1958 Felix The Cat coming to DVD

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On Oct. 2, Classic Media will release the first 31 episodes of the 1958 Felix The Cat TV cartoon show. Jack Mercer (the voice of Popeye from 1936 to 1982) played all the voices in the show.

Felix was created for silent cartoons in the 1920s and his surreal adventures made him a superstar for the era, up until sound movies and Mickey Mouse came around. Otto Messemer and Pat Sullivan both claimed to have created Felix. In 1958, Joe Oriolo (creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost) developed a syndicated TV package of 260 Felix cartoons and gave him a magic bag with which he could use in any predicament, and two adversaries--a short scientist simply called the Professor, and his muscle, a muscle-brained bulldog named Rock Bottom. Each cartoon was in two parts, with a cliff-hanger at the end of the first. In 1988, Felix The Cat: The Movie was released and was a box office flop.

In 1994, Felix was revived for CBS's "we'll be back after these messages" bumpers on Saturday morning, and in 1995 he had a new series on the network, The Twisted Tales Of Felix The Cat, an offbeat show patterened after old-time 1930s cartoons.