The Merry Old Soul Review

The Merry Old Soul is a 1933 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon directed by Walter Lantz. It is a strong entry.

I really liked this cartoon despite some obvious flaws. Let’s first state those negatives. Oswald goes to a dentist and has a dream where he has to help Old King Cole by calling many celebrities in and eventually he gets trapped by a villain until he awakes. Obviously the film has the king look exactly the same as in Disney’s ‘Old King Cole’ and the entire film is way too messy as it is filled with way too many subplots and characters.

However, most of these plot points work so the film still ended up being quite good. I liked seeing the different celebrities here with the highlights being Chaplin and all of the comedians. Oswald is memorable and very likable here and the action is very good along with its ending. The animation is also truly terrific and very polished, especially for 1933.

The Merry Old Soul is a good Oscar nominee with messy, but solid storytelling and memorable character moments and action.