From Tom Wilkins : Once upon a time in storybookland, we had more action in one large hard-covered book than you will ever find, at least in the 1930's.

The lovely book opens up in the center and rolls out a wonderful castle where Old King Cole (no relation to Nat or Natalie) obviously resides. In succession, centerfolds of the Pied Piper (with mice)--who cameos before he gets his big break later that year, Little Boy Blue (and cow), the Crooked Man, and two elderly ladies known as Mother Hubbard (with dog but no bone) and the woman who lived in a shoe with as many children as the Pied Piper had mice. Needless to say, they were on their way to a wonderful ball, sixteen years before Cinderella got a taste of what a party was like.

Now what is this obsession with big men in the 1930's? Once again, we have King Cole as an overweight figure in a Disney cartoon and the Ink and Paint Club at Disney still have yet to create a show on that subject. But anyway, Cole gives his welcoming speech, introducing his fiddlers three in the process. However, he warns the crowd just like the fairy godmother did to Cinderella...the party is over at midnight. At least in this cartoon there is no chance of the book turning into pumpkin pie.

To begin the show, we see Mary dancing on top of Pandora's Box...not quite the three-album set that rock group Aerosmith put out several years ago. How contrary to see Mary watering dancing roses that line up precisely like the Rockettes at Radio City! Then comes a series of Mother Goose secondary showstoppers that could not make any Broadway Melody or Hollywood Revue stints at MGM. First, Peter dances with his ex-wife in his gig (the wife has a pumpkin outfit on at this point), then Jack Sprat licks the plate clean and gets carried off by his wife; also, Goosey Gander and Humpty Dumpty dance gleefully until being forced off by Simple Simon...or was it Napoleon Blown-Aparte? Whatever--Miss Muffet must have given him the spider that scared her out of her wits.

After that, the three little kittens (via MGM mockery) show up and dance a little, then another vision-impaired trio of mice (before they were mouseketeers) show up and snack on the cheese that was set up behind them. Finally, the true showstoppers that arrived were the ten little indians...and they had to have been making Cleveland dance along with the King Cole Club crowd. The crowd could not take it anymore as soon as King Cole started dancing and indian-chanting. Bo Peep sure had a ball dancing on Cole's belly! Even Mother Hubbard spun Cole like a top into the fountain.

As Cole was about to dance again, the bedlam was suddenly put to a halt as Pandora's Box exploded...and a grandfather clock appeared with the three most influential mice of the cartoon. Hickory Dickory had "docked" the party by showing that it was midnight. So, the party was over and everyone headed home, thanking Cole on their way out. After everyone left, Cole make his good-night proclamation, and he closed up shop by closing his castle...and the book as the cartoon ended...but not without leaving the milk bottle out for the morning milkman.

If there was no such thing as Hickory Dickory Dock to enforce a curfew on the party, would the characters be still partying or would they all have passed out by now? I wouldn't be Humpty Dumpty in either case.

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : You knew it had to happen. I’ve been lavishing so much praise on the 1933 Disney shorts, that you knew one day would come when I had not so nice things to say about one of the cartoons. Well, today is the day, because Old King Cole, the latest Silly Symphony, is probably my least favorite of the color cartoons to date.

Why? Because it’s just not likeable or memorable to me. The entire thing is a rehash of the old black and white cartoon, Mother Goose Melodies. The basics are that a bunch of books open up to release the characters within, who all gather at Old King Cole’s castle located in his book. From there, silly dancing ensues, until midnight when the characters scramble back to their own books.

That’s really it. The entire story in a nutshell. So why didn’t I like it? Well, if you’re a longtime reader, you know my preference for story over singing, for a well told tale over silly dancing and songs. That hasn’t changed, which is why I’ve enjoyed the 1933 shorts so much more than earlier ones. Well, Old King Cole is back to the craziness and music model, and not in a good way.

Where some of the early Silly Symphonies like The Skeleton Dance or Hell’s Bells used the music and dance to full effect, here it is merely an excuse to allow short scenes of nursery rhymes to come to life, jumping out of “Pandora’s Box.” The small verses sung over the dancing are fine, but there’s nothing connecting them or engaging the audience. It’s all frantic motion for the sake of motion, with no connective tissue.

Also, the characters in this short were very unappealing to me. I’m not a fan of the animation style used on Old King Cole, with the red bulbous nose and overstated features. Meanwhile, the side characters, such as the Pied Piper or the mice, are not fully formed designs, but are instead just stick figures or less developed than those in other shorts.

Now, that’s not to say that there is nothing good in this short. In fact, it’s a credit to the animators that they were able to draw so many characters by hand and still meet their production deadlines. That’s impressive. There’s also some fun stuff here and there, like Peter the Pumpkin Eater and his wife or Hickory, Dickory and Dock jumping out of Pandora’s Box to sound the midnight bells.

But overall, the gags are not nearly as funny as in the Mickey shorts, the music is much simpler and less story driven than in other Silly Symphonies, and the story falls short. I’d have to say that Old King Cole falls flat for me. I’d be interested to hear what you guys think.

From RJ : Agreed. Just not a terribly memorable short. Nothing that sets it apart from various other silly symphonies. I don't mind focusing more on music than story occasionally if its done creatively either through interesting themes and sequences or through an exercise in progressive animation techniques. Unfortunately this one had neither of those things.

From Mac : I've really fallen behind following your blog, but here's some thoughts on Old King Cole! This isn't one of my favorites, but I think I like this one more than you do. Of course I've never minded the odd sing and dance cartoon and this one's got a nicely executed theme. I like how everyone 'pops-up' out of their books to get to the big party, there's plenty of nice music and a large variety of different skits, dances and characters to stop it getting boring. It's a similar idea to Mother Goose Melodies, but I think of this as a kind of updated sequel rather than just a rehash.

I agree that this isn't the best-looking of the Disney cartoons, but like I've said about other cartoons, I think that's got something to do with the Disney artists aiming for a beauty they can't quite reach just yet. There's a ton of detail, but with all those block colors and black outlines, it comes off a little flat. The style is different to the Black and white Mickey's which, in this era, are looking better than ever. The style of the Mickeys has evolved right from the earliest Disney cartoons and has now reached a peak – while everyone in Mickey's world remains black and white, button-eyed and hose-limbed it is better-looking and more consistent than ever. The Silly Symphonies on the other hand are incorporating color and attempting more detailed and realistic characters and settings. Right now it's not perfect and it makes them look less attractive than the Mickeys, but the effort will pay off in the long run...