The Rajah's Elephants is a 1960 Felix the Cat cartoon and the 57th episode of the Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo) series.
Felix is yet again reading one of his comic books when he gets a phone call from his Magic Bag. He answers it, and it turns out to be Rajah Ragooni, who says his elephants are being stolen and that he needs Felix's help—just as another elephant of his is lifted into the air by a plunger. Felix turns his Magic Bag into a flying carpet and takes off to the Rajah's palace. At the palace, a hot air balloon disguised as a cloud opens up, and Rock Bottom pops his head out, giving Professor the OK to lift up another elephant into the air. Felix nearly passes up the palace, but turns around and flies inside, greeting the Rajah. The Rajah tells him how even more elephants were kidnapped last night, and Felix gets to work building a trap. He builds a wooden elephant and hides inside of it, waiting for the crooks to capture it. The Rajah warns Felix that they're coming, and on cue, the hot air balloon shows up and lifts the wooden elephant into the air. Felix blows a trumpet to help sell the trick. The Rajah looks on, hoping Felix knows what he's doing.
Rock notices that the elephant they captured looks strange and assumes its sick, so Professor lands their ship to check it out, and immediately realize its a fake. Felix pops out of it and tries to arrest them, but Professor sicks Rock on him. Rock ties Felix up and hangs him from a tree above a group of captive elephants. The crooks head off, but Felix calls for a nearby elephant to help him and promises to return him to the Rajah in exchange. The elephant frees Felix, and then Felix calls for the other elephants to herd together and charge. They all knock down the fence holding them in, and head back to the Rajah's palace. The Rajah thanks Felix, but wonders what happened to the crooks, with Felix saying they'll be back later. Back at the hot air balloon, Professor fixes up the switch to the lifting device, and they fly back to the palace. They prepare to lift up another elephant, but Felix is waiting down below and attaches a beehive to the plunger. The angry bees fly up the cord of the plunger and into the hot air balloon, sending Professor and Rock reeling. They're forced to parachute out of their ship, and the Rajah's guards immediately capture them, with the Rajah declaring their job is to wash the elephants twice. Felix, standing on an elephant and wearing a turban, laughs as the cartoon irises out.
Tropes:
- Scary Stinging Swarm: Professor and Rock are at the receiving end of a group of angry bees, thanks to Felix attaching a beehive to their airships plunger.
- Trojan Horse: Felix builds a wooden elephant to use this tactic to find out who's stealing the Rajah's elephants.
