Felix Minds the Kid is a 1922 Felix the Cat cartoon produced by Pat Sullivan.
Plot[]
Felix sneaks up to a fish market and comments "This is where I grab a meal!" He sneaks inside, but is quickly thrown out by the owner. He says "You'll get the devil if I catch you around here again!" Felix runs off, but sneaks back to try and get a fish out of a barrel. "This is too easy!" he says. Felix sticks his tail in the barrel to grab something, but a crab catches his tail. He runs around, and only by squeezing through a pipe can he get rid of it. Felix continues to walk until he stops by a house. He says "I'm that hungry I could eat the date off the calendar." He notices a shoe and is about to eat it when he hears a baby crying. The father plays a trumpet, which causes several toy soldiers to come to life, but the baby still cries.
Meanwhile, Felix tries to eat the shoe but fails and tosses it aside. Felix says "Seems I'm doomed to starve!" then cries and howls. The father notices and whistles for the cat. The father makes an offer to mind his kid for an hour in exchange for food: "Mind him for an hour and I'll give you a swell feed." Felix agrees, and the two shake hands. The father introduces Felix and the kid to each other. The kid is delighted, and the two hug. Felix entertains the kid by bouncing a ball on his tail, balancing it on his nose, then by bouncing on his tail while holding the ball. Suddenly, a toy soldier stabs Felix in the rear. The kid laughs. Felix angrily says some things to the kid, which cause him to cry. Felix blows a balloon and gives it to the kid. The kid sticks the balloon in his mouth and ends up becoming just like the balloon, floating in the air and out of the house. Felix is not sure what to do and panics. He takes the baby carriage and chases the kid through the sky. The kid catches onto a beacon, where a bird deflates him. The kid falls and lands in the baby carriage and starts to cry.
Felix goes to a day nursery and gets the idea to bring the kid back some candy. The kid crawls out of the carriage and into the nursery. When Felix notices the kid is gone, he thinks he has sneaked home, so he goes back there. Felix finds the father angrily searching for his kid, then he says that if Felix fails to bring his kid home in five minutes, he will "skin him alive!" Felix envisions himself as a skeleton, then runs back to the nursery to find the kid. He jumps onto the wall to find a lot of kids that look identical to the kid he was caring for. Felix crawls inside and uses the candy to lure one of the kids out. The kid tells the other kids that he has candy, and all of them follow him. When Felix returns home, the father asks where his kid is. Felix shows him the many kids. The father, shocked, faints. Felix looks at the many kids and is shocked, so he turns the candy into an umbrella and sails into the sky.
Trivia[]
- The short was adapted into the Sunday comic strip dated November 4, 1923.
- For no reason, a bunch of soldier toys come to life and march off when the father is playing music for his kid. One of them decides to stab Felix in the butt with its bayonet for no clear reason.
- The ending punchline; there are so many identical kids, that the father can't tell his kid apart from any of them, and faints.
- Before things go south with returning the kid to his father, Felix turns the candy cane into an umbrella and drifts away in the air.
- After Felix saves the kid from falling off the building, the kid screams a YOW!, which makes Felix jump into the air and hang off the word yow hanging in the air with his tail.