Being someone that loves animation and media history, it should not be a surprise that I enjoy Felix the Cat. I remember when Teletoon had a separate channel for older cartoons and kids shows called Teletoon Retro, and one of the shows they would play was the 1958 series, and I quite enjoyed that series. So I didn't come into the movie blind, but I don't think prior knowledge was really gonna make my experience any better.
In an alternate dimension, I'm guessing the tenth because there is no giant monkey man, a kingdom has been invaded by the evil Duke of Zill, and the Princess sends out a message that reaches our feline hero, who goes into the mystical and bizarre land of Oriana, where he must rescue the Princess from an evil circus and defeat the Duke of Zill before he gets the book of ultimate power. As usual, when looking at the plot, I mostly look for things that don't make sense, problems with the plot that make it confusing. Usually the problem is a small thing that I don't think any of the writers really thought through, usually because it's such a small detail. One thing I don't tend to look for is filler, and that's because filler finds me naturally.
Much like FernGully, which would be released about four years after, the biggest problem with this movie's plot is that there is so much filler. Take the scene in the circus, what do they need to establish here? The performers are trapped, the Duke is a dictator and the Princess is a performer against her will. Three things, and what do they do? Well, first they have a song number, then some lizard-mice have a number, THEN it's Felix's number and then we get the Princess. That is four things, two of which are unnecessary. Cut the song and just have the Duke speak to the circus guests, cut the Mizzard dance and use that to establish the rest of the performers are prisoners, and then have Felix perform, and then show the Princess performing. I'm not a screenwriter, I can barely write a script, so why do I, someone with no professional screenplay writing experience, know how not to make this problem?
My general rule for filler is that it has to be two things; 1) Important to the plot or major characters, and 2) entertaining to the audience. FernGully was the same in this regard, both movies end up having long scenes that serve no importance to the plot or characters and mostly just exist because the film makers think that this is entertaining, and it really isn't.
However, as I have said before the plot is only one part of a movie. So, how are the characters?
I can forgive basic characterization back in the 1920s because, theatrical shorts were not as big as they were by the 1930s and 1940s. Even in the 1950s I can forgive because, television was still relatively new, and it wouldn't be until the nineties that televised cartoons would be taken more seriously. This movie came out in the late eighties, prior to this we had The Secret of NIMH, The Fox and the Hound, The Last Unicorn, in fact 1988 was a pretty good year for animated movies.
Akira, Grave of the Firelies, The Land Before Time, and of course Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The characters in this movie are basic, and not even developed that well. The Princess is bland, she is your standard princess character, kind, umm... kind. Yeah, that is pretty much her entire character. Felix is you standard protagonist, the Duke is your standard villain. Yes, The Transformers movie also had really basic characters, and that was one of my problems with that movie. Even when a character has a big turn around, it's either really basic or non-existent. One character turns to side with Felix and it's just a simple "Oh, bad guy treats me badly" thing, no "I want this" or "I would rather this" line, just "I'm treated badly here", which is better than nothing like we get with the character that goes from siding with the Princess to the Duke. We see him in the opening with the Princess and then, we next see him sitting with the Duke. No explanation, no reason, he is just on his side now.
Usually with problems like those it would be moot to bring up the technicals, but this movie even fails on those merits. Animation wise, it's fine for the most part, but it cuts corners in very obvious ways. Mouths won't move when speaking, half the time the lips don't sync properly, animation errors are noticeable, there is a scene where Felix sees something in a swamp, and the creature is literally just a part of the background, it doesn't even look like an animated object, and I get that cels are not cheap, or weren't at this time, but maybe at least shade the object differently!?
Then we get to the audio, and ho-boy, this movie has some of the worst audio in any movie I've ever seen. Background audio will obscure character's voices half the time, which is probably for the best, since some of the voice acting in this movie, especially the Princess', is really bad. Actually, noises will obscure the background music too, which is really bad because the background music is actually not terrible. I mean, it's no Prince of Egypt, but the background music fits with the scenes it's in, a slow and tense escape has slow and tense music, sucks that I can't hear half of it. Which now brings us to the biggest problem with the audio, and yeah, you probably saw this coming but, yeah, one criticism that this movie has earned is that this movie never shuts up for a second. Whenever a moment comes along that would be really great for atmosphere and heavy emotions, they cut away to something to make a noise. A good example of this is when Felix is lying in his prison cell. This moment could be really good with a few slow pans, some somber music, and all other noises just silent. But instead, they have a robot buzz in and Felix making a comment about it. A moment that could have been good, just wasted. That word really does describe this movie.
This movie is not one of the worst in general that I've sat through, but it was not good. Characters were bland, the plot is full of filler, the music isn't anything to write home about, the animation cuts a few corners, and the audio mixing is some of the worst I have ever heard. Honestly, this movie could have been decent, but I really don't feel like anyone behind this movie cared for the legacy and history of Felix the Cat. This is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, series of theatrical shorts, this character is important to animation history and this movie tarnishes that reputation. If I were rating this movie on that aspect, I'd say to avoid it, but I do concede that I am most likely one of the few people that is actually this passionate about animation history, and outside of history, this movie isn't worth getting mad at. I may not recommend it, but there are some movies where I would choose to watch this instead.
