BOOTLEG FILES 580: “Detective Felix in Trouble” (1932 Japanese amateur animated short).
LAST SEEN: A video of this rare film is online at the Japanese Animated Film Classics website.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: The unauthorized use of the Felix the Cat character.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely at this time.
Today, it seems that anyone with a video camera and a mania for popular movies can make their own fan film based on the latest multiplex hit. But the concept of the fan film is not new, by any stretch. The earliest known fan film was a 1925 short “Anderson’s Own Gang Comedy,” a South Carolina-lensed riff on the Our Gang series.