This “Felix” Reboot Is Twisted



1995’s “The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat” sought to bring back Felix the Cat’s original impishness, combined with the more well-known qualities surrounding the franchise, namely his magic bag, and varying side characters. This endeavor resulted in the single most bold and unique project the character has ever been subjected to, surprisingly more reminiscent of “Ren and Stimpy“ than anything in its own past, and it shows in every way, from the surreal, madcap humor, to the larger than life citizens and world he inhabits.

But would the new, radical direction work in the show’s favor? Or was the show too far off the deep end for audiences to connect with it? Let’s set the record straight on “The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat”.

If you want to see what topics I’ll be talking about next, check me out on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/itsthegooseitsthegoose/

Edited by:
www.youtube.com/@GeekEKittenGaming

Music:
All Music by PurrpleCat on PixBay

source

46 thoughts on “This “Felix” Reboot Is Twisted”

  1. The one thing that I think of when I think of Felix, the cat is that one boo leg NES game. In the game when you get the game over Felix, the cat just rips his face off. It’s the most like shocking thing ever and it’s super funny and stuff. It’s awesome, but yeah that’s what I think of when I think Felix the cat.

    Reply
  2. For me, I personally enjoyed Season 1 of Twisted Tales over Season 2! For me, Season 1 was a Great Modernized Take (& Love Letter) of the Original Felix the Cats Shorts from the 20's & 30's as well as Fleischer Studios' 30's Shorts (mainly Popeye & Betty Boop) with a Mix of Rocko's Modern Life! Season 2 is definitely Good on it's own Merits, but it was also largely just felt much more of what I would typically expect out of a Cartoon from the 90's! Which again, is definitely NOT a bad thing, I like Ren & Stimpy, Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Earthworm Jim, MOST of the Cartoon Cartoons! But it just felt less special in my eyes! Similar case with The Cuphead Show honestly! Again, Great Show on it's own Merits, but MOST of the Time (Especially in Season 2) I felt like I was watching a standard 2000's Cartoon Network Show much more than I was watching a Genuine Modern Take of an Actual 20's – 30's Rubberhose Cartoon…

    Reply
  3. I have a tape of this. Like the one they printed in 1992 that has only 3 episodes on it. lol it used to be listed on Amazon for $80! Yes, $80. I doubt anyone ever bought it. I got mine at goodwill for $2. But the whole series is on YouTube

    Reply
  4. 0:15 Let's see:

    Famer Al Falfa (Paul Terry's easy-to-split-into-layers character)
    Milton Mouse (Similar to Mickey, but created earlier by Paul Terry or one of his animators.)
    Mary/Rita Mouse (Milton's girlfriend.)
    Peg Leg Pete (Bootleg Pete)
    Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Obvious)
    Gertie the Dinosaur
    Little Nemo*
    The Mosquito (From Windsor McKay's early short about a mosquito.)
    Colonel Heeza Liar (May have misspelled this. One of the characters who starred in shorts produced by the Bray studios.)

    Happy Hooligan*
    Krazy Kat*
    Mutt & Jeff*
    Felix The Cat (Of course)
    Jupiter the Cat (Disney's Felix)
    Koko the Clown (Fleischer Bros first character)

    Waffles & Don (I think. A dog & a cat. Predecessors to Van Beuren's Tom & Jerry.)

    *These characters came from comic strips, which helped them maintain some relevance after the silent era.

    Reply
  5. The thing about Mickey Mouse is that he has always been a Knock-Off of Felix the Cat, even his 2013 series of shorts was just knock-off of Twisted Tales of Felix, which is why in terms of Legacy Felix will always be the Superior Toon.

    Reply
  6. This isn't Ren and Stimpy but more Sam & Max and The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog.
    With nonsense colour backgrounds, everything is bouncy and there's nonsense everywhere like it's normal.
    And the main characters are grounded but acts on their own type of nonsense that collides with their world's nonsense.

