Vavoom Learns How To Fish is a 1961 Felix the Cat cartoon, distributed by Trans-Lux and directed by Joe Oriolo. It is the 103rd episode of the Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo) series.
The episode starts with Felix driving along with his little friend Vavoom, telling him that they’re going to his favorite fishing hole. They come across a boulder blocking the road, and Vavoom uses his loud voice to reduce the boulder into a pile of rubble, allowing them to drive through it. Not much further ahead, they come across a river blocking their path, but Vavoom quickly finds a solution by using his voice to knock down a giant tree near the river, creating a makeshift bridge for him and Felix to cross. They stop ahead as Felix points out the Rock Dam to Vavoom, and how it seems the town right down beside it safe. They continue on and find Felix’s fishing hole, right at the foot of the dam. Felix and Vavoom start fishing on different sides of the hole, but Vavoom only catches a lollipop. Right when Felix is having a laugh at Vavoom, he gets sprayed with water from behind, and realizes that the dam has sprung a leak. After failing to seal the leak with his hand, Felix realizes the crack could spread and tells Vavoom to run and go warn the town. As Vavoom heads off, the crack immediately starts getting worse. Vavoom arrives at the town and tries to warn a police officer, who acquires what he wants, but Vavoom is only able to reply with his trademark sound, which sends the cop flying and clinging onto a church steeple. The situation is only getting worse back at the dam, and Felix hopes that Vavoom is doing his job. Back in the town, Vavoom continually tries to warn the town about the leaking dam, but only continues to send people flying with his sound. Eventually, the town grows tired of the destruction Vavoom is unwittingly causing, and a mob forms to tie up Vavoom, including his mouth, as Felix, still back at the dam, wonders what he could do.
The mob takes Vavoom and throws him in the town jail, still tied up and unable to speak—until he manages to effortlessly loosen the ropes around himself. Just outside the cell, two men are lounging, one saying that Vavoom is dangerous, but the other says not to worry as Vavoom is in jail. As if on cue, Vavoom bellows his trademark sound, knocking the jail wall down and escaping. One of the men, pinned under the rubble, calls for the town to catch him, and a mob immediately forms to chase down Vavoom. He hides out in a mailbox, but the mob quickly finds him and continues the chase. A man tries to trap him under a garbage can, but Vavoom blows it off with his voice. Vavoom is seemingly cornered near a rock wall by the mob, but he drills a tunnel through it with his voice. A police officer tries to head him off in the canyon, capturing him with a noose once he tunnels out the other end. Back at the dam, the cracks are getting even larger, much to Felix’s fear. But Felix then hears how Vavoom has been captured, and decides he has to save him. To buy time, Felix grabs a nearby rock to try and temporarily seal the leak and runs off, warning the mob about the dam leak and that Vavoom was trying to warn them the whole time—just as the dam is completely ready to fall apart. The mob and Felix look on in horror as the dam begins crumbling, but Vavoom, who has been untied, gestures to Felix to calm down and casually walks towards the dam—and uses his voice to create an avalanche, which completely seals off the leaky dam. Felix exclaims “Well, I’ll be!” as the town proclaims Vavoom as a hero.
Tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: This episode is largely centered on Vavoom, as Felix is mostly stuck trying to keep the dam leak from getting worse.
- Blown Across the Room: Later in the episode, a man tries to trap Vavoom under a garbage can and sit on it, but Vavoom uses his voice to blow him away so hard, that according to bystanders with telescopes, he’s been sent flying into orbit.
- Non-Indicative Name: Vavoom doesn't spend the episode learning how to fish as much as he spends it trying—and failing—to warn the town about the leaking dam.
- Pokémon Speak: The episode reveals that Vavoom is literally only able to say his name, and this keeps him from warning the town about the leaking dam
- Poor Communication Kills: The source of the conflict is that Vavoom can't warn the town about the leaking dam because he can only say his name, and Felix can't warn them until it's too late because he was tied up trying to keep the dam leak from getting worse, and he was counting on Vavoom to try and warn the town in his steed.
- Cassandra Truth Vavoom then Felix trying to warn the town.
