Director: Otto Messmer

Cast: Felix the Cast

Synopsis: Felix the cat travels back in time and encounters prehistoric monsters.

Felix Trifles With Time, the first Felix the Cat movie to be distributed by Educational Pictures features possibly the first instance of an animated movie character travelling back in time. It’s a simple but entertaining idea with Felix deciding to bribe Old Father Time into sending him back to prehistoric times so that he can scavenge some feed – which is in woefully short supply in the 20th Century. Father Time duly obliges, but Felix discovers that it’s no easier to find himself a decent meal in this era than it was in the present day. Not only does he find himself pursued by all manner of prehistoric creatures – including something that looks like a dogosaurus – but he even has his fur coat purloined by a caveman tailor trying to satisfy a difficult customer.

The animation is pretty basic but typical of the era, and Felix makes a curiously endearing character in spite of his simplicity. The cartoon strays into surreal territory at times with generally pleasing results, particularly when our little hero drops a stone into a river from a cliff top and transforms the fountain of water that splashes up to him into a parachute so that he can evade becoming that dogosaurus’ lunch.

(Reviewed 2nd April 2005)