Felix The Cat Iceberg EXPLAINED 

UPDATE: I forgot to add two entries. Whoops! Talking Felix The Cat - Talking Felix The Cat was an iPhone app available for iPhone and iPad released in 2012. Similar to applications like Talking Tom and Talking Ben, you would speak to Felix and he would reply back whatever you said. As of 2022, the app is no longer available. Java Games - This entry says it all. There were two Java Games based on Felix The Cat both of which were only released in Brazil in 2007. The first game was titled Felix The Cat: Contra os Inimigos which translates to Felix Against The Enemies and Felix the Cat: A Bomba Relogio. Thanks for Watching!

this was a wonderful video, most of this information was already obvious to me but I've gained a lot of insight about felix i was not aware of when it comes to his production history. i hope one day felix will come back as strong as he was decades ago, whether it be the comic that will (hopefully) be out soon, or a revamped animated cartoon in the future. he definitely deserves it

So here I am just casually thinking "I loved Felix, I should probably learn more. He's been around for so long I bet there's so much weird trivia". and then here this this nearly hour long video just full of all sorts of information! Absolutely incredible.

I have a newfound love for Felix now. I didn't know half of this stuff, and I've been a fan of him my whole life! Also, 45:42. That's actually pronounced "da" and "net" which means yes and no. The text at the top reads, "proceed?" The text on the screen above the disturbing image of Felix reads, "the game is over".

Milton Knight, an animator and director on the series, claimed that the production for the show was fun, but not exactly ideal. Other staffers have pitched in on the internet over time that the show's production was rather turbulent due to a variety of factors. Charlie Adler likewise said at an Anthrocon appearance that the production of the show's second season was a nightmare for everyone involved. One of the biggest problems during production was a classic case of too many cooks in the kitchen; the staff simply couldn't make up their mind what kind of cartoon this series was supposed to be. Studio head Phil Roman was most comfortable with the plot-and-dialogue-driven approach used in his commercial successes Garfield and Friends and The Simpsons, and had given this series what seemed like a guarded blessing-but then there was one group who wanted a Felix like the Otto Messmer shorts, one group who wanted Max Fleischer surrealism, Don Oriolo, the current owner of Felix, wanting it to be like his dad's made-for-TV Felix cartoons (which most of the staff working on the show was against-they ultimately, but begrudgingly, added certain elements from it into Twisted Tales, like the Magic Bag), one group who wanted the show to be Ren & Stimpy-esque (understandable, since some of the artists on the show were former Ren & Stimpy artists), and one director who wanted a Robert Crumb influence! The end result of this gave the show a very helter-skelter direction in tone and content, with Felix himself often getting swamped in importance by a large cast of supporting characters and his chaotic world. On top of that, per word of Mark Evanier, the studio had a terrible time finding a voice for Felix, saying they may have set a new industry record for most actors auditioned for one role (to where even staff of the studio were trying to audition for the role), and they wound up recording the show with a "scratch" (temporary) voice and animating to that. Out of desperation, they settled on casting Thom Adcox Hernandez as a temporary actor for Felix only a few weeks before an episode aired and he dubbed his voice over the animation, but intended to recast him after the first season wrapped up. The second season would end up recasting him with Charlie Adler. Another problem was that in addition to having a month to storyboard, design and do layout work on each short, they could not learn from their mistakes, because by the time film began to come in, the season had been just about wrapped up. Some directors could handle writing and boarding a good cartoon, while some couldn't. The artists had no say on retakes in animation either, which was left to Phil Roman to decide-and unfortunately, the overseas animation on the show tended to be rather sluggish. This only got worse with the second season, with Korean company Plus One Animation having to rush episodes through, resulting in sloppy artwork and very bad animation timing (with "Nightmare on Oak Street" being one of the worst examples in the second season). On top of that, they were behind schedule, so they couldn't order retakes to correct any mistakes. Eventually, Phil Roman and Don Oriolo found the "Cartoonist Driven" approach of the first season to be too taxing on them, and not even worth the trouble since, despite being one of the most expensive shows that Phil Roman's studio had made, the first season turned out to be a flop in ratings, due in part to a terrible time slot-it was usually sandwiched right between sports shows and then-ratings giant X-Men: The Animated Series, making it very hard to establish an audience for the show. On top of that, Don was just unhappy with the weird direction of season 1 having almost nothing in common with Joe Oriolo's Felix, so the second season went through an extensive retool. While the first season was storyboarded while working from a basic outline, and was absurdly surreal in its premises and animation, the second season decided to take the series into a direction more in vogue with the Joe Oriolo Felix cartoons and shift production to make the show a more standard TV cartoon, with scripts replacing the all-storyboard approach (usually provided by the writer of Garfield and Friends, Mark Evanier, who has remained silent on the series ever since), resulting in much more linear plotting and less surreal humor and more emphasis on wordplay and one liners, as well as bringing back some of the Oriolo era characters like Poindexter, Master Cylinder and The Professor while forcing most of the new side characters to be scrapped in turn. This move was met with outright hostile reception from the show's staff, particularly Timothy Björklund, the producer of the first season, who knew Don's meddling would only make things worse and bailed on the show just two weeks into the second season's production. Evanier attempted to voice direct the actors instead of the directors, but after a couple weeks of trying that, the results were so disastrous that the studio was forced to drop that position and hand over voice direction back to the cartoon directors. And the biggest slap in the face was that the show's budget was reduced to a third of what it originally was, which guaranteed the animation would take a nosedive in quality. The artists, who were very unhappy about the situation, retaliated by writing whole episodes that took jabs at the second season's toned down retool, such as "Attack of the Robot Rat" (which infuriated Don Oriolo for being a ruthless parody of his dad's made for TV Felix the Cat cartoons), "Background Details" (which jabs at the show's production), "Phoney Felix" (A jab at the animation industry at the time... Or at least somewhat today It even jabs at Film Roman the company that made the show) and "The Fuzzy Bunny Show" (Jabbing at the show's ratings and characters popularity, as well as the other Film Roman made show that dominated the CBS Saturday Morning ratings at the time Garfield and Friends). The first few scripts they received were followed closely, but Craig Kellman, the show's new producer, finally fought for the artists to have more storytelling and creative control on the show, and they were able to completely scrap the scripts and write their own shows, ironically giving the crew more freedom than they had in the first season. Some episodes were tightly scripted and some were not. Unfortunately for them, the VP of Children's Programming, Judy Price, who wanted the show picked up in the first place, got fired, and Felix the Cat Inc. was so unhappy with the show in general that they refused to renew the license for Phil Roman to continue using Felix, guaranteeing a third season wouldn't happen. To make matters worse, the second season turned out to be an even bigger flop in the ratings, and it ultimately got the show canned, with season 2 ending after just 8 episodes. The show's failure ultimately put the Felix the Cat cartoons on ice yet again, with only low key revivals coming of the series after the fact.

