Bold King Cole (1936) User Reviews

Cartoon has surrealistic flair even though its star is dull

[RJV · 7/10 · 23 November 2004]

Anxious to become a formidable rival of the popular and influential Walt Disney animation studio, the struggling Van Beuren studio acquired the popular silent cartoon character Felix the Cat for his talking Technicolor debut. Alas, their version of Felix the Cat in BOLD KING COLE is just an insipidly cheerful character devoid of the spunk that, from what I gather from seeing one silent cartoon, made the original Felix memorable. The uncredited actress who provides Felix's voice pleasingly carries a tune but the sweet singing doesn't provide anything unique about the character.

However, the cartoon's interesting scenario, for the most part, compensates for the lackluster star. Caught in a thunderstorm, Felix seeks refuge in King Cole's castle. This King Cole is not only a merry old soul, but a boastful one as well. The castle's ghosts can't stand the king's bragging, so they strap him to a machine to suck the wind out of him. It happens to be the wind that makes him a windbag. It's quite bizarre watching the rotund king deflate like a balloon. Then the ghosts expose him to the gas which exudes all his boastings. The king learns it's not nearly as fun listening to his speech as it is making it. A fascinating sequence that has to be seen to be believed, it effectively exploits the essential unreality of animation.

BOLD KING COLE benefits from other vividly realized sequences including a harrowing thunderstorm. The energetic animation is enhanced by Winston Sharples's spirited musical score. Watching this cartoon makes one regret that when it was released, the Van Beuren cartoon studio was on its last legs. One can only wonder if the studio would've reached Disney's artistic heights had it been allowed to last longer.

Likable enough, I suppose, but without the magic of the black and white silents.

[llltdesq · 7/10 · 27 August 2002]

Although this is a decent enough cartoon, the later, color, shorts done by Van Beuren studios lack the magic and charm of the black and white silents done almost 15-20 years earlier. The studio did the best they could, but production values and a lack of cohesion make these curios rather than gems. Worth watching. Recommended to fans and for kids.

Great...just NOT Felix the Cat.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 23 September 2013]

After being repeatedly attacked by lightning, Felix seeks shelter in King Cole's castle. There the braggart King regales him with tales of his bravery. However, the ghosts of the previous kings are sick of this and decide to teach the guy a lesson. But, unfortunately, by the end of the film the King has learned nothing.

Had I never seen any of the early Felix the Cat cartoons done during the silent era, I would have been more positive in my review for "Bold King Cole". However, this incarnation of Felix by Van Beuren Studio has practically nothing to do with the original character and you really have to see him as someone other than Felix. It just is NOT Felix. The original Felix was very surreal. For example, when he wanted to travel to Africa, he crawled there through the Trans-Atlantic cable! But here, he's more of a nice guy do-gooder--not the sassy jerk I love in the older black and white films.

In the place of the old Felix, you now have a much better looking Felix. This Van Beuren cartoon is MUCH better animated than the typical Van Beuren film and the color film stock is very, very nice--and looks almost as good as the films coming from Disney. Additionally, the Van Beuren cartoons make a HUGE mistake--they have Felix and other characters sing. While this was very common in the 1930s, this also tends to make the cartoons rather sappy. It's no surprise, then, that so few were made by the studio and I am sure the public was NOT impressed.

I noticed one other reviewer called this 'one of the best cartoons ever'. I would definitely not agree and suggest that from this same time period are some significantly better cartoons--such as Disney's "Ferdinand the Bull", "The Ugly Duckling" and most of the Mickey Mouse cartoons of the 1930s.

Fair

[Michael_Elliott · 14 July 2008]

Bold King Cole (1936)

** (out of 4)

Felix gets caught up in a bad storm so he takes shelter at the castle of King Cole, a man who claims to be brave but is in fact a coward. After getting fed up with all his bravery lies, a group of ghosts come out to tach the King a lesson but Felix gets caught up in the middle. This was my first Felix short from this era and I've heard this period isn't the best but I didn't find the movie too bad. I was expecting some sort of horror/old dark house spoof but it pretty much stayed away from those clichés. There's one good song in the film but there aren't too many laughs to be had.

Could have been bolder

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 29 April 2018]

Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.

'Bold King Cole' is most interesting for being a Felix the Cat cartoon that is in colour and has sound. As far as the Van Beuren "Rainbow Parade" cartoons go, all three Felix the Cat cartoons are among the best of the "Rainbow Parade" series, particularly 'Neptune Nonsense'. Not great as such, being fairly bland compared to the earlier silent black and white Felix the Cat cartoons which had more vigour and humour of the surreal/absurdist kind. Also worth the while, despite how all of the above sounded.

