Felix the Cat

When I was a little girl, a couple of my uncles found a video at a garage sale they thought I would enjoy. They have been regretting that purchase ever since! It was a video of "Felix the Cat" short films from the 1930's. From the moment I received this amazing gift, I was in love! I watched it so often I can still recite it. Though that could be because I regularly watch both the original video and the new dvd I found with delight. My regular viewings drove my relatives crazy that summer but I have treasured their thoughtfulness ever since.

My favorite episode on the video was "Bold King Cole." It begins on a sunny day with Felix sitting in a blossoming tree playing his guitar singing a song about "Nature and Me." I like to fancy it is myself strumming the guitar, singing this love song to nature, saying that we "laugh and play and sing all day...Nature and me!"

Suddenly, his beautiful spring day is cut short when a vicious thunderstorm explodes upon him, a lightening bolt sawing a cloud in half letting the rain pour out. This lightening bolt seems to have a personal vendetta against Felix and chances him all over the country side. Perhaps, though, it was just a means to an end, for Felix runs for cover to the nearby castle where adventures galore await him.

Inside the castle, Bold King Cole is regaling his bored subjects with stories of his bravery. "I'm not afraid of anything!" he repeats. But when pounding is suddenly heard on the castle door, everyone, including him, dives for cover. The king's big head and little crown peers from the seat cushion on the throne as he commands someone to open the door. But alas, they are not as brave as he, so he goes to the door...on tiptoe. He opens the door and in blows Felix on a gust of wind. King Cole struggles to close the door and then turns to question Felix. As his questions turn to story telling, we see a wall full of past kings' portraits. They come to life in ghost form and discuss what they are going to do about their longwinded monarch. Their unanimous decision is to teach him a lesson. They crawl out of their paintings and shock Bold King Cole and Felix who run away hoping to escape. But there are a lot ghostly kings who have had enough of King Cole's bragging ways and they corner them.

They capture King Cole and march him downstairs to the dungeon singing, "Talk, talk, talk! Brag, brag, brag! Talking, talking, bragging, bragging.....You talk too much, you talk too much. You never shut up! You talk too much! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're talking, talking, talking, talking, talking all the time. You brag too much, you brag too much. You never shut up! You brag too much!" Poor Cole is terrified though he boasts he is never afraid. They strap him down and begin to pump all the hot air out of him until his robustness becomes a shriveled old man. They take the bag of hot air and turn it towards him, giving him a taste of his own medicine. He is tortured by the sound of his own voice, bragging on and on about embellished exploits. He cries out, "Take it away! I'll never do it again! Take it away!" The ghosts simply laugh at his plight.

Meanwhile, Felix cleverly escapes from his guard ghost, zapping him with lightning till he disappears. He opens the door to the dungeon and zaps the rest of the ghosts who try to flee, but fail. With his captors gone, King Cole slips out from under his restraints and inhales the air left in the sack returning him to his rotund self. He and Felix congratulate themselves on their victory singing, "We're not afraid of anything, we're not afraid at all!" Two mice find their way into two suits of armor and battle each other until they break apart. Felix and the king cower in a trunk until the battle is done. Bold King Cole crowns Felix with a mini crown and they applaud themselves yet again for not being afraid of "anything".


And that is the wonderful story that I will watch for the rest of my life and share with my kids. All thanks to my thoughtful uncles who bought me a movie. :)
Feel free to watch the entire episode below!!! Enjoy!