The Merry Old Soul

Whilst at the dentist having a particularly stubborn tooth removed, "Oswald" the rabbit (whom I could have sworn was a mouse) hears an announcement that is made over that radio announcing "Old King Cole" has the blues. He must quickly recruit everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Laurel & Hardy and try and cheer the old man up! Sitting, grumpily on his throne, a parade of folks come to try and lift his spirits with hits from the "Mother Goose" songbook! A few familiar faces from stage and literature are drafted in and along the way we get a parade of what made us laugh and tap our toes back in the early 1930s. It's a compendium affair, this, which at times works fine but is largely just an excuse to trot out some vaudeville style comedy - pie throwing, etc. You can play a game of guess who you recognise if you like - I suspect that's really the point. It's fine, and the caricature animations quite fun, but it's hardly memorable.

Despite Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his cartoons being popular and well received at the time, they have been vastly overshadowed over time by succeeding animation characters. It is a shame as, while not cartoon masterpieces, they are fascinating for anybody wanting to see what very old animation looked like.

Oswald in the Disney years saw mostly good to very good cartoons, and while the Winkler years had some duds there were also cartoons as good as the best of the Disney years. The 1929-1930 batches of Walter Lantz-directed Oswald cartoons were a mixed bag, with some good, some forgettable and not much special and a few mediocre. The 1931 batch was mostly underwhelming, with only 6 out of 18 cartoons being above average or more. The 1932 batch had a few not so good, though the cartoons in question were nothing compared to the worst of the previous 3 years, cartoons, but most were decent to good and some even very good.

So far the 1933 Oswald cartoons have been of a good standard with no duds yet, and far more consistent than especially the 1931 batch. Of which 'The Merry Old Soul' is one of the standouts. It is also one of the better Lantz Oswald cartoons, and up there as among the better ones overall perhaps as well.

It is true in a way that it is not what one would call funny, in a way it is lacking in laughs and it is a shame as some of the 1933 Oswald cartoons had some very funny gags that more than made up for thin stories. Oddly enough, the story is more eventful than most Oswald cartoons and a little more inventive, nothing exceptional and with not many surprises but there is more of a story in 'The Merry Old Soul' than in most Oswald cartoons where this particular element was non-existent.

With all that being said, the animation is very good. The animation is very good. There is the looser and more elaborate look of many of the previous Lantz era Oswald cartoons, but it was surprising and lovely to see parts of the animation reminding one of the animation style of the Disney years in places.

Likewise with the music. It is infectious and lushly orchestrated, and not only adds to the cartoon and is dynamic to the action but enhances it. Music, visuals and action are all well synchronised together, and the sound is not bad.

Oswald is endearing, though agreed he did have a stronger personality perhaps in the Disney years where his personality traits were more daring. He has always been funny and likable, but has been toned down in comparison since.

Biggest joy however with 'The Merry Old Soul', as well as the nice moments at the dentist's, is the caricatures. They are so much fun to spot and recognise, there's lots of them without feeling over-populated and this is one of few caricature-based cartoons where, even with a few obscure names, none of them went over my head.

All in all, even though not exactly funny it's still well made and entertaining and one of Lantz's best Oswald cartoons. 8/10 Bethany Cox

"The Merry Old Soul" (1933) is a black-and-white Oswald the Rabbit cartoon from Walter Lantz that's distinguished by an abundance of animated caricatures of then-contemporary film comedians and comic actors. The simple tale involves Oswald getting knocked out in the dentist's chair only to hear a radio announcement that Old King Cole's got the blues. So Oswald leaps out of the chair and into the street where he gets into his little car and drives around looking for help. He wakes up Charlie Chaplin and gets him to join in, although Greta Garbo declares, in a thick Swedish accent, "I tink I stay home." A fire truck driven by Ed Wynn carries Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown and Laurel & Hardy. Will Rogers speeds along on the back of a pig.

At the castle, King Cole is getting increasingly annoyed by his ineffectual court jester until Oswald shows up with his lineup of guest stars and they start singing Mother Goose nursery rhymes to him. Paul Whiteman and his band provide the musical accompaniment. Joining in the songfest are Joe E. Brown, Edna May Oliver, W. C. Fields, Mae West, a stuttering Roscoe Ates, and Al Jolson in full blackface mode. As the King starts to loosen up and smile, Oswald brings out his best act, Laurel & Hardy to do a pie fight. As the fight escalates, other famous faces pop up, including Jimmy Durante, Harold Lloyd, Zasu Pitts, and the Four Marx Bros. A bit of conflict is introduced late in the eight-minute cartoon when the court jester gets jealous and tries to sabotage the proceedings.

As with so many of the Lantz cartoons, there aren't many outright laughs, but it's always fun to watch contemporary cartoon caricatures of celebrities, especially when there are unexpected ones like Will Rogers (who died in 1935) and Zasu Pitts. Those of us who grew up watching the Warner Bros. Cartoons and the celebrities they frequently depicted (usually Warner contract stars like Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, etc.) are finding a rich new trove of material in the Lantz cartoons that indulged in this practice. (See also "Hollywood Bowl" from 1938, also reviewed on this site.) This cartoon is found in the Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection DVD box set.

This version of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was made by Walter Lantz for Universal Studios. Early Oswald cartoons were done by Disney himself--before the studio foolishly gave him and his favorite animator, Ub Iwerks, the boot. This is because they went off to form Disney Studios and so they had the last laugh on Universal. However, the animation quality of the later Oswalds are a lot better--because animation standards were much, much higher in 1933. But, I must say, that they also were a lot less fun as Oswald generally was a much nicer and duller character--lacking the sadistic qualities that made the earlier ones so much fun! Of the later Oswalds, this is among the best--and, not surprisingly, it received an Oscar nomination. It ended up losing to Disney's "The Three Little Pigs"--and once again, Disney had the last laugh.

It begins in the dentist office and the guy is having a devil of a time pulling one of Oswald's teeth. So, he does what any responsible dentist does and bashes Oswald on the head with a mallet! During the time he's out, Oswald imagines that poor Old King Cole is depressed and he and all of Hollywood's and Vaudeville's best comics arrive to cheer him. Included are some obvious characters like Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy, but a few obscure ones like Roscoe Ates, Edna Mae Oliver, Harold Lloyd (he is obscure today but was possibly the greatest comic in his day), Ed Wynn and others. It's a virtual who's who of the comedy world in 1933.

So is it any good? Well, the animation is very good, the celebrities are nice to see and I liked some of the antics in the dentist's office. However, it's NOT packed with laughs in spite of the subject matter and clearly is NOT in the same league as "The Three Little Pigs".