamworks) got the rights to the character, who currently have no plans to make new cartoons with the series.
* GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld: Zigzagged; Otto Messmer never owned the rights to his own creation, and even though Pat Sullivan claimed before his death that Otto is the owner of Felix, Sullivan's estate secured the rights to the character while Otto worked on the comics. Eventually, Otto's assistant and friend Joe Oriolo inherited the franchise (having worked out a licensing deal with Pat Sullivan's nephew, and later buying out the rights to Felix from him altogether), and it passed on to his son, Don. The franchise today is owned by Dreamworks since 2014 and then by [[Creator/{{NBC}} NBC]][[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal]] since 2016 when they bought out Dreamworks Animation. However, Felix would return in a graphic novel released in 2023.

* GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld: Zigzagged; Otto Messmer never owned the rights to his own creation, and even though Pat Sullivan claimed before his death that Otto is the owner of Felix, Sullivan's estate secured the rights to the character while Otto worked on the comics. Eventually, Otto's assistant and friend Joe Oriolo inherited the franchise (having worked out a licensing deal with Pat Sullivan's nephew, and later buying out the rights to Felix from him altogether), and it passed on to his son, Don. The franchise today is owned by Dreamworks since 2014 and then by [[Creator/{{NBC}} NBC]][[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal]] since 2016 when they bought out Dreamworks Animation.

* CashCowFranchise: One of the earliest examples — Felix was popular enough to spawn lots of this — until WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse came and usurped the silent stars popularity. Nowadays he's more or less known only because of his merchandise, since he hasn't had a truly popular cartoon made since the 1950s.

* GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld: Zigzagged; Otto Messmer never owned the rights to his own creation, and even though Pat Sullivan claimed before his death that Otto is the owner of Felix, Sullivan's estate secured the rights to the character while Otto worked on the comics. Eventually, Otto's assistant and friend Joe Oriolo inherited the franchise (having worked out a licensing deal with Pat Sullivan's nephew, and later buying out the rights to Felix from him altogether), and it passed on to his son, Don. and the franchise today is owned by Dreamworks since 2014 and then by [[Creator/{{NBC}} NBC]][[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal]] since 2016 when they bought out Dreamworks Animation.

* GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld: Zigzagged; Otto Messmer never owned the rights to his own creation, and even though Pat Sullivan claimed before his death that Otto is the owner of Felix, Sullivan's estate secured the rights to the character while Otto worked on the comics. Eventually, Otto's assistant and friend Joe Oriolo inherited the franchise (having worked out a licensing deal with Pat Sullivan's nephew, and later buying out the rights to Felix from him altogether), and it passed on to his son, Don. and the franchise today is owned by DreamWorks since 2014 and then by [[Creator/{{NBC}} NBC]][[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal]] since 2016 when they bought out DreamWorks Animation.

* GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld: Zigzagged; Otto Messmer never owned the rights to his own creation, and even though Pat Sullivan claimed before his death that Otto is the owner of Felix, Sullivan's estate secured the rights to the character while Otto worked on the comics. Eventually, Otto's assistant and friend Joe Oriolo inherited the franchise (having worked out a licensing deal with Pat Sullivan's nephew, and later buying out the rights to Felix from him altogether), and it passed on to his son, Don. Currently, the franchise is in a joint ownership between Don Oriolo and Dreamworks, which then became a joint deal between Don Oriolo and NBC / Universal after they bought out Dreamworks.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://felixthecat.wikia.com/wiki/Felix_The_Cat_Wiki The Felix The Cat Wiki]].

* TalkingToHimself: Jack Mercer voiced ''all'' of the characters in the Trans-Lux Felix cartoons--you're basically hearing him have one long conversation with himself in them.

* FountainOfExpies: Felix is hands down one of the most heavily imitated cartoon characters of all time. Many other cartoon characters draw heavily from his basic design, most famously WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog.

* ColbertBump: The video game wasn't too popular until [[WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} Joel]] played it's Russian bootleg.