DbcultAccessing Vault...
5.8/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.8/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Merry Old Soul remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like old-school animation that feels slightly unhinged, you’ll dig this. It’s basically a parade of 1930s celebrities transformed into rubber-hose cartoons. If you’re allergic to dated references or just don’t care for the frantic pacing of early animation, stay far away. You won’t recognize half the people on screen, and honestly, the plot is just a flimsy excuse for a talent show.
Oswald the Rabbit acts as our host here, though he’s mostly just a prop. The real draw is the parade of caricatures. It’s wild seeing how they drew stars like W.C. Fields or Bing Crosby back then. Everything is bouncy and slightly frantic, the way cartoons were before they got all polished and safe.
It’s not as cohesive as, say, Le bal, which uses music to tell a story without saying a word. Here, the music is just noise for the sake of energy. It never stops. It’s relentless. Honestly, by the end of it, I felt a bit like King Cole—exhausted by all the noise.
The animation style is definitely from a different era. You can see the hand-drawn shakiness, and honestly? I love that. It feels human. It doesn’t have the soulless perfection of modern stuff. It’s got grit.
I found myself wondering if this would have worked as a silent short. Probably not. The whole gimmick is the sound and the impersonations. Some of them hold up, and some just sound like guys shouting into a tin can. It’s charming in a very rough, 1930s sort of way. 🎷
Don't expect some deep emotional journey. It’s just a bunch of drawings dancing to save a king from his own bad mood. Sometimes, that’s enough. Just don't look too closely at the backgrounds, or you'll start noticing the same three birds doing the same dance move for the tenth time.
