Old King Cole (1933)

just watch it!

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

A Disappointing Continuation

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This is a really nice cartoon featuring an assortment of Mother Goose and/or storybook characters, from Humpty Dumpty to the Three Blind Mice and from Bo-Peep to Goldilocks, performing a song and dance for Old King Cole. It's nice how the storybook characters come together like this in one big bash and its clever to see them literally coming out of their respective storybooks. Very imaginative.Grade B

It occurred to me reading the other reviews for this cartoon short that it probably wasn't made with twenty first century critics in mind, but for youngsters of the 1930's during which it was made. Most of the comments come down on the negative side, and that's OK I guess when comparing this one to the other Silly Symphonies of it's time, but I don't think the criticism needs to be too harsh. The cartoon uses a rapid fire delivery to treat viewers to a whole host of familiar story book characters like The Pied Piper, Little Boy Blue, Old Mother Hubbard, Humpty Dumpty, the Three Blind Mice, and the Ten Little Indians. Old King Cole brings all the characters together at his Annual Jamboree in Story Land, and for young kids, this has got to be a veritable treat. For us older viewers it calls to mind some of those characters that have long faded from memory like Jack Sprat and Mary, Mary, you know, the contrary one. It's only seven minutes long, so if any of it goes by too quickly, it's easy enough to take a second look.

As I have said many times, I have a lot of fondness for the Disney Silly Symphonies. Old King Cole I'm afraid doesn't really do all that much for me. It is more tolerable than El Terrible Toreador, The Merry Dwarfs and Cannibal Capers, but if I want a masterpiece status Silly Symphonies I prefer The Old Mill, The Ugly Duckling(1939), The Skeleton Dance, Flowers and Trees, The Goddess of Spring and The Band Concert. I do like the vivid colours and colourful backgrounds, the music although simpler than most cartoons is still full of energy, the nursery rhymes are nice to hear and the dancing is niftily choreographed. And there are some nice parts to the cartoon such as Peter the Pumpkin Eater and his wife and Hickory, Dick and Dock jumping out of Pandora's Box to sound the midnight bells. However, while spotting the characters are a delight most of them are not very appealing to me. They are of the cute but bland kind. And I didn't care for some of the character designs, Old King Cole's features are very over-exaggerated and some of the side characters like the mice and the Pied Piper look like stick figures. There isn't much story to speak of either, it is over-simplistic and is more an excuse for short snippets of nursery rhymes to come to life and in a less charming way than it had potential to. All in all, not much memorable apart from the spotting of the nursery characters and rhymes. 6/10 Bethany Cox

1933 really marked the beginning of Walt Disney's cartoon kingdom and a ten-year period during which all of the elements that went into the making of his great feature-length cartoons could be seen in transition as the artists developed their talent for bringing instantly recognizable characters to life, with music and art.OLD KING COLE is a merry old start for Disney. A storybook opens as trumpeters announce the arrival of The Pied Piper, Little Boy Blue, Mother Hubbard, The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, all on their way to King Cole's Happy New Year celebration at the castle. The figures all appear as pop-ups in a storybook, a device used so many other times by Disney and other cartoon makers.Jack Pratt, Peter Peter, Pumpkin Eater, Humpty Dumpty, Three Blind Mice, Ten Little Indians, all are part of the party celebrations, dancing in style to some nimble tunes and all sorts of party celebrants. The frenzied finale has the merry Cole joining The Ten Little Indians in a wild dance and then joining the other revelers for more of the same.Enjoyable look at how the early animators began their training ground and what the Silly Symphonies were all about.