Felix The Cat: The Movie is a feature length film from The Renaissance Age of Animation, starring Felix the Cat, a Funny Animal who walks the earth and happens to own a MagicBagOfTricks, who travels into another dimension after being summoned by a sentient teardrop to save the Kingdom of Oriana and its Princess from her Evil Uncle, The Duke Of Zill, and his army of robotic cylinders.No, really.The film was produced by Pannonia Film Studio in Hungary, and directed by Tibor Hernádi. The film is estimated to have been completed in 1986 or 1987, but it only received limited release in 1988 and 1989, finally getting a proper U.S. release in August 1991. The film was a Box Office Bomb, but it aired frequently on The Disney Channel for a few years afterward; along with subsequent VHS rereleases, this allowed the film to gain a small following.
This film provides examples of:
A God Am I: The sentient reptiles and amphibians that inhabit Zill believed that the Duke of Zill was a god who had come to help them when he was banished there. He took full advantage of it. He wants Oriana's Book of Ultimate Power to become the real deal.
All That Glitters: Played aggravatingly straight in the ending. The professor tries to sneak gold back into his world through the dimensporter, only for Oriana to tell him that the it can't transport gold, and then tells Felix that she's pretty sure his gold can be transported. He says he doesn't have any gold, but she insists that he does: a heart of gold.
Canon Discontinuity: The movie is NEVER brought up outside of maybe a historical handwave from the creators, and none of the movies characters appear in merchandising.
Captain Ersatz: The Duke of Zill is basically a revamped, humanoid, Master Cylinder. Makes you wonder why they put Master Cylinder in?
Conspicuous CG: Felix's disembodied, badly lip-synched head in the opening. It really teeters into Uncanny Valley territory on account of Special Effects Failure. Also a source of terror for some young viewers.
Cool Ship: The Professor and Pointdexter's transforming ship.
Covers Always Lie: Just look at how colorful and upbeat that poster is. Outside of the brief glimpses of Felix's world, the entire film is NOTHING like that.
Crapsack World: Oriana is reduced to an apocalyptic wasteland when the Duke takes over.
Not quite. The Land of Zill is a hell hole that the Duke made worse. From what we can see, Oriana gets covered in large crystals.
Cunning Like a Fox: Averted with the family of foxes Felix encounters early in the film who can't find him hiding under the bag. Lampshaded with the accompanying "Sly Like A Fox" song.
Darker and Edgier: Probably the first ever attempt at taking a classic cartoon icon and giving it this treatment.
Death World: Zill is inhabited by Always Chaotic Evil sentient reptiles, sadistic cannibal giants that can detach their heads, dragons and the entire landscape of Oriana is constantly covered in a downpour of rapidly growing crystals.
Deranged Animation: Especially the part early in the film where Felix is underwater. If one of the films goals was to capture the surreal nature of the original shorts, it did its job a bit TOO well.
The Faceless: The Duke Of Zill. Oddly, one trailer for the film shows that the Duke's eyes were supposed to be originally visible, but this was cut from the movie. His original human form is shown in flashback, though.
Good Is Dumb: Princess Oriana disbanded her kingdom's army in a world where there's headhunters, mutants, giant dragons, and a pissed off uncle her father banished. Guess what happens.
The Kingdom: Oriana, which was once a warrior empire but has turned away from its old ways and sealed away its old weapons and secrets to be a peaceful and prosperous nation whose army was only for ceremonial purposes. The Duke didn't like that...
Meaningful Name: Both subverted and played straight with Progress City. Subverted because, despite the name, it's a rundown hellhole of a city in the middle of a polluted swampland. But then if you consider that The Duke wants Oriana to be under his complete control with the subjects idolizing him like a god, Progress City ends up fitting his idea of progress.
Mood Dissonance: All Felix can do to a skull he finds in the mineshaft is say this:
"Boy, could you use a Big Mac! Uwahahahahaha!"
Mood Whiplash: The upbeat Villain Song "Who is the Boss" almost makes us forget that Oriana and her kingdom is in danger. That is until they showed a dissolve effect of her crying near the end of the show.
Mundane Made Awesome: Felix defeats the Master Cylinder not with some cool battle or fancy weapon, but by throwing a book at it.
