Felix in the Swim
About Felix in the Swim
Felix finds a mouse caught in a trap and is about to eat him. The mouse begs, Felix lets him go, and the mouse says to call if he can ever return the favor. Felix whistles under Willie Brown's window and asks the boy to the swimming hole. Willie's mother sends him back inside to practice the piano. Felix meets the mouse again. The mouse brings his brothers, and they pound the keys while Willie climbs out the window. At the hole a goat eats Willie's clothes. The two come home in barrels. Willie's mother beats him, and Felix beats the mouse.
Cast & crew
More about Felix in the Swim
Otto Messmer animated and directed the short for producer Pat Sullivan. M. J. Winkler presented it and released it on July 1, 1922. Silent Era lists it as one reel and notes that it may have been only a segment inside that reel.
Themes
Background
Felix was already a theatrical series by 1922, released one reel at a time through Winkler's exchanges, several years before Disney's Steamboat Willie.
Making
Messmer had gone to work in Sullivan's New York studio in 1915 and drew the Felix cartoons that Sullivan's name went on. Margaret J. Winkler was distributing the series by 1922.
Preservation
Silent Era lists the survival status as print exists, and the short is in the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- The cartoons were billed as Pat Sullivan's Felix the Cat even though Messmer did the animation.
- Willie Brown is the boy Felix visits in the 1922 shorts.
- Felix's pacing walk, while he thinks of a way past the piano practice, is the gag the series reused.
- A goat at the swimming hole eats Willie's clothes, so the pair walk home in barrels.
- The short is in the public domain in the United States.
- Silent Era records that a print exists.
Scenes
- Felix opens the trap and shakes the mouse's hand.
- A family of mice plays Willie's piano so the boy can sneak out.
- Willie's mother walks in expecting pie-worthy progress and finds the mice on the keys.
- Felix and Willie return from the hole wearing barrels.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-felix-in-the-swim)
Quotes
Anytime I can do you a favor Felix — call on me!