in my opinion, Felix teaming up with DreamWorks might've been the worst decision ever, I think it should been it's own studio

felix gum is so popular in japan that people who don't know felix call him as that one from chewing gum

One can definitely see where Classic Sonic got his main design aspects from.

Most of the staff openly hated the made-for-TV Felix cartoons made by Joe Oriolo in the late 50's/early 60's, and wanted the show to exclusively follow the roots of the original silent cartoons and abandon the characters and tone of the TV cartoons. Don Oriolo, Joe's son and then-owner of Felix the Cat, insisted that they at least include certain elements from it like the Magic Bag so that the show would have some kind of tie to his dad's work. As mentioned earlier, by the time the second season started production, Phil Roman and Don Oriolo decided to take the series into a direction more in vogue with the Joe Oriolo Felix cartoons and shift production to make the show a more standard TV cartoon, with scripts replacing the all-storyboard approach, resulting in much more linear plotting and less surreal humor and more emphasis on wordplay and one-liners, as well as bringing back some of the Oriolo era characters like Poindexter, Master Cylinder and The Professor while scrapping most of the new characters while downplaying the focus of the few new characters who did show up. This was a move that did NOT sit well with the staff-In response, "Attack of the Robot Rat" had the writers shoot back by making it a very mean spirited parody of the Joe Oriolo Felix cartoons. "Phoney Felix" can also be seen as a Stealth Parody of the retool of Season 2, with Felix having his show hijacked by an imbecilic imposter who imitates some of the traits of Oriolo Felix, such as saying his "Righty-O!" catchphrase, singing the TV show theme song and using a (shoddy knockoff) of the magic bag of tricks, It even takes brief jabs at Film Roman (the company that made the show) and Spumco (where the artist used to work on Ren and Stimpy) and the industry as a whole where the Knockoff character can't find work unless he has a hit movie or successful toyline. "Background Details" Takes jabs at the show's hectic production such as being un-focused and taxing on the artist and later having the artist coming up with the episode coming off as un-focused. "The Fuzzy Bunny Show" takes it a step further by having a direct snipe at Don Oriolo with a caricature of himself being responsible for getting Felix's show cancelled in favor of the cutesy bunny cartoon and the TV executive The building there in is called APC Network a jab at CBS congratulating hem. "Wizards and Lizards" that has a running gag with a network executive giving Felix suggestions to improve the show and even scolds him at the end of the episode for being too mean and violent, This was another jab at the CBS network for wanting the show to be more kid-friendly.

