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Old King Cole (film)

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Old King Cole
Directed byDavid Hand
Produced byWalt Disney
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • July 29, 1933 (1933-07-29)
Running time
7:15
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Old King Cole is a Disney cartoon in the Silly Symphonies series, based on several nursery rhymes and fairy tales, including "Old King Cole". It was directed by David Hand and released on July 29, 1933.[1]

It's a semi-remake of the 1931 Silly Symphony short Mother Goose Melodies, but in color, with more details and technically advanced animation.

Plot

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One evening in Storyland, the story book "Old King Cole" opens itself, and the king's castle folds open. Other nursery rhyme books do the same thing, and several famous characters leave their homes and go to Old King Cole's party. There, all the characters have a small sing-and-dance act. When the Ten Little Indians get on stage, their dance is so catchy that Old King Cole and all the other characters join in as well. After Old Mother Hubbard accidentally pushes Old King Cole into a fountain, the mice from "Hickory Dickory Dock" tell everybody that it is midnight and that everybody should go home. All the characters return to their books, and Old King Cole sings a farewell song to everybody. Then he puts out a bottle of milk for the milkman before he runs back inside, and the cartoon ends.

Characters portrayed

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The cartoon featured popular Nursery Rhyme and Fairy Tale characters. Depicted in the cartoon in chronological order are:

Composers' credits (lyrics and music)

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  • KING COLE'S PARTY (opening song), Bert Lewis[2][3]
  • PIPER MAN, Frank Churchill
  • LITTLE BOY BLUE, Frank Churchill
  • CROOKED MAN, Frank Churchill
  • KING COLE'S WELCOME SONG, Bert Lewis
  • MARY, MARY QUITE CONTRARY, Frank Churchill
  • SIMPLE SIMON, Frank Churchill
  • THREE LITTLE KITTENS, Bert Lewis
  • THREE BLIND MICE and TEN LITTLE INDIANS, Bert Lewis and Frank Churchill
  • HICKORY DICKORY DOCK, Bert Lewis
  • KING COLE'S GOOD-NIGHT SONG, Bert Lewis and Frank Churchill
  • THE STORY BOOK CLOSES, Bert Lewis[4][5]

Voice cast

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Influence

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Old King Cole is similar in plot and style to the black and white Silly Symphony Mother Goose Melodies. Various cartoons have made use of a storyline in which story books come to life and the protagonists of the stories interact with each other, including Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938) and The Truth About Mother Goose (1957) by Disney Studios themselves, the Betty Boop cartoon Mother Goose Land (1933) by Fleischer Studios, and the Looney Tunes shorts Have You Got Any Castles? (1938), A Gander at Mother Goose (1940), A Coy Decoy (1941) and Book Revue (1946).

Home media

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The short was released on December 19, 2006, on Walt Disney Treasures: More Silly Symphonies, Volume Two.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Merritt, Russell; Kaufman, J. B. (2016). Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (2nd ed.). Glendale, CA: Disney Editions. pp. 130–131. ISBN 978-1-4847-5132-9.
  2. ^ "Bert Lewis". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  3. ^ "Composed by Bert Lewis (great grandfather) - YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  4. ^ Schroeder, Russell (2016). Old King Cole - A Walt Disney - Silly Symphony. Asheville, NC: Voigt Publications. pp. 1–31. ISBN 978-1-5323-0472-9.
  5. ^ Bohn, James (2017). Music in Disney's Animated Features. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 15–16, 20, 22, 26–28, 40–41, 44, 55. ISBN 978-1-4968-1214-8.
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