The Flying Saucer is a 1959 Felix the Cat cartoon, and the 26th episode of the Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo) series. It is the first episode where Poindexter appears.
The episode starts at Professor's lab, panning over a wall full of awards, with Felix given the job of babysitting Professor's nephew, Poindexter. Professor leaves (but accidentally bumps into a Dead End sign first), and Felix asks Poindexter what he wants to do. Poinsy suggests conjugating latin verbs, but Felix isn't up for it. The kid suggests building something, and Felix rolls with it—until he notices the massive box that is Poinsy's "construction set". Felix asks to see the blueprints, and notices plans for an electronic computer, with Poindexter pointing out that he already built that last week, along with an Atom Smasher. Felix lets Poindexter do his thing when he promises to build a carousel, but warns him not to bother him. Felix sits in an armchair, reads a book and then falls asleep while Poinsy gets to work. In just a short period of time, the kid finishes constructing a fully functional flying saucer, shaped like a teapot. Felix awakes in time to see Poindexter's handiwork. He's amused by this, and lets Poinsy try out flying with it—when he asks where to go with it, Felix notices the observatory hole in the lab with the moon clear in the sky, and suggests going to the moon. Felix laughs at how imaginative Poinsy is and goes back to reading his book—until he realizes the flying saucer is actually flying. Felix runs after it and grabs the back of the saucer as it flies out of the lab and into the sky.
In the second part of the episode, Poindexter is charting out maps while flying the saucer over a city and mountains, but he notices its going a little slow and realizes something is dragging it, which happens to be Felix. The saucer eventually ascends into outer space, and Felix clings for dear life as he's assaulted by falling stars. He calls for Poindexter, but a rocketship flies nearby and knocks Felix off the saucer and onto it as it trails behind the saucer. Poinsy pops his head out of the ship, but says he can't help him, since he's just run out of rocket fuel. Just then, the saucer stops and crash lands on the moon, with Felix's rocket following after it. Felix soaks in the environment and sets off to find Poindexter, who is just up ahead, and he and his saucer are no worse for wear. Poinsy apologizes to Felix, but Felix forgives him, wondering what Professor would say. Back on Earth, Professor has returned to his lab, and ponders where Felix and his nephew have gone. He looks at Poinsy's construction box, and sees a note left for him that he's gone to the moon, which gets him worried that he'll miss his bedtime. Back on the moon, Felix paces around, thinking about what to do and worried that he'll starve. Just then, Poindexter reveals they're ready to take off for home—despite being out of gas, he just built an atomic drive that will let them return to Earth. Felix hops in, and the saucer takes off and flies back to Earth as the cartoon irises out.
Tropes:
- Child Prodigy: Poindexter is established as this off the bat. He builds a fully functional flying saucer with all the effort of putting together a LEGO set!
- Meat-O-Vision: When Felix paces back and forth fearing starvation, a thought balloon with a roast chicken among other foods appears over his head.
- Not so Dire: When Professor finds out Poinsy has flown off to the moon, he's more worried about him missing his bedtime than the fact that his nephew has flown off to the moon.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Poindexter not only built his own computer, but he even built an Atom Smasher on his own time.
- Wingding Eyes: Felix's pupils throb and bulge at the sight of Poindexter's flying saucer actually taking off.