    Reply
  7. I saw this show in reruns on YTV in Canada starting in or around 1998. When I think about my own webcomic characters, including one that's blatantly based on me when I was in my early-to-mid-teens, I see an eerie influence, and I think this may have something to do with the fact that I had already seen the '50s version of Felix at this time, so the extent of the departure of this reboot resonated with my developing brain in a very unique way. I haven't watched this show in years, but I think I unconsciously associate it heavily with the whole idea of doing unexpectedly and artistically transgressive things with cartoons beyond just making them "more adult". In particular, this version of Felix is the only time I've ever seen a "legacy" character that exists in a "fully cartoon" world that seems to be going through puberty, and because the voice actor switched to an older man halfway through, he also seems to come OUT of puberty over the course of the show. A PG-13 show could make a joke about his balls dropping, but instead, this is a G-rated show where it feels like that ACTUALLY HAPPENS and just isn't addressed. It's a weirdly unintentional bit of realism in a place where it feels like it doesn't belong that ends up reinforcing the meta-jokes around the surrealism of the show. It retroactively feels less like a '90s kids' cartoon with a subversive adult edge and more like early-2010s Newgrounds/Youtube animation made by artists who are themselves in their late-teens or early-twenties, many of whom had a kind of repor with their own audiences that the creators of this show didn't. (psychicpebbles and hotdiggetydemon spring readily to mind.)
    One footnote: I think the really seminal influence on "The Fuzzy Bunny Show" is less Ren & Stimpy and more the New Adventures of Mighty Mouse episode "Don't Touch That Dial", which I won't attempt to describe here, because it probably already has a video essay or two about itself. It certainly deserves one, seeing as it pretty much invented '90s cartoon meta-humor singlehandedly.

    Reply
  8. The last year of this series was the first year of Sam & Max: Freelance Police. If only they'd aired back-to-back. A match made in heaven like the 90s cartoons for Beetlejuice & the Addams Family.

    I do remember a couple of Betty Boop movies out around this time with very similar vibes.

    Reply
  9. You want to know the reason behind the constantly in-flux creative direction, as well as the sudden changes behind the scenes ? That reason is Joe Oriolo, son of Don Oriolo (who made the 1950's Felix cartoon), who was also the one who made the 1980's Felix movie, and was one of the executive producers on twisted tales. The guy hanged over the shoulders of everyone on the team, watching like a hawk, forcing the team to rewrite parts of scripts and scenes often, thus annoying them so much, they reworked the professor character, as well as his dog, and wrote the episode they appeared in to entirely mock Don Oriolo's Felix series, pointing the awful voice acting and lip-synching, the terrible animation, the overbearing morality lessons, and removing all the mischeviousness from felix. Joe was a nightmare to work with, and once again caused a majority of the problems behind the scenes.

    Reply
  10. I started with the happy go lucky Van Beuren Felix of the 30s (thanks, VHS!), then went to this, then the theatrical movie that preceded it by a few years (thanks, VHS!), then the original 20s trickster in my teens, and only this year did I see the old TV version that introduced The Professor and the Magical Bag of Tricks. I consider the last of these by far the least funny and least interesting, as well as the most sloppily animated on a technical level, but it DID contribute a couple interesting characters to the movie and the awesome bag to Twisted Tales so it's not without merit.

    Twisted Tales is still my favorite Felix.

    Reply
  11. This Felix cartoon takes place in a separate timeline. The Twisted Tales of Felix series, which attempts to be an amalgam of the Silent and Oriolo eras of the series, being a retro cartoon throwback to the original Felix cartoons, as well as cartoons of the 1930s, such as those by Fleischer Studios. The Felix of this series is fully aware that he's a cartoon character.

    Reply
  12. "I watched a few episodes of the show and loved it! I actually prefer this over the 50s Felix the Cat series—not that it was bad, just not my cup of tea. My team is thrilled to work with Felix since he’s in the public domain, including his 30s design, which I think partially inspired his look in the 90s series. In our Sonic cartoon, Felix will appear in a few episodes. His personality is based heavily on the 90s series, but everything else will be a fresh reboot. If you're a fan of Sonic or Felix, stay tuned—it’s going to be special!"
    And feel free to ask about the show I'd be happy to share Whenever I have the free time

    Reply
  13. Honestly loved when the series was free flowing. It had a very Woodring's "Frank" vibe of being taken by the whims of a dream. Also very Sally Cruikshank. As my wife put it: 'it pleases the ADHD-brain's need for stimulation'.

    Reply

Leave a Comment