F Gwynplaine MacIntyre
'Felix Trips through Toyland' is a typical -- and therefore enjoyable -- example of the low-budget Felix the Cat cartoons drawn by Otto Messmer in stark black-and-white. Messmer, alas, was not well-paid for the long hours he put into these cartoons. At the very end of his life, Messmer was supported largely by charity testimonials produced by some friends of mine at the Collective for Living Cinema in White Street, NYC.In this toon, Felix encounters a dog worrying a little-girl doll. When he rescues the doll and repairs its broken leg, the doll miraculously comes alive. To show her gratitude, she takes Felix to Toyland, where the two of them meet a grown-up male doll in a Pierrot costume, who looks vaguely like Koko the Clown (from the rival Fleischer studio). Pierrot expresses his yearning for the girl doll, but she's having none of it.SPOILER NOW. The most astonishing moment in this toon occurs when the little-girl doll expresses her disdain for Pierrot by mooning him! She bends over and lifts the back of her skirt so that he (but not we) can see whatever she's got underneath. What a surprise! Elsewhere, we get the usual sight-gags dealing with Felix's detachable tail. I'll rate this toon 7 out of 10.
