OllieSuave-007 This cartoon is based on the tale of King Midas, the greedy king who turns anything he touches into gold.This cartoon short wasn't bad, following along with the tale well. The animation was pretty good and the story was a little exciting; makes you want to see how the king would get himself out of his gold fever.The elf, who granted Midas the golden touch, didn't really give the king strong advice about the touch, only saying it would be a curse. The king, though, was a little too sappy.The cartoon does give off a good moral, telling you not to be greedy but be grateful of what you have, and be careful in what you wish for.Grade B-

Robert Reynolds This is a color short in the Silly Symphonies series produced by the Disney studio. There will be spoilers ahead:If you know the fable of King Midas, you essentially know the plot of this one. I don't even need to go through the plot, but here's the Cliff's Notes version-a greedy king named Midas wants even more gold than he has and is given the "gift" of the golden touch, so that everything he touches turns to gold.The king here isn't the shiniest pebble in the pond, so he misses the obvious more than once in this short. Despite warnings from the elf named Goldy that this "gift" would be a curse instead, he demands to be given the "golden touch" and gets his wish.You know what happens next-the obvious: Everything turns to gold. The beauty of the short is in the details, how things happen. The animation is beautiful and the gags are great, particularly the mirror gags, which have a bite to them.The Nimrod in chief finally grasps the obvious and begs to be released. But being as his bulb is still dimmer than a ten watt bulb at half power, he makes an even more idiotic bargain than before. The end is no less than he deserves.This short is available on the Disney Treasures Silly Symphonies DVD set and it and the set are well worth finding. Highly recommended.

MartinHafer If you are looking for this short, try the "Disney Timeless Treasures: Volume 3". It's there along with several other seldom-seen cartoon shorts.This Silly Symphony short is, as is ALWAYS the case with these shorts, brilliantly animated--with terrific backgrounds and ultra-vivid colors. It's the story of King Midas and his Golden Touch. But, unfortunately, the Disney folks decided to insert some sappy music--and the King singing "The Golden Touch, The Golden Touch" was pretty annoying. Once this stopped, however, the story was pretty decent and quite watchable. My only reservation about the story is the ending--as the original story told by the ancient Greeks was much darker (and therefore, cool).

spunky-22 A nice version of the story of King Midas and his wish-turned-curse. I chuckled when I noticed the 18K that appeared on the cat when it was turned to gold. I also loved his giddy little dance for joy upon using his new talent for the first time. His first realization for the curse of the golden touch occurs with him being squirted in the eye with gold coins by his grapefruit, which continues with a series of problems resulting in his whining about the possibility of the richest king starving to death. The fact that he is deemed wise because he asked for a hamburger (with onions) is one of those details laced with a little bit of absurdity that you don't notice at first but make you crack up later during a little afterthought. The song at the beginning is nice; my favorite verse would have to be: "I've never cared for women / I've never cared for wine / But when I count / A large amount / Of money - Ha Ha / It's Divine!" It has something for everyone and is short enough so that the gags don't go stale. Enjoy.