Research Project No. 4: Animation, Felix the Cat and Charlie Chaplin

For Project No. 4 my partner and I are transforming the movie The Matrix into a silent film to go viral on you tube.  In researching silent films, the weekend I watched Modern Times starring Charlie Chaplin.  It is interesting to note, that because live-action films were such a big hit with moviegoers, early cartoon characters were often modeled on popular actors of the day. One such cartoon character was Master Tom—a black feline with enormous eyes and an inviting ear-to-ear grin. His creator, legendary animator Otto Messmer, based the cat’s personality on silent-film star Charlie Chaplin. Within a year, a slightly boxier version of the cat, now named Felix, started appearing regularly in animated shorts before Chaplin’s feature films.  In the 1920’s cartoon character spoke using speech balloons. People were fascinated by the technology that enabled Felix to take his tail off and turn it into a pencil or a question mark or a shovel.  Felix became such a celebrity in Great Britain that Queen Mary named her own cat after him. Charles Lindbergh on his historic flight across the Atlantic carried a picture of Felix. The character’s adventures didn’t stop there; Felix was also the first image ever successfully transmitted by RCA during its early TV experiments.

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