Old King Cole
Directed by	David Hand
Produced by	Walt Disney
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	July 29, 1933
Running time	7:15
Country	United States
Language	English

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

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

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

• Old King Cole
• Pied Piper of Hamelin
• Little Boy Blue
• A literally crooked man (There Was A Crooked Man)
• Old Mother Hubbard
• The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
• Mary and her lamb (Mary Had A Little Lamb)
• Little Bo Peep and her sheep
• Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• A cat playing the fiddle (Hey Diddle Diddle)
• Queen of Hearts
• Mary and her garden (Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary)
• Pandora's Box
• Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
• Jack Sprat
• Goosey Gander
• Humpty Dumpty
• The spider from Little Miss Muffet
• Simple Simon
• Three Little Kittens
• Three Blind Mice
• Ten Little Indians
• The butcher, baker, and candlestick maker from Rub-a-dub-dub, all dancing together in their washtub
• The mice from Hickory Dickory Dock.

Composers' credits (lyrics and music)

• 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

• King Cole: Allan Watson
• Girl trio: The Rhythmettes (including Mary Moder, Beatrice Hagen, and Dorothy Compton)
• Additional voices: Marcellite Garner^[1] And Mildred Dixon

Influence

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

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