Gold Digger Vavoom is a 1960 Felix the Cat cartoon and the 79th episode of the Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo) series.
The episode begins with Felix riding a train arriving at the South Pole, where he meets up with his friend Vavoom, who greets Felix with a friendly shout. Felix carries a camera and stand with him outside the train, and asks Vavoom if he's ready to appear on TV today, and also asks Vavoom if Professor and Rock Bottom are still looking for gold around there. Cut away to Professor and Rock pan handling for gold in the frozen wilderness, with no luck. Suddenly, a prospector meets them and asks what they're doing. Rock says they're looking for gold. The prospector tells them of the nearby Sombrero Mountain, which is made of solid gold. He leaves them a secret map to it, and walks off. They examine the map and head off to find it. Back at the train station, Felix begins filming Vavoom live, and introduces him to the TV audience, demonstrating his powerful voice. Felix begins following Vavoom into the wild to film him using his voice to knock down trees. Meanwhile, Professor and Rock Bottom have found the golden mountain and try to mine it, but it quickly wears out their pickaxe. Just then, they hear Vavooms shout, and Professor figures out a plan—they'll use Vavoom to get the gold for them.
Professor and Rock quickly set up a trap for Felix and Vavoom, catching them with giant poles and rope. Rock warns Vavoom not to try anything, or he'll throw Felix in the river. They explain their plan to Felix to use Vavoom to mine the gold mine they found, and lift them both high up in the air with the poles while they check the map. They then carry Vavoom off to the spot where the gold is, and order Vavoom to get busy digging. Vavoom begins tunneling through the solid rock as Rock marches forward. Professor plants the pole Felix is on in the ground to go see the mining in action, and Felix uses this as a chance to free himself, cutting the rope he's tied to with a knife and catapulting himself away so he can go get his camera. Noticing that it's still running, Felix talks to his audience about Professor and Rock kidnapping Vavoom. Back at the mountain, the crooks succeed in tunneling all the way through the mountain, but find themselves on the other side with no gold in sight. Professor insists they missed the gold vein, and tells Rock to blast the tunnel wider, while Felix films them coming back out of the mountain. Nearby, the Prospector from earlier chuckles that the map he gave them was fake, and he disguises himself in a suit, asking Professor and Rock who dug the tunnel on his land. The villains put the blame on Vavoom, but the prospector, who reveals himself to be president of the railroad, rewards Vavoom with a suitcase of money for making a tunnel for his trains. Professor and Rock give up, exasperated that they were tricked into making the tunnel for free. Felix signs off on his TV broadcast that the audience now knows who Vavoom is with a laugh as the cartoon irises out.
Tropes:
- Card-Carrying Villain: Even though Professor and Rock didnt steal the gold mine (the Prospector purposely left them the map to it), Rock still brags to Felix about stealing it anyway.
- Magical Security Cam: Felix's camera airs his image on TV in a different angle than what it's actually filming him in.
