"A Silly Symphony"
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Released by United Artists Pictures
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One cannot help but see a minor characterization of Walt in the character of the King; especially in the raised eyebrows which were a trademark Disney expression when he was displeased with something.
A curious mythology surrounds this short. Walt Disney had decided to give one more shot at personally directing a short. He huddled Norm Ferguson and Fred Moore together and came up with this, a variation on the story of King Midas. However, the results were so badly received by the public that he never personally directed another one. It was said that the best way to get Disney's goat, when he was less than thrilled with another animator's work, was to mention "The Golden Touch."
This cartoon, on the whole, is actually on a par with other Silly Symphonies of the day, and is certainly more watchable than "Father Noah's Ark" or "Lullaby Land." It also shows some unique Disney personality touches in the person of King Midas. Any other studio would have made the king a one-note character, but Disney's Midas is more subtle--you could see the insecurity lurking beneath his greed.
I'm confused about the "director" credit in this cartoon. An animation director generally does the key sketches in a cartoon, and Walt hadn't drawn a line since the mid-twenties. What exactly did Walt do on this picture that differed from his normal contribution? No history of animation tells us precisely. me everything I even think of it.
But it was very fun to watch, and told you a very serious teaching about the golden touch ... But WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAT! It just disappeared, so was it supposed to die or did it just disappear as gold? I think that Disney could have let it return to its old form, in the end of the cartoon.
As King Midas counts his gold coins in the beginning, he loses count after he sneezes. Midas then goes into a tune bragging about how much gold he has and how much more he wants ... sure sounds like today's athletes! So, he wishes for the golden touch, where everything that he touched would turn to gold.
Out of nowhere appears Goldie the fairy. Once he appeared, Midas panicked and grabbed as much gold as he could, fearing he would lose some of it. Goldie demonstrated the touch by touching Midas's cat and turning it immediately to gold (afterwhich the cat was psychologically dysfunctional once getting snapped out of the golden touch). Of course Goldie thought Midas was crazy for making that wish and gave him advice warning of a golden curse. Stubborn Midas further exclaimed, "My kingdom for the golden touch!" and "Give me gold, not advice!" Goldie gave up at that point and granted Midas the golden wish.
Ironically enough, the cat, who was now scared of anything that would touch him, was being called (and later chased) by Midas. The cat went up an apple tree, but Midas crashed into it head first, knocking loads of apples on him. Once they struck Midas, they turned to 18K gold. However, the cat was the last thing to crash on Midas, turning it to gold ... again. Midas became euphoric and celebrated by touching flowers, a birdbath, and water coming from a fountain (as well as the fountain itself). He proceeds inside and shows off his enormous ego by looking at himself in the mirror (and his image applauds), even touching one of his two front teeth ... turning that to gold, too. However, this is where the fun ends.
Midas gets hungry and prepares for a big meal. (What is it with these big characters in the Silly Symphonies of the first half of the 1930's?) First, he touches his chair and his napkin (turning them into gold) before he eats. Little did he know that once he put the spoon in the grapefruit, the squirt nailed him in the eye and upon contact, turned to gold coins. Midas thought nothing of it, so he tries to have a banana only to have it sliced in gold coins instead. He tries a drink of water ... and nearly chokes on the gold. At this point, Midas was beginning to see that gold was not what he wanted after all. In one final last-gasp attempt of pleasing his stomach, he tries to bite into his turkey ... only to have that coated in 18K gold. Midas is now ballistic, so he touches all the food on the table and turns that into gold, too ... so he knocks the table over.
Returning to the mirror wondering what had gone wrong, that same image who earlier applauded Midas became the image of death ... a skeleton in a king's robe immediately after he asked if "the richest king in the world is going to starve to death." Midas could not escape. He wanted to rid the shadow of death so bad that he ran in sheer panic downstairs to the counting room, screaming for Goldie to reappear. Goldie now has all the right to rub what Midas arrogantly said into his face.
"Is this the brave man who bellowed 'give me gold, not advice'!" Goldie snickers. Midas pleads for Goldie to take away his golden touch and get him a hamburger, which Goldie sarcastically replies, "With or without onions?" Eventually, Goldie accepted the offer to Midas that would take back the golden touch...in exchange for everything he possesses. Once Goldie leaves, it only takes seconds for the golden empire to fall; and with amazing strobelight animation, the castle crumbles, the king's robe and his crown were gone, and his underwear shrunk before pleading to spare it!
Midas finally had his hamburger appear in front of him, but he wanted to touch it just to make sure it did not turn to gold. It didn't. The hamburger stayed put, and once Midas checked it out, he got his wish ... with onions. (One thing to keep an eye on at the end of the film is that Midas also lost his gold tooth that he touched when he looked in the mirror the first time.)
I'm also 100% positive that Goldie raised Midas's taxes through the roof after this cartoon was made. Definitely a cartoon with an extremely valuable lesson included.
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