Felix the Cat: "April Maze"

[howie]

I saw my first Pat Sullivan-produced Felix cartoon from the sound era, "April Maze", a while back.

It's an OK cartoon, except when they try to be musical like Disney. The animation doesn't match up quite right with the sound, and the musical sequences are pretty dull. The cartoon stops dead in its tracks so a bird can slowly pluck power lines like a harp, and again so a bear can hop around to flute music for about 30 seconds - neither scene having any gags between them.

If ALL sound Felixes were like this, I can see how he lost his popularity during this time. Any thoughts?

[David Gerstein]

Amen, brother.

APRIL MAZE has its moments, but at best I find it occasionally cute and charming rather than really clever or funny. The problem of the story stopping dead for a musical sequence is shared by others in the Copley run, such as SKULLS AND SCULLS, TEE TIME, and HOOTCHY KOOTCHY PARLAIS VOUS—partial though I may be to individual segments of all three.
As a diehard Felix fanatic, I actually consider 1924 and 1925 to be the years when the series had the best storytelling, although the animation quality arguably peaked a couple of years later.

The recent Delta Entertainment and ReelClassics DVD collections are IMHO good broader views of what silent Felix has to offer. I personally prefer the selection on Delta's DVD, but I don't credit Delta for that—it appears they took whatever a PD film footage supplier could give them. ReelClassics restored material from a private collection out of personal interest, which garners more respect in my book.

[JDWeil]

April Maze was made in 1930 under not so ideal conditions. When Sullivan lost his Educational conrtact toward the end of 1928, he was forced to shut down the studio and lay off all of his animation staff (Except Otto Messmer, he was needed for the comic strip). When Jaques Kopfstein came along and saved Sullivan with the Copley cantract, Pat brought in a skeleton satff to keep production going with Messmer the only experienced animator in the studio. It's no wonder those shorts didn't look so good.

[Cartman]

It's an OK cartoon, except when they try to be musical like Disney. The animation doesn't match up quite right with the sound, and the musical sequences are pretty dull. The cartoon stops dead in its tracks so a bird can slowly pluck power lines like a harp, and again so a bear can hop around to flute music for about 30 seconds - neither scene having any gags between them.

I agree with you on this one. When I first saw the cartoon I thought it was originally produced as a silent, but had later obtained a poorly - synchronized soundtrack. A better selection of Felix cartoons, IMO, would include FELIX WOOS WHOOPEE, FELIX IN HOLLYWOOD, ASTRONOMEOWS, and TEE TIME.

[Ray Pointer]

It is apparant that little time or care was spent in preparing the soundtracks on the sound FELIXES. Some seemed to work better than others, but for the most part, the music is rather ordinary and does not compliment the cartoons well, sapping much of its life. The use of music is what advanced the Disney product, while FELIX was defeated by the mouse.

This lackluster use of sound in someways resulted in the death of MUTT AND JEFF, too. Although the music was acceptable, the use of annoying kazoos for voices was a major detractor. In the same way, FELIX's vocal "noises" contributed to his demise.

In reference to the Reelclassics collection, these are not so much "restorations," as they are transfers to a new medium not coming from VHS dupes. To restore means to reprint and re-process actual film prints.:felix:

[Detroiter]

This lackluster use of sound in someways resulted in the death of MUTT AND JEFF, too. Although the music was acceptable, the use of annoying kazoos for voices was a major detractor. In the same way, FELIX's vocal "noises" contributed to his demise.

Were Mutt and Jeff cartoons made into the sound era? I thought the last of them was the series produced by Associated Animators for Short Films Syndicate in 1926 or thereabouts.

Frank

[JDWeil]

Westward Whoa and Slick Sleuths (both 1926) were released with a soundtrack recorded by the Brunswick System. When Brunswick Records started making electrical recordings they used a recording system developed by Westinghouse initially for motion picture which they called The Brunswick Light Ray System. What this was that a light souce was beamed from the microphone to a photo cell on the recording lathe(or the film recorder as the case may be) to produce the record. The problem with this system was that it had a limited dynamic range and was easily overloaded resulting in a distorted sound in loud passages. Brunswick used it for only one year (1926) before switching over to the Western Electric system.

[cpdavison]

The recent Delta Entertainment and ReelClassics DVD collections are IMHO good broader views of what silent Felix has to offer. I personally prefer the selection on Delta's DVD, but I don't credit Delta for that—it appears they took whatever a PD film footage supplier could give them. ReelClassics restored material from a private collection out of personal interest, which garners more respect in my book.Thanks for the kind words, regarding the reelclassicdvd.com FELIX collection. Any reviews concerning this DVD would be appreciated. Mind you, I don't profit in any way from the disc sales, but having worked with Mark Roth on this project any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks, Again!

Craig Davison
(Was gonna PM you, but your mailbox is full)

[Ray Pointer]

Westward Whoa and Slick Sleuths (both 1926) were released with a soundtrack recorded by the Brunswick System. When Brunswick Records started making electrical recordings they used a recording system developed by Westinghouse initially for motion picture which they called The Brunswick Light Ray System. What this was that a light souce was beamed from the microphone to a photo cell on the recording lathe(or the film recorder as the case may be) to produce the record. The problem with this system was that it had a limited dynamic range and was easily overloaded resulting in a distorted sound in loud passages. Brunswick used it for only one year (1926) before switching over to the Western Electric system.
The sound versions were remakes made in a two-color process. According to records I've found, the last M&J cartoon produced in 1926 was THE GOLBETROTTERS, which was something of a travelogue made up of clips from
earlier cartoons, mostly MUTT AND JEFF IN SWITZERLAND. This one, along with several others from the 1924 to 1926 era were remade as sound releases
in color. WHERE AM I, SLICK SLEUTHS and WESTWARD WHOA! were among these color remakes that were released in 1930. These sound releases came out in 1930, just to clarify for others not understanding the separation between Brunswick's application to 78 rpm records, which was an entirely difference situation in 1926. The application of the Light Ray process for sound-on-film followed after 1928.

The story of the rise and fall of the career of MUTT AND JEFF will be shown in my current production, MUTT AND JEFF: THE ORIGINAL ANIMATED ODD COUPLE, which I am presently finishing.