Felix The Cat Wiki


Copley Pictures was a distributor of Felix the Cat cartoons.

History[]

Images (2

Announcing the release of new Felix sound shorts from Copley Pictures

With the advent of synchronized sound in The Jazz Singer in 1927, Educational Pictures, who distributed the Felix shorts at the time, urged Pat Sullivan to make the leap to "talkie" cartoons, but Sullivan refused. Further disputes led to a break between Educational and Sullivan. Only after competing studios released the first synchronized-sound animated films, such as Fleischer's My Old Kentucky Home, Van Beuren's Dinner Time and Disney's Steamboat Willie, did Sullivan see the possibilities of sound. He managed to secure a contract with First National Pictures in 1928, but for reasons unknown, this did not last, so Sullivan sought out Jacques Kopfstein and Copley Pictures to distribute his new sound Felix cartoons. On October 16, 1929, an advertisement appeared in Film Daily with Felix announcing, Jolson-like, "You ain't heard nothin' yet!

Felix's transition to sound was not a smooth one. Sullivan did not carefully prepare for Felix's transition to sound and added sound effects into the sound cartoons as a post-animation process. The results were disastrous. More than ever, it seemed as though Disney's mouse was drawing audiences away from Sullivan's silent star. Not even entries such as the Fleischer-style off-beat Woos Whoopee or the Silly Symphony-esque April Maze (both 1930) could regain the franchise's audience. Kopfstein finally canceled Sullivan's contract.

Filmography[]

Sound Reissues[]

17 Re-releases

Title Release date
Arabiantics 1928
Outdoor Indore 1928
The Oily Bird 1929
Felix Behind in Front 1929
The Non-Stop Fright 1929
Daze and Knights 1929
Eskimotive 1929
Astronomeows 1929
Futuritzy 1929
In- and Out-Laws 1929
Uncle Tom's Crabbin' 1929
Felix Switches Witches 1929
No Fuelin' 1929
The Smoke Scream 1929
Japanicky 1929
Whys and Other Whys 1929
Flim Flam Films 1931

New Releases[]

12 Cartoons

Title Release date
False Vases 1929
One Good Turn 1929
Romeeow 1929
The Cat's Meow 1929
April Maze 1930
Woos Whoopee 1930
Forty Winks 1930
Hootchy Kootchy Parlais Vous 1930
Oceantics 1930
Skulls and Sculls 1930
Tee Time 1930
unknown title 1930