A lot of strengths in 'Bold King Cole'. The best being the pretty great animation, one of the best looking of the "Rainbow Parade" series, having more refinement in the drawing than usually seen, and one of the best looking Felix the Cat cartoons. Compared to the animation in the Cubby the Bear, most of the (human) Tom and Jerry and other cartoons of Van Beuren, their production values came on a long way when switching to colour. The background detail is meticulous and even better are the ravishing colours that truly pop out at you.

Just as good is the music score, it is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. The synchronisation is sharp and neat. Wasn't bored, while not completely excited, watching 'Bold King Cole', with the climactic moments being good fun, there is a general zesty charm and also some creative surreal touches that give off a strong sense of atmosphere, like with the thunderstorm. Some of the supporting characters are suitably kooky.

However, the story is over-familiar, with not an awful lot new brought to the table. The ending can be seen from quite some distance away. Felix is likeable enough but there is a preference too for his original personality, one that was much stronger and one that set him apart from other silent animated characters from that era.

In the laughs department, 'Bold King Cole' is lacking. Not completely humourless, but there isn't enough and not much that sticks in the mind anyhow. For Felix the Cat, with a good deal of the surreal/absurdist humour missing, this was pretty tame. A few parts are less energetic than others, with a slightly dull start, and the Old King Cole character was on the annoying side.

On the whole, nice enough and passes the time more than decently but no classic. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Felix saves the day

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 13 September 2013]

Felix the Cat sits on a tree, plays music and enjoys the weather with pretty birds singing and beautiful flowers growing all around him. But from one second to the next, a heavy thunderstorm comes up. Felix hates getting wet, just like any other cats and looks for shelter. He finds a big castle, which seems like the perfect place, a castle which belongs to Bold King Cole. The bold most likely arises from the fact that all his subjects are even bigger cowards than he actually is. When he allows Felix in and boasts about his courage and boldness, he gets his deserts immediately when all the ancestors from the paintings of the walls become alive and celebrate a huge party at witching hour.

It's surely interesting to watch Felix in color and talking which is something you don't see in his earlier appearances. Nonetheless, the film comes clearly short and ends up inferior to most other animated short films made in the late 1930s. It could be interesting to animation lovers, but besides that, this one deserves a pass.

One of the best cartoons ever.....

[tmpj · 8/10 · 15 October 2006]

As a fan of old celluloid in general--and of animation in particular--I have been enchanted by this cartoon since my first viewing of it in the early 1990's, when things that had not seen the light of day in decades began to resurface on VHS. I have seen the Felix cartoons from the '20s--and a few from the 'teens when Felix hit the silver screen--but this "middle period" of Felix releases by Van Beuren is best of all. The silents are engaging, but they are not really timeless...the animation techniques and topics of the early Felix cartoons have not aged gracefully, and even some of us older viewers don't know the topics or personalities of the day without explanation.

During my childhood, the Trans-Lux Felixes came out, produced by Joe Oriolo (who cut his teeth at The Fleischer Studios), but they were TV animated episodes, and Winston Sharples' scores were mostly "canned music", as was much of the TV cartoon music of that period.

The Phil Roman version of Felix in the late '90s was- surprisingly- pretty respectable, a breath of fresh air for those of us who have grown weary of TV animation and un-inspiring computer animation.

But these cartoons of the mid-1930s, directed by Burt Gillett and scored by Winston Sharples are --to me--Felix at his very best, and "Bold King Cole" is one of my very favorites. It's one of the best cartoons ever made. It is imaginative, engaging, well written, well drawn, and all of the elements congeal into a chemistry that works. I think there were three, perhaps four, Felixes made at Van Beuren and they were all worthwhile watches, but "Bold King Cole" was the best of them. It appears that the owner of the Van Bueren company died in the late 1930s, and that put a stop to this production...and to the studio. Burt Gillett soon went with Disney as the coast was "raided" for animation talent to work on his animated feature films. Winston Sharples soon made inroads into scoring animated feature films with The Fleischers, first with "Gulliver's Travels" music contributions, then to the Popeye cartoons, and he remained at Famous Studios--post Fleischer--until the studio shut down. He possibly scored more animated cartoons than any other single composer--though after 1960, they used his canned music over and over as a cost saving measure. I highly recommend "Bold King Cole". It's the best ever Felix the Cat cartoon, and they sure as heck don't make 'em like this anymore !!

A wonderful story about Felix the cat with bold King Cole.

[ton-703-997993 · 9/10 · 4 June 2013]

A wonderful story about Felix the cat with his canary. Written in 1936 but still vivid and great to watch, especially with young children like my Thomas and Elise. Check it out guys ! When I first saw this movie I was surprised to see how they could create such a beautiful movie back in the old days. The movie dates back from 1936, just after my Dad was Born. I recommend every one to go and see this movie with children. Watch the small details and the more you watch the more you will see. I'm going to make a website and collect what I can find. If someone wants to help me, that would be fine. The domain will be bold king.be and I also added a web hosting plan with some email addresses. kind regards, Ton from Ledegem. Belgium.