Blubberino the Whale is a 1959 Felix the Cat cartoon and the eighth episode of the Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo) series, directed by Joe Oriolo and distributed by Trans-Lux.
The episode starts at Professor's lab, with the grouchy scientist mumbling about how to get Felix and his bag. He takes a stroll by the seashore, and comes across a message in a bottle. He reads it and finds out a secret agent of his has found out Felix is stranded on a raft way out in the ocean. Professor decides to go after Felix, seeing it as a job he can use a shark for, or, if that fails, he will fall back on Blubberino the Whale to get Felix instead. Professor whips out a trumpet that summons a sea turtle to him, which has a hidden compartment, radar and periscope stashed inside its shell, and he takes off for the ocean. Later, Professor finds Felix, pacing in his usual manner while stranded on a raft with his Magic Bag of Tricks. Professor eyes the bag on the raft and reaches for it through the scope, but the bag shuffles aside and turns into a hammer to whack Professor's hand. Felix has a laugh at it, but quickly asserts that he has nothing to laugh about, since he's starving. He looks up and sees a pelican, which he imagines as being a piece of chicken to eat. Felix tries to eat a belt he was wearing, but doesn't like it, and he ties himself to the rafts mast with it. Suddenly, Felix sees a mermaid sitting on a rock nearby, holding a bowl of fruit. He runs towards it and tries to grab the fruit, but the belt pulls him back to the raft. Just then, the "mermaid" pulls off "her" disguise, revealing "herself" to be Professor pulling a cruel trick on Felix, with the rock he was resting on turning out to be a shark that Professor is riding. Professor orders the shark to cut up Felix, and he turns his fin into a sawblade and goes on the attack. The shark tears apart two big chunks of Felix's raft, but Felix turns the Magic Bag into an anvil, which wears out the shark's blade and sends it away. Felix has a laugh, but quickly changes his tune when he sees Blubberino the Whale nearby, who is ready to have Felix for a snack. Felix hastily tears off the mast of the raft and tries to row ahead, but the whale quickly overpowers him and eats him.
Inside the whale, Felix tries to run away from the whale's tongue, but it wraps around him and drags him deeper into the belly of the whale. Once he rolls down the whales throat and lands, he comes face to face with another peculiar character, who introduces himself as King Neptune (actually Professor in yet another disguise). Felix is put off by his unusual rhyming speech, but when Neptune asks Felix if this is the first time he's crossed the equator and gets no for an answer, he decides it's time to celebrate. He asks for Felix's bag, but the cat refuses to hand it over. Neptune orders a nearby lobster and some other aquatic animals to strike up a tune of "Turkey in the Straw", and he and Felix start dancing together. They eventually make their way further in the whale, which is marked as "Davy Jones' Locker". "Neptune" finally grabs Felix's bag and throws him in, tearing off his disguise and revealing him as Professor as bars descend on the door. While Professor stands near Felix and brags about how nobody gets out of Davy Jones Locker alive, Felix takes the chance to grab his bag back, and he ponders how he'll get out as he walks into the darkness of the locker. He finds a dead end, but turns on a light, revealing a hatch marked "Pressure Chamber". Curious, Felix opens it and gets sucked in, and is blown out of the whale through his spout. While in mid-air, Felix turns his bag into a gyrocopter and flies off, landing back on his raft. Blubberino sees Felix again and begins to chase him once more, but the Magic Bag, still in the form of a copter, descends into the water and spins around in it, creating a makeshift whirlpool, which sucks up the whale and spits him back out as a colony of fish, with Professor landing back in the water unharmed. Professor clobbers himself with a wet mackerel as Felix says "Righty-O!" and laughs as the cartoon irises out.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Biology: Blubberino is depicted as having teeth when Felix is inside of him, which is something real life whales do not have. The rest of his insides are even less scientifically accurate.
- Broad Strokes: The episode starts with Felix on a raft, which was the exact same situation he was in the end of the previous episode, "Do It Yourself Monster Book".
- Forgot About His Powers: Felix could have resolved the entire plot off the bat by just using his Magic Bag of Tricks to create a vehicle to fly away (which he does end up doing later in the cartoon) or at least using it to make food like he could in the pilot episode.
- Kick the Dog: Professor sadistically teasing the starving Felix with a bowl of fruit and then sicking a shark after him.
- Meat-O-Vision: Felix sees a pelican flying overhead as a piece of cooked chicken due to the starvation he's going through.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Professor's King Neptune disguise consists of an obviously phony beard and flimsy gown. Felix falls for it, unfortunately.
- Averted with Professor's Latex Perfection mermaid disguise; his mermaid mask even has attached fake breasts. Can be seen as an example of a Creepy Crossdresser.
- Offscreen Teleportation: After Professor fell off the shark when it went on the attack, he somehow found time to get inside of Blubberino before Felix and disguise himself as King Neptune.
- Oh, Crap!: Felix's reaction when he sees Blubberino getting ready to chase and eat him.
- Standard Snippet: When "Neptune" and Felix dance, the music playing is "Turkey in the Straw".
- Swallowed Whole: Blubberino swallows Felix alive, and his tongue carries him further into his stomach.
- Wacky Sound Effect: Blubberino charging towards his prey is usually accompanied by the sound of a steam train, with the whistle accompanying his blowhole spraying.
- Womb Level: The inside of Blubberino, which somehow has a residence of musical aquatic creatures, electricity, a cell with bars, signs with writing attacked to the "walls", and a mechanical pressure chamber.
