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As Good As It Gets

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I think I see where the creators were trying to go with this weird melange of mixed story elements and bland artistic choices. But for me, it didn't work at all. First, the story itself. I don't remember much of Felix from my younger days, but I have half-remembered images of an irrepressibly cheerful kitty who pulled amazing things out of his "Bag Of Tricks" and tickled my younger self with his magical "anything can happen" existence. And it's obvious that's what the film makers are trying to do here. But to me,now, it feels forced and phony and annoying. I found some of the original Felix cartoons on YouTube to see if my adult tastes and sensibilities were to blame...nope, those old cartoons are still weird and goofy and incredibly creative. But you know what else they were? They're SHORT. And there's the problem. Felix is a character meant to show up, do something outrageous and tricky, and LEAVE. If you keep him around for 90 minutes plus, you have to try to flesh him out, and add to his backstory...and the creators just don't have the ability to do this convincingly. Now Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett (from this generation) or Theodore Sturgeon, or even R.A. Lafferty...THOSE guys could have come up with a way to fill things out and come up with a story that justified this much time with the character without exhausting our patience. I might have been able to live with a poor story if the actual animation quality had been better, but to me, that's where the film really falls down. You'd expect this level of animation for a weekly kids cartoon on TV, not a feature release. The character designs were generic and undistinguished, and the animation was pure hack work. I understand that good animation is hard, hard work; it takes time, talent, money, and inspiration. "Felix" was completely lacking in inspiration and talent. Or else the talent didn't have any time or money. Once every 3-4 minutes, there would be a nice flash of something decent, but if you blinked, you'd miss it. Also, the sound was mixed and synched so badly that half the time I couldn't make out what the characters were saying. The voice acting appeared to be the stuff from the first couple of takes from actors who spoke English as a second language. And there were musical numbers that were neither funny or charming. A kid might like this. A LITTLE kid, who hadn't grown up with Warner Brothers, Ralph Bakshi, Disney, Don Bluth, and Pixar and didn't have any taste for "the good stuff". Or an adult who saw this as a kid and has fond memories of it. I wasn't expecting much, and I got even less. File this one with "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" and "The Magic Voyage": animated bologna that does nothing to make you believe in the power of animation to tell stories that live action can't.

Felix the Cat was a cartoon character I was somewhat familiar with as a child. When I was browsing a list of Nostalgia Critic episodes on Wikipedia, I was surprised to stumble across this film since I never knew it existed. I watched his review of this film on YouTube and it started with a repetitive outburst because he found it horrendous. I disagree with him to some extent because there are some parts of this film that were better than others after also having seen this film on YouTube.This film started off fast-paced due to seeing a fair amount of the first half in the Nostalgia Critic's review; however halfway through the pace began to slow down. There were also a few moments that made me think, "What's going on?" such as a fox cub looking as if it's about to pee on Felix's bag; Felix pointing at a skull, laughing at it and pulling a funny face at it (some may find this disrespectful); and Princess Oriana appearing with her hands over her face during the wacky show scene. There is also a minor use of scene repetition such as when Princess Oriana dances in the bubble and Madam Pearl watches out for her. Before this scene, I found Felix's jokes a tad lame. I agree with TheLittleSongbird with regard to the ending since I also thought it was rushed. The animation is consistent for the most part, but it is quite rapid when Felix tries to catch Orinana's tear due to the noticeable motion blur. In terms of the lip-sync, it was out of place about halfway through, but I saw it as a result of how the film was uploaded since some videos I've seen on YouTube had lip-sync problems. As for the sound, some of it did drown out the dialogue. Felix was the star of this cartoon, but I also liked Princess Oriana and her change of heart towards him. Overall, this film wasn't as bad as the Nostalgia Critic said in spite of its uneven pace and inconsistencies with sound and lip-sync. 7/10.

I remember watching this on VHS as a kid, and even then, it seemed odd. So, when I got the chance to watch it again, I had to take it and confirm that, yes, even before I developed any sort of taste, there was a reason You've got: Colliding art styles: Felix retains some of the start-stop jerkiness often found in old cartoons, while the princess shows some (but not quite enough) fluidity. The rest of the characters are bouncing, flailing, late-'80s style messes. Ugly as sin, and made worse by repeated scenes, which only get uglier the second time through. For a kid's movie, why the heck is there a scene with mutant seahorses trying to attract the attention of a pair of legs by flouncing their boobs about, and a gag where a young fox is straining to pee on Felix's magic bag?There's almost no plot. It's more like a series of events that just kind of happen, but never once feels tied together. It doesn't make sense, not in a surreal and zany way (cf. Yellow Submarine), but in a wholly pointless one. There's no depth of character, either; they're all just things moving around on a screen, without motivations or logic or plot.Presumably, the Professor and Poindexter characters are a tie-in to the old show, but they add absolutely nothing to the movie. In fact, there's a number of scenes that don't seem to do anything besides take up time.The audio frequently fails to match up with the animation, from the music scenes to voices. And voices are regularly obscured beneath the score and sound effects. But that's okay, because voice acting ranges from apathetic to obnoxious to hammy and overblown. Not that there's much to say. If there's not a groan-worthy line exposition occurring, there's a constant babble of lame puns instead.It's watchable as an animated train wreck or distraction for kids with undemanding tastes, but an animated classic it is not. Oh, the songs are kind of catchy, in an embarrassingly cheesy manner, though.

In general, this was an interesting movie, using some of the world's first computer animation for special effects. Made right after Czechloslovakia was ridding itself of Communism, this production had a wonderful team of voice actors playing a diverse cast of characters. Overall, the movie was good, although Felix himself, his personality, and his voice can all get really annoying. The animation was quite interesting, as well as the artwork gone into it. It may not be the best movie for everyone, but has always been one of my favorites. I suggest you at least try to see it.