Filching Felix
To make a long story short, the people who own Felix the Cat are suing the creators of the Kit-Cat clock, those cute black cat clocks with the tail that wags with every tick-tock (I want this one). Some people would be surprised to learn that the iconic timekeeping kitties are not actually representative of classic toon star Felix.
Okay "Some people" is me, and as a toonhead I'm a little ashamed to admit that I never separated the two. But can you blame me? They look so much alike, it's no wonder the clock makers are being sued for misappropriating the iconic cat's likeness for financial gain. And not just some financial gain, buckets upon buckets of financial gain. Which is obviously the only reason this lawsuit is finally happening, a mere 70 years after the first Kit Kat clock was made - money.
If this lawsuit were based purely on the principle of protecting Felix's good name and reputation or the creative work of the animators, they'd also be suing Disney, home of Julius (seen holding the cake), a feature player in a series of theatrical shorts in the 20's, not long after Felix's illustrious (pun intended) debut. But Julius didn't grow into a cash cow (cash cat?) that reportedly sold a piece of merchandise once every three minutes for seven decades. Then again, Julius and Felix most likely inspired the design of future Disney headliner Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who eventually developed into that other animation superstar. Basically, everybody was "inspired" by everybody else back then, and the lovable, round-headed, black-and-white, easy-to-draw anthropomorphized cartoon was the trend.
But ultimately I think Felix's production company and the Kit-Cat Clock company should put aside their differences and unite against the real culprit: this cute li'l feller. That's right, Kit-Cat lookalike URL kitkat.com takes you right to Purina's UK website starring a black-and-white spokescat by the name of ... Felix.