Was not expecting a Felix the Cat Iceberg but you know what...I dig it!

Funnily enough, I got attached to Felix because of the SEGA Genesis bootleg. This was an amazing deep dive into Felix's history and I'm glad have learned so much about it! Even though he was publicized critically from the "да / нет" meme, the meme made me enjoy Felix as a character AND got me hooked on Russian culture too! Incredible video here!

I want to thank you dearly for this! Felix is a very nostalgic figure for me, I'm 27 so my main memory of Felix are from his 1995 series, which I can only barely remember. As a latina who grew up in a small town for a good chunk of her childhood though, for some reason merch of vintage cartoons would find it way into our houses and just remain there forever. I can remember so many old T-shirts, so many bootleg Felixes used by small stores, I remember the first time I went to NY and running into the Felix clock that you shared earlier and being enamoured by it. Felix was like Betty Boop, an icon that was there without quite being there, a constant without context, and just... I loved finding this and learning so much! For some reason I'm suddenly filled with affection for this cat that I barely knew but was always happy to see. I'm rambling now lol but seriously, thank you for taking the time to put this together, if I ever become a collector of Felix merch it may just be because of you!

*I see Felix content I click* and honestly, I didn't regret it because I wanted to know more about this iconic cat

KEV YOU MADLAD THANK YOU FOR THE 50 MINUTE ICEBERG OF PURE FELIX CONTENT!!!

I’m not sure how well this fits into the iceberg but the band The Cardigans used a Felix the Cat plush in their music video for the song “My Favorite Game”

If i remember correctly, a character becomes public domain 70 years after the death of the original creator. There are two men credited in creating felix the cat, Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer, Sullivan died more than 70 years ago but Messmer died in 1983, meaning there is an arguement that felix is not allowed in the public domain. This means that, unless copyright laws are changed, felix will become public domain in 2053.

The iceberg of Felix the Cat, OMG AMAZING

I came here to mention that the German comic adaptation of the movie was uploaded to Internet Archive, but I see now it was you that uploaded it! Cool find, thanks for sharing.

This made me realize how little I actually know about Felix despite considering myself a fan. I may be a poser lol

Thanks for this video, there are very few videos about Felix the cat on RU-vid.

Full correction You can use Felix and call him his trademarked name but not on the title, or just call him Felix.

Love the movie. The zillians are reminiscent of bakshi designs (but not quite, very subtle). The best song in the movie is when they're sneaking back into the castle. Whichever team was responsible for that song should have handled the entire film, outright.

thanks for getting me into felix. the first time i knew of felix was when i was 5 my mom would buy me dvds of classic cartoons that i think people make bootlegs for, and a lot of them were popeye cartoons but this one dvd randomly had the bold king cole felix cartoon at the end of it after like 20 popeye animations and i found him to be really endearing (i also thought he was a girl because of the high pitched voice). but it was super late at night so my mom walked in and she was like “oh youre watching felix the cat!” and then she had to turn it off in the middle of the short because it was late and i had school the next day and i remember bawling so much that night because i wanted to see more of it. i was actually hoping felix would come to life and calm me down or something. the next day i finished watching the short and i liked it. fastforward almost 2 decades later and i only learned recently that there was only 3 of those colored shorts LOL. they shouldve made more dammit. for the past few months i was kind of put off from getting into felix for a while because his cartoons seem so “broken” compared to mickey mouse. but watching your video has made me learn to actually love felix’s unstable history. ive been watching twisted tales and baby felix back to back and i like them. i also liked the movie for the most part. and ive played through the NES game twice. and its all thanks to your wonderful video. WE LOVE FELIX

Nice video! Always love learning about topics I’m not familiar with

This was an amazing video! I've just gotten into research of Felix and this was very informative, I hope to see more from you!

Great video, I've been a Felix fan as long as I can remember and have been researching Golden Age/Classic animation since the 90s (before I had the internet!) and I heard a lot I'd never heard (or read) before here. Great job, well done!

