Ski Outing

Ski Outing is an unfinished Felix the Cat cartoon for Rainbow Parade.

Plot[]

Felix asks Kitty to take her on a ski trip. He meets Isido at the girl's house before him and the three of them go for the ride. Felix tries to make a good impression, but the girl's attention is caught by Waldo's greater skill in doing fancy tricks with skates, skis, etc. Waldo's play with the horse finally gets the girl into danger and she is rescued by Felix. She realizes that it is Felix she likes and Waldo is left out.

The story begins with Waldo in the pot. He is twirling the ski pole like a cane and is loaded with winter sports paraphernalia. He is singing "A Skiing We Will Go" (start with "A Hunting We Will Go"). As he passes through the gate of Kitty's house, the cat quickly closes it, ruffling his tail feathers. His dignity is hurt and he takes out a comb to smooth his feathers. He rings the doorbell, and when Kitty opens the door, she invites him in and tells him to wait while she gets dressed.

He then sees Felix approaching the house from a different direction. He is singing "A Skiing we will Go". He rings the doorbell and we cut out to show Waldo looking out from under the shadow to see who it is. The door suddenly opens, Waldo yells to Felix "There's no one here", pulls Felix's scarf, making him spin around, and slams the door. Felix falls sprawled amidst his skis, skates, snowshoes, etc., gets up and rings the doorbell again. This time he runs to the back of the house quickly. Waldo answers the doorbell, sees no one at the door, and returns to the living room to find Felix sitting on the couch. Rooster is about to throw Felix out when Kitty walks in and they prepare to leave. Rooster piles all three of their gear on Felix and tells him to come along. As they pass through the gate, Waldo holds the gate open for the girl and himself, then triggers it so that Felix falls face down again. The girl responds, "Hurry up, Felix. Stop soothing yourself." Felix gathers a pile of equipment and they all head out.

We cut through the dissolve to the interior of a "snow train," and at this point we build up to a musical sequence with Waldo playing an aki as a musical saw, Kitty strumming a guitar as a snowshoe, and Felix hammering on various sized skates for the xylophone effect. There are also scenes throughout the train of various other characters joining in the fun, such as a ghost strumming his horns and controlling the sound with his mouth, a pig eating lunch to the beat, etc.

As Waldo plays, he smokes one of his black cigars. The smoke chokes Kitty and she asks for a glass of water. (We repeat a running gag with Waldo throughout the picture: every time he needs a new cigar, he lifts his hat and a lit cigar rolls into his mouth.) Waldo and Felix make a mad dash for the water cooler at the back of the car and each quickly fills a paper cup with water. Waldo tosses the end of his cigar into Felix's cup. Felix squeezes Waldo's soup so that the water splashes out and hits him in the eye. Felix fills another cup and, as he starts to stir it, Waldo knocks it over, the cup flies into the air, Haldo catches it and hands it to Kitty, who thanks him profusely.

We cut to an exterior shot showing the train struggling to climb a steep hill. It finally stops, its wheels spinning. The engineer gets out, hooks the locomotive, puts protective chains on the wheels, and the train climbs, runs into a snowbank, and continues on its way.

We cross Lake Hanoid until we reach Lake Hanoid. The train stops and Felix steps down onto the platform. He turns as if to help Kitty, but the load of sports equipment falls into his arms and Kitty steps down onto Waldo's arm.