Felix the Cat gets a weird makeover in Comicalamities

If you have about eight minutes to kill and you like seeing a cartoon character have a complete existential crisis, Comicalamities is probably for you. It is a weird little relic from 1928 that shows exactly why people used to be obsessed with this cat.

If you hate old silent stuff where the music is just a repetitive piano loop, you’ll probably find this annoying. But for everyone else, it is a fun trip into meta-humor before that was even a term people used.

The whole thing starts with Otto Messmer’s hand actually appearing on screen. He’s drawing Felix, and the cat is just standing there looking bored while his ears get filled in with ink.

I love how Felix immediately starts complaining once he's fully formed. He looks in a mirror and basically decides he’s too ugly to live, which is relatable but also very dramatic for a cartoon animal.

He grabs the artist's pen and starts trying to fix himself. The way he draws on his own face is honestly kind of creepy if you think about it too hard.

He gives himself these massive, weird shoes and a different nose. He looks absolutely ridiculous, but he’s so proud of it that you almost feel bad for him. 😹

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Comicalamities (1928) through its definitive frames.

There is this one moment where he tries to impress a female cat with his new look. She just laughs at him, and the look on Felix's face is so genuinely sad for a second before he gets angry.

It reminds me a little bit of the vibes in Felix Finds Out, where he’s just wandering around trying to make sense of a world that doesn’t want to cooperate with him. The logic in these old shorts is just so loose and bouncy.

The background is basically non-existent. It’s just white space, which makes the whole thing feel like it’s happening in a void or a dream.

I noticed the ink bottle on the desk looks suspiciously like a real one, not a drawing. It’s that weird mix of live-action elements and ink that they were obsessed with back then.

If you’ve seen Creation, you know how much they liked playing with the idea of 'making' life on screen. This is way less serious than that, though.

Felix eventually gets so mad that he starts erasing things. The ending is a bit abrupt, but that’s just how these things go.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Comicalamities (1928) through its definitive frames.

It doesn't have a big lesson or a moral. It’s just a cat being a diva and then getting erased by his own creater because he was being too difficult.

The animation is actually really smooth for 1928. His tail does this weird wiggly thing when he’s thinking that I could watch for hours.

Some of the jokes feel a bit dusty now, sure. But the part where he pulls a chair out of nowhere just by drawing it still feels clever.

It’s definitely better than some of the other random shorts from that era like Somebody Lied, which feels much more dated in its humor. Felix has a personality that actually sticks.

I wonder if the animators were actually frustrated with the character when they wrote this. It feels like a vent session for an overworked artist.

Anyway, it’s a good one for a coffee break. Just don't expect it to make any sense. ☕