Very interesting pieces of trivia and history, this is a wonderful video for fans and researchers alike!

It was incredible, I loved it!! Was really interesting to hear you talk about this pretty deep Topic. ^^

Wow this was a great video, and i even learned a lot of things in this iceberg!

I'm surprised that you didn't discuss the many design changes of Kitty Kat, and how her appearances in the shows were limited to Feline Follies and Baby Felix. And yet, she's supposed to be Felix's primary love interest.

I can’t tell if Felix is cute or creeping me the hell out some times.

For the genesis bootleg section: the screen featuring felix as an angel is actually a continue screen. Selecting "да" doesn't send you to the title screen if you have more than one continue. If you have at least one, you are sent to the beginning of the level you were on.

Wonderful Video, Kevin!

I remember Felix's Cartoon Tool Box. I used to own that CD-ROM

You could call Felix by the name Master Tom, and since that name was only used in 1919. So it SHOULD be public domain.

AWESOME VIDEO! Lots of info I didn't know!~ Thanks alot!

I would never imagine that the Gummy bear and Felix the cat would have a Christmas album that's now lost media for some reason

You forget another entrie: The Felix the Cat Show: in 1954 NBC maded a deal with otto messer to make a felix the cat series. There was a pilot made but it never made it and the 1959 felix the cat series happened instead , there's little information of the series and pilot

Hey man i just wanted to say thank you for making this video I'm very happy right now because felix is one of my favorite characters of all time but can you explain felix the het a little more 🥰

@2:16-.-I'm not a lawyer either, but you can call him "Felix" actually, you just can't use the name "Felix" on the materials cover. The simplest way to think of trademark is that is meant to help protect branding, it exists in order to minimize market confusion. So as long as Felix is not used in a way that would make people think it's associated with the dream works, you can do whatever you want with him.

While watching this I have come to the conclusion that Felix's design doesn't translate to 3D very well.

Liked, commented, and subbed for algorithm. Keep up the good work!

THIS WAS AWESOME! I need a Felix the cat guitar

34:12 I've looked up and down the internet but have heard no mention of an alternate 50s cartoon. However, the 'All New with Sparkling Music and Sound Effects' makes me think that this ad is promoting the reissue of old Felix Cartoons as they were given sound effects and music in 1953 for television as far as I've found

1:54 I honestly hate that so much. Trademark laws need to be changed.

I have a crazy and dumb theory. What if Master Tom was Felix's father?

i love Felix the cat awesome iceberg

9:14 I am from Noblesville, Indiana, and in my history class, there was a picture of Felix with a basketball team on the wall in the corner.

Just got into Felix just recently, and I have had sooo much fun learning about the cat. Methinks in the foreseeable future, I will name my very own cat Felix!

Nice knowing more about the cat himself!

21:56 Update: We finally got the Japanese release in the re-release of Felix the Cat by Konami and Limited Run Games in 2024 for Switch and PS4, however there are some changes in the re-release for example Poindexter has been replaced by the Professor etc.

Since there's no copywrite on Felix, I decided to upload 20 episodes of the Twisted Tales to my channel ;)

He mentions macys day parade and the first clip he uses? The clip of barnie getting clapped by a light pole Amazing lmao

32:35 It was found this year! Such a cool and obscure media get found. Actually this collaboration doesn't come out of nowhere. Don Oriolo and Christian P. Schneider (creator of GB) are good friends! They participated in the development of the film together. The Christians son Maci Schneider worked on "The Squishees" soundtrack with Oriolo and they still good friends. Amazing iceberg!!!

Great video thx

Loved the 50s cartoons and the theme song Great video

This video did not just taught about a fictional cat it taught us how cats evolves and have a strange backstory to them and certainly this is true edutainment and the best part it is free!

Do we know who the first Macy's Balloon is (maybe it's "The Cat")

44:08 1932 Toronto parade 44:10 1931 The black cat right there is Acttely NOT Felix. 44:25 19?? From a diffrent parade. Also it's not Felix. It's the cat from 1931 that caught on fire. As Felix would be created in 1932. Witch he would state after that was correct 45:00 a miniature copy of the cat that's was not in the Macy's parade. Fun fact: in a 1931 news paper. It's mentioned a krazy Kat balloon. Witch could be the black cat from 1931. This krazy Kat even appeared in a cartoon. In the style that looks like Felix. This carton was made WAY before the balloon was created.

