The Magic Bag is a 1959 Felix the Cat cartoon and the first episode of the Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo) series.
The episode begins with Felix out for a stroll daydreaming, carrying his Magic Bag of Tricks. As he strolls along, he fails to notice a bunch of signs nearby, warning trespassers to stay away. Felix comes across an apple tree and decides to use his Bag of Tricks to get an apple from it, sprouting an escalator from the bag on the spot. While eating the apple, Felix is being watched from a nearby laboratory, the residence of the owner of the property, the Professor. The Professor is initially angered at Felix trespassing on his property and eating his apples, but he takes notice of Felix's bag and what it can do. He continues spying, with Felix moving on, using the bag as a canoe to get across a lake, and then turning the bag into a lunch table, complete with food. Intrigued, Professor finally decides he has to have the bag for himself. Using an electronic device, he sends out a lightning bolt that grabs Felix and drags him all the way to the lab, dropping him onto a lab table, where a shrink ray immediately reduces Felix to barely an inch in height, while Professor ominously looms above him and takes the Magic Bag.
In the second half of the episode, Professor has the Magic Bag in his hands, laughing at Felix's misfortune. But instead of trying to open the bag right away, he decides to take a catnap on top of the roof of his lab, for no discernible reason. Felix takes advantage of the situation and whistles for his bag to come to him, which turns into a rubber ball and bounces down from the observatory hole in the roof to the floor. Unfortunately, Felix accidentally presses on a button on the Professor's computer, which summons a large robot built by the Professor. Felix acts quickly and turns his tail into a mustache, which he calls his "Professor's disguise." The Robot buys the disguise, so Felix orders him to get the Magic Bag. Just when the Robot is about to grab it, Felix whistles again, and the Magic Bag summons a kangaroo, who proceeds to fight and mop the floor with the robot. Afterwards, the Kangaroo manages to reverse Felix's size back to normal before returning to the bag. For just desserts, Felix turns his tail into a rope lasso, which pulls Professor off the roof and onto the floor, waking him up and frustrating him so much, that he uses a spanking machine he built to beat himself up for his failure. Victorious and with the Bag back in his possession, Felix ends the episode with a "Righty-o!" and a belly laugh.
Tropes:
- Boxing Kangaroo: Felix summons one with the Magic Bag to beat up the Professor's robot.
- Cartoony Tail: Felix detaches and uses his tail as a mustache disguise, and then as a rope and lasso.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The episode starts with a narrator, unlike almost every other episode in the Joe Oriolo Felix the Cat cartoons.
- Have a Gay Old Time: The narrator refers to Felix as being "gay, carefree".
- Literal Ass-Kicking: Professor does this to himself in the ending after Felix defeats him.
- Magic Hat: The Magic Bag of Tricks, which in order, can create a portable escalator, turn into a canoe with oar, a lunch table with food, a rubber ball, and then summon a boxing kangaroo.
- Shrink Ray: Professor uses his Reducing Machine on Felix after he captures him, reducing him to barely an inch in height.
