Norman Rockwell's "Boy in a Diner" (1947), featuring a cameo of a certain cat.
The Felix the Cat series has been referenced frequently in pop culture, as these examples will attest.
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Art
- Norman Rockwell's painting "Boy in Dining Car" has a Felix the Cat comic book poking out of the boy's pocket.
Anime and Manga
- In The Electric Tale of Pikachu, when Ash names his Pokémon in the Viz translation, one of them is named "Felix The Cat-erpie".
Blogs
- John K. Stuff has a few posts discussing Felix and praising Otto Messmer for his creation and impact on cartooning."I think everyone since owes a huge debt to Otto Messmer and Felix. We are using techniques, ideas and cliches today that began with this creation. Felix is truly the father of cartoony cartoons."
Comic Books
- Comic book artist Todd Mc Farlane frequently inserted a hidden Felix into Hulk and Spider-Man issues during his time with Marvel.
Fan Works
- In Hottie 3 The Best Fanfic In The World, Even Better Sequel runs this trope into the ground by including literally every milestone that was going on during the year it was created, including the 95th anniversary of Felix the Cat.
Food
- A brand of cat food in europe is named after Felix.
- Felix tends to appear in picture frames in Fuddruckers restaurant chains.
- A very small clip of Felix with his bag of tricks was featured in a recent Dr Pepper commercial.
Films — Animation
- Felix was to make cameo appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but the rights to the character were not obtained. However, he makes a cameo appearance as the masks of tragedy and comedy on the keystone of the entrance to Toontown.
Films — Live Action
- Part of a Felix cartoon was played in the 2002 film 100 Women, by a projector that Sam was using to play the cartoon on Hope's building.
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022): A bootleg version of Felix crossed with The Pink Panther appear on poster.
- In Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, after claiming another victim, Henry leaves her TV on this station. By the time we see it, it's in the middle of playing the Van Beuren Felix cartoon "Neptune Nonsense".
Literature
- Felix has inspired a recurring antagonist in the novel series Sítio do Picapau Amarelo in the book Reinações de Narizinho of 1931.
- In the Lee J. Ames book Draw 50 Cats, readers are shown how to draw Felix the Cat step-by-step.
Live Action TV
- The Walt Disney Presents episode The Story of the Animated Drawing highlights Felix as an important piece of animation history. Notably, a new piece of animation of Felix doing his classic thinking walk was commissioned by Disney for the episode, and it was animated by none other than his own creator, Otto Messmer!
- In the Glee episode The Sue Sylvester Shuffle, Sue ponders how to get creative again when she looks up and sees Felix the Cat fire a cannon.
Music
- American DJ Felix da Housecat used Felix as an inspiration for his stage name.
- In Broadway the Hard Way, "The Untouchables", National Security Advisor John Poindexter is told to "get back on Felix the Cat where you belong", a reference to the character Poindexter on that show.
- SiIvaGunner once did a remix of the Game Over theme from the Felix the Game video game using the Puzzle Room soundfont. The game (or a bootleg thereof) is also tied to one of the channel's most famous controversies, which also involved Puzzle Room.
- Oneohtrix Point Never's designer T-shirt "Runaway Horse" has Felix the Cat and the Grateful Dead skull as Eyeless Faces, as a reference to found artist Mark Leckey.
- The Spiders (Album) song Major Pager briefly references Felix.Now Felix the Cat is on his back, oh Felix the Cat, what a twat...
- Felix plush dolls appeared in the music videos for "Pay for Me" by Whale and "My Favorite Game" by The Cardigans, both by Jonas Åkerlund.
- In 2014, comedian/musician "Weird Al" Yankovic referenced Felix in the video for his song Handy, brandishing the character's iconic yellow bag of tricks during the line, "Call me, I'll come rushing over with my bag of tricks."
- Felix appeared in the Rap group Whodini's 1984 music video Big Mouth.
Roleplay
- In Mall Fight, Waffles has a cat named Felix.
Sports
- Felix the Cat was featured on the NHL goalie Félix Potvin's helmet while he played for the Boston Bruins. "The Cat" had been Potvin's nickname dating back to his days with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Web Animation
- Sunstriker Animated Universe: Felix appears as a character in the universe.
Webcomics
- In Love Me Nice, when Kelly is first introduced, she has a Hammer Space bag that she rummages through. The shape and patterns on the bag are a shoutout to Felix the Cat and his magic bag of tricks.
Web Original
- In Cartoonival OCT, the character Barnaby Cat is obviously based off of characters from 1930's cartoons such as the original Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat.
- On TV Tropes, Western Animation is represented with an icon of Felix the Cat's head.
Web Video
- Nostalgia Critic made the movie the subject of an episode, and later referenced Felix the Cat Saves Christmas in the Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas episode.
- The Annotated Series has referenced Felix on a few occasions, and has done takes on Felix the Cat: The Movie and Felix the Cat Saves Christmas.
- Vinesauce Joel once played a bootleg Felix the Cat game, which became infamous for its less-than-pleasant Game Over screen, which involved Felix ripping off his own face.
Western Animation
- In one episode of Dexter's Laboratory, DeeDee's room has a Felix the Cat clock hanging on her wall.
- In Miraculous Ladybug, the beta name for Cat Noir's civilian identity was Félix before his character was put aside in favor of Adrien.
- In the Goofy cartoon Hockey Homicide, during the rest period, as the rink is being cleaned you can see a Felix the Cat toy among the detritus being swept up.
- Garfield and Friends
- In the Garfield segment, "The Automated, Animated Adventure" has Garfield's design being altered Duck Amuck-style into Felix the Cat when he's scanned into a cartoon computer.
- In the U.S. Acres segment, "Roy Gets Sacked", when Roy talks about the "old cartoon characters" home, he mentions Felix the Cat as one such character residing there.
- In My Life as a Teenage Robot, the entrance to Messmer's resembles Felix the Cat, and the place is named after Felix's creator Otto Messmer.
- The Simpsons
- In the episode "The Day The Violence Died", the first Itchy cartoon shown is an obvious parody of the silent Felix the Cat cartoons.
- In the episode "Rosebud", Dean Scungio quotes from The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons on the history of Felix: "A Felix doll became Charles Lindbergh's companion on his famed flight across the Atlantic."
- In the short, "Li'l Sneezer" from the Tiny Toon Adventures episode, "Test Stressed", a picture of muscular cat named Helix is shown in the Hall of Cartoon Pussycats.
- Felix appeared in opening credits of the Futurama episodes "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back", "The Lesser of Two Evils" and "War Is the H-Word".
