Too much of everything

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Disney Silly Symphonies cartoon with Old King Cole and a bunch of nursery rhyme characters springing forth from the pages of their books at night. It's a concept Disney had done before in black & white and one that would be used to great effect in many other cartoons in the years following this. A fun idea, especially for little kids who (back then) would've known Mother Goose like kids today know Pokemon or whatever else is rotting their brains. It's a good short, despite not having much in the way of a plot. The animation is excellent. The colors are just drop-dead gorgeous! There's a lot of music and singing and I know from reading so many IMDb reviews over the years that inevitably someone will hate it for that and call it corny or dated. Nuts to them! I happen to like the music and found the songs charming. Anyway it's not one of the best Silly Symphonies but it is upbeat and colorful. Try to enjoy it in the spirit it was meant to be viewed in. It's simple kid-friendly entertainment. No fart jokes or double entendres needed.

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.

While I am a huge fan of the early Disney cartoons, it's hard to like "Old King Cole". It has practically nothing going for it. For example, although the cartoon is in color (as were all the Silly Symphony shorts at this time), the colors are VERY splashy and not at all pleasing to the eye. And, oddly, the characters' faces are all white and washed out--making the cartoon appear to have been hastily made. Additionally, there really is no story--just lots of annoying characters popping out of a storybook. They sing and dance, but none of it is appealing--it's all like a steady diet of saccharine! Some other cartoon producers specialized in making annoying cartoons like this (such as the dreadful Harmon-Ising shorts), but this is very atypical of Disney. Sure, their Silly Symphonies were known for singing and dancing, but usually the songs are good and there is some plot--here in "Old King Cole" the songs are bad, the animation is bad and the overall product will have you wondering why in heaven you watched it in the first place! Pretty terrible.

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.