Mythology Gag: When the Duke of Zil is describing the Master Cylinder he is about to sic on the heroes, he compares the new design to a drawing of the original Master Cylinder from the 60's Felix cartoon (which is drawn in a completely different art style than the new model).
No Fourth Wall: The opening CGI head actually has Felix talk to the audience.
Non Fatal Explosions: The Duke is supposedly disfigured when his prototype Cylinder explodes in his face. However, we clearly see him lying unconscious on the floor, now covered in cartoon dust. (insert wah-wah music here) His assistant is none the worse for wear, either.
Non-Serial Movie: This movie is only loosely connected to the 1960s Felix TV series. However it does fit with the spirit of the "Twisted Tails" version quite well. Except in Twisted, the weirdness was there in the service of the Rule of Funny. In this film, it's hard to discern what the ultimate goal of the oddness was.
Place Worse Than Death: The part where Felix comes over a hill and sees Progress City, surrounded by a deadly swamp, to which Felix says "Where are we, New Jersey?" (the latter is Self-Deprecation on the filmmakers part, as Felix Inc. is located in New Jersey)
Random Events Plot: The film really has no sense of direction as far as plot is concerned. The "saving the world" bit doesn't even get started till well more than halfway through the picture—20 minutes and half an hour from the end, to be precise.
Right-Hand Cat: In a really bizarre example of the trope, Wack Lizardi has a nameless squeaking lizard head mounted to a stick that he uses as a whip for a pet and is never seen without it. It reacts to events that happen onscreen and it's not uncommon for a scene with Wack Lizardi to shift focus from him to the pet.
Scenery Gorn: The Land of Zill. Progress City in particular has quite a few establishing shots that show just what a decadent ruined hellhole it is, from the rickety buildings that are meant to keep pollution in to the piles of rotting garbage and trashed vehicles.
Sdrawkcab Name: The portal to Oriana is hidden in the Anairo Mines.
Self-Deprecation: Felix's New Jersey comment from earlier is a LOT funnier when you realize that Felix the Cat Productions Inc. just happens to be located in New Jersey!
Sequel Hook: The Duke's "I'll be back." line which is said in a different voice. Well, it's been over 25 years and he still hasn't come back!
Soundtrack Dissonance: One scene of Felix and the gang fighting monsters has upbeat 1980s pop music playing over it.
Swamps Are Evil: The Land of Zill, a polluted swampland inhabited by a hostile reptilian race loyal to the Duke of Zill, various dragons, and carnivorous bubble monsters.
Swiss Army Tears: When the princess of Oriana can't finish summoning Felix, one of her teardrops finishes the job for her...activating the machine, punching in codes, pulling levers, entering the voice command, finding Felix in his world, and leading him back to the portal and into Oriana.
Talking to Himself: Felix and The Professor are both voiced by Chris Phillips and they talk to each other quite a bit.
Felix punching two of the head hunters flying heads.
The Quisling: The Duke's old lab assistant, Grumper, who had since been promoted to Chancellor instantly joins with the Duke once he invades.
The Unintelligible: Wack Lizardi's unnamed lizard pet, which makes different squeaks depending on what kind of mood it's in.
Villain Song: "Who is the Boss?" Rather catchy tune and shows the extent of the Duke's ego.
Was Once a Man: The Duke of Zill was an ordinary human before a prototype of his cylindrical soldier robots went haywire, severely disfiguring him and forcing him to rebuild himself.
Wasted Song: This happens twice to Princess Oriana's theme song "Face to the Wind". Neither the original version nor the one that contains Felix's saxophone solo is heard in its entirety, and both times, large chunks of the song covered up by background noise and talking.
Felix' bag during a shapeshift will change back to its original form if someone other than Felix touches it.
Zill's secret weapon, the Master Cylinder comes out at the end battle. Felix knocks it over by throwing a book at it. Fight scene over.
What Happened to the Mouse?: So, what happened to all the other imprisoned circus performers? You can assume they escaped after Wack Lizardi was defeated (even though an entire circus dropped on top of them), but that still means they're stuck in a polluted wasteland.
0 reviews