The Merry Old Soul is a 1935 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.
Plot[]
Old King Cole and the Woman in the Shoe are recently married while various fairy tale characters sing. The members of the wedding cheer for the king's marriage, while also pelting him with shoes. As the king and the woman head home to the shoe house, Old King Cole realizes that his bride has an overwhelmingly large number of children. While having to bathe the children, King Cole realizes the jesters singing outside and closes the blinds on them. To help deal with the children, the king sets up a mechanism that will send each young child through a bathing conveyor belt, then a roller towel to dry, followed by applying baby powder, and then a balloon trip to another part of the conveyor belt to apply diapers and send each baby to their crib.
Old King Cole uses a rocking mechanism to put the babies into slumber. As he tries to walk away to rest, the babies are bothered by the footsteps and cry. The king is forced to run back and step on the mechanisms again. After finally getting some rest, two of the babies sinisterly sneak out of their cribs and rapidly press the rocking mechanism, tossing most of the babies back at Old King Cole and having them all cry again. Unable to deal with babysitting the children without rest, the king cries.
Availability[]
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 5, Side 4, Musical Madness (a.a.p. version)
Streaming[]
Trivia[]
- The final shot of Old King Cole crying and wailing at the end of this cartoon is very similar to the final shot of "Good Night Elmer".
- The original titles have been found, but it is unknown if they will be acquired for future releases. The cartoon was restored for HBO Max in 2020, but retains the Blue Ribbon reissue titles instead of the original titles.
- Ending BR titles use the special ending cue first used in "The Wacky Wabbit".
- Unlike most pre-1942 color Merrie Melodies cartoons released on The Golden Age of Looney Tunes LaserDisc, this cartoon survives its original ending card due to the a.a.p. version (complete with the a.a.p. opening titles intact) released on LaserDisc.
