Balloon Blower Machine is a 1959 Felix the Cat cartoon and the 13th episode episode of the Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo) series.
Felix goes to town and walks into a toy shop to buy a toy ball. Once he buys it, he tries it out, but finds out it won't bounce. The cashier tells him there's bouncing balls or balloons available since a gang of crooks hijacked all the rubber trucks. Felix decides to get on the case and puts on his Junior G Man badge. Just then, Rock Bottom pops his head out of a door nearby, and asks Felix if he wants to buy some hot rubber balls. Rock notices Felix's badge and freaks out, and hands Felix a toy ball on the house. Rock sneaks away, and Felix tries to bounce the ball, which blows up in his face. Felix decides to shadow Rock, disgusing himself as a shadow. Rock immediately spots the other shadow following his own, and uses his shadow to bite Felix's tail, and makes a quick escape. While Felix is holding his throbbing tail, he smells rubber in the air, and follows the scent to an abandoned warehouse. Felix sneaks inside, and finds out there's a fully functional rubber ball and balloon factory inside. He looks around, and soon finds Rock Bottom stirring liquid rubber in a vat. Rock spots Felix, and chases after him. Felix tries hiding in a vat, but Rock turns a faucet on and douses Felix in liquid rubber, which traps him in place. Rock then grabs him and throws him into the eponymous Balloon Blower Machine, which repeatedly crushes Felix, with Rock sarcastically mocking Felix by saying he can't bear to look.
In the second half, Rock walks off to continue his rubber racket, while the machine ends up spitting Felix out inside of a balloon, causing him to drift through a chimney and outside of the warehouse. Felix drifts through the air over a bridge, and barely misses a giant tack located on top of the Professor's lab. Inside, Professor gloats about how with Rock's help, he's cornered the rubber market when he sees Felix floating outside. Professor calls Rock, who is resting in his office, and warns him about Felix. Rock springs into action, running off to an airfield and taking off in an airplane to attack Felix. He fires a missile and a machine gun at the balloon and succeeds in hitting his target, but fortunately for Felix, the balloon turns into a makeshift parachute for him, which drifts back down into the warehouse. Inside, Felix is left hanging in his parachute, and comes face to face with Professor, who tries to push him into the machine, only to unwittingly free Felix and fall into it himself. Felix tries to free Professor, but keeps pulling the wrong levers, which ends up sending Professor through an assembly line process and traps him in a beach ball. He quickly breaks free, but he's fatigued and gives up. Felix has a hearty laugh as the cartoon irises out.
Tropes:
- Attack the Tail: Happens to Felix's tail when Rock Bottom uses his shadow.
- Cool Plane: Rock hijacks a sleek looking rocket plane to attack Felix in the climax.
- Impossible Shadow Puppets: Rock uses this to turn his shadow into a bird beak to bite Felix's tail while he's disguised as a shadow.
- The Man Behind the Man: At first, it seems like Rock Bottom is running the rubber racket of his own accord, but it turns out Professor is the one really pulling the strings.
- Oh, Crap!: When Rock tries to get Felix to buy his rubber balls, he freaks out when he sees he's wearing a badge.
- Visual Pun: Felix decides to "shadow" (spy) on Rock by literally disguising himself as a shadow.