47:57 otto mesmer really cared about felic

45:43 "Да" is actually pronounced like "da" and "Нет" is pronounced "Ñet" or "Nyet"

21:18 Flexitoons also made the Jukebox Band puppets for Shining Time Station.

Hello from Russia. I was surprised that our people did that bootleg with Felix the cat in Sega genesis. I know how awful it is. But you don't need to know what he have there. Alright, see ya

It is much deeper than this.

Da > Nyet

Anyone know which episode was the one at 0:50? I can't find that one it's adorable (Edit) Felix collabed with Suavecito the for the second time last month giving him his own shirts, and pomade scent called bag of tricks it smells awesome I love it

Hey man, where did you hear about the new WildBrain Cartoon? I cant find info about it anywhere

I wish Alex the cat was on this iceberg... not everieone knows about him, but he's the cousin of felix, he's another villan too Sorry my bad inglish

I like the 2016 balloon

Most of the Felix the Cat cartoons are in the public domain due to failure to renew copyrights or the copyright expires.

"What I do for this cat..."

45:49 Very infamous.

if this existed 10 years ago I wouldve gone insane

Aside from the Mizzards song, are there any other things different in the German dub of Felix the Cat the movie? Like, were there any script and dialogue changes in the German dub?

We had that 90s Felix cartoon on vhs

John Felix would be proud.

43:17 Damn. Baby felix used to be my childhood

You forgot to mention the fact he’s the mascot for the pop punk band The Queers

I love it when he laughs and doesn't he sound like mickey Mouse?

I have the German lyrics of Mizzard Shuffle, here they are: Wir sind die Stars in der Tournee [?] Wir beide sind die Show, die jeder will Wir steppen quer wie (?) wie'n wilder Bär? wie Bill der Bär? (?) bitte sehr Seht her, dort tanzt ein steppender Bär Ein Walross tanzt nicht, das ist zu schwer Und auch ein Schwein wird viel zu träge sein Wir sind die absoluten Stars in dem Ballett ... Wir sind die Stars in der Tournee [?] Wir beide sind die Show, die jeder will Wir steppen quer wie (?) wie'n wilder Bär? wie Bill der Bär? (?) bitte sehr Seht her, dort tanzt ein steppender Bär

Felix isn't the first animated star though there was also Gertie the Dinosaur and Krazy Kat.

You should of put Kitsy Cat (Originally known as Kitty Katty through 1922-1926) He strangely looks like felix the cat except he has a shirt (It is red in the colored shorts) and pants (They are orange in the colored shorts) and his cartoons are similar to felix the cat but he has some friends who are 2 other characters but around the early 1940s his design was changed to be a bit more modern and realistic but his design is different than felix due to him being white breasted and having white hands and feet.

wait make a video of the tales of Thomas Kat the early version of felix

46:33 hah! That’s nothing! You should look up the Mickey Mouse merchandise and dolls from the 1930s

I have one more little thing, there is a company that uses a black/white cat named Felix for cat food. The company is named Purina if I’m correct

Who’s gonna tell home that the fan discord link isn’t in the description

Why is that bootleg felix famicom game that is loosely based on felix and his golden goose not on this iceberg? If you ever do a redux please please add that bootleg game as a entry (Also it is literally just called felix the cat)

Go For “Wow Wow Wubbzy Iceberg” It Must Be Felix The Cat’s Cartoon Partner When Not I Will Show You It Than Make It Now And Forgot A Hidden Entry It Must Be “Felix The Cat Could Make The End Of Cartoons And World” The Entry Will Be In The Sea Floor Hidden Entry “Felix The Cat’s Has A 2 Partners For The Production They Were Named “Wow Wow Wubbzy” And “Guess With Jess” Entry Will Be From Sky Last Entry “Felix The Cat And The 2 Cancelled Cartoon Will End The World When Make Missiles Or Destroy Tom And Jerry] From The Last Sea Floor Entry So That’s It

poindexter looks like stewie

👍

45:37 Has this meme gone to the dead yet?

22:40 you would have to not watch SiIvaGunner to know Baby Felix had a game.

Felix

41:43

27:54

I love Felix cat

45:40 The wrong way of pronunciating it its da and nyet

43:13 i won't because i don't care

Felix: hey Garfield! Garfield: oh, is that my black and white cousin?

here is one more tidbit to add to the Felix the cat Iceberg does anybody know how on earth did Felix even receive his magic bag of tricks in the first place?