This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Best movie of this year hands down!

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg (1936) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Felix the Cat is in possession of a goose that can lay golden eggs so he has no problem sharing his wealth with the people of the community. Captain Kidd discovers this goose and steals it in hopes to give him riches so Felix must try and rescue his friend.As other reviewers have pointed out, this film was certainly meant to have an undertone in that people should be helping others during the Depression era. With that said, the movie manages to be quite entertaining thanks in large part to the animation and colors. I really loved the way the golden tone of the eggs looked and I especially enjoyed the design of the goose. There's a wonderful fight sequence at the end that helps keeping the acting moving along. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but it's an entertaining short.

This short is a definite commentary on the Depression more than anything else. Felix has started his own social welfare program--handing out free gold from his goose to all the people of his town. However, the jerk, Captain Kidd*, wants it all for himself and steals the amazing bird. So, it's up to Felix to rescue his pet and save the day.I am a fan of the early Felix the Cat cartoons. I am talking about the silent ones they made from 1919 to about 1929. The films were, more than anything else, fun--with a strange surrealistic style about them. Felix was a joker--and occasionally a bit of a jerk--and I liked it that way. Well, the series petered out in the talking picture era--mostly because the cartoons lost their zip. The surrealism was gone and the cartoons became dull. A few years after their initial demise, Van Beuren Studios attempted to revive the series. Now considering that they only made three Felix cartoons, you can pretty much guess what the public thought. As far as I am concerned, the public got it right. Although the Van Beuren cartoons looked a lot better (with color and really nice animation), they changed Felix--making him a nice-guy. The public didn't want a nice-guy--they wanted FELIX! And, even though there was a strong welfare component to this film, even Depression era folks didn't take to the films.So what is there to like about this film? Well, the animation is probably the best of the three Van Beuren films. Also, I liked how Felix caught up with the boat--that was something the old Felix would have done. But otherwise, it's just a pretty film with absolutely no humor about it at all...none.*It's interesting how movies often feature Captain Kidd. As a history teacher who taught about pirates, I think it's odd how he is often talked about when he was actually one of the most pathetic and unsuccessful pirates in history. He didn't even willingly become one! He served with the British Navy and was sent to capture pirates. However, his crew mutinied and forced him to piracy. His career as a pirate only lasted about a year or so--then was caught and, much later, executed.

Wow, this is the first cartoon I've seen that addresses The Great Depression in the 1930s. The first scene has Felix The Cat manning a little stand that says "Relief Bureau" and he's handing out a handful of gold coins to every person in line. "Don't thank me," he says; "thank him.""Him" isn't FDR or the government: it's a goose in the back of the booth who is laying golden eggs. After dishing out the coins, Felix goes back and tells "Goldie" that she's doing "good work, so keep it up!" Felix takes her eggs and grinds them into coins so he can dish out the next batch.It doesn't long for the villain, "Captain Kidd," disguised as a woman, to appear at the back window, seeing the goose and figuring out what's happening. So, moments later, he steals the valuable goose. Even though Felix knows who it is, Kidd succeeds and takes the goose aboard his pirate ship and sails away.The cartoon turns into a pirate adventure story when Felix, who figures out a way to get on Kidd's ship via turning himself into a human cannonball (hey, it's a cartoon!) battles it out aboard ship with the peg-legged and sword-wielding Kidd.Overall, more for kids but adults can enjoy this, too, almost like an old-fashioned Errol Flynn pirate movie, except in animated form. The duels between Felix and Kidd are well done.

In 1936 Felix the Cat was resurrected to the screen in three short animated films. This is one of them. In it, Felix, speaking audibly for the first time, must protect his goose who lays golden eggs for him from a band of pirates. The two other animated shorts produced in 1936 are "Neptune Nonsense" and "Bold King Cole." Besides talking for the first time, these three shorts also marked the first time that Felix was produced in color. One of the film's directors was Otto Mesmer, who also happened to be Felix's creator in 1919, though credit is also given to Pat Sullivan, the head of the studio that employed the young artist Mesmer. This is the era where Felix looks his best, and this is the second best of the three 1936 productions. "Neptune" is its superior, but this still is a splendid film for Felix fans of all ages!