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

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.