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 !!
