| The Golden Touch |
| Directed by |
Walt Disney |
| Release date(s) |
March 22, 1935 |
The Golden Touch is a Walt Disney Silly Symphony cartoon made in 1935. The story is based on the Greek mythology of King Midas, albeit with a medieval setting rather than Greek.
King Midas never gets enough of gold and wishes that everything he touched would turn to gold. One day an elf named Goldie appears in front of him and offers him the Golden Touch, and demonstrates its magical power by turning his cat to gold, then claps his hands and it changes back. Midas offers everything he owns in exchange ("My gold, my kingdom, everything for the Golden Touch!"), but is warned by Goldie that "To you, the Golden Touch would prove a golden curse." Midas however derides this -exclaiming "Fiddlesticks! Give me gold, not advice!"- and Goldie gives him the golden touch ("I gave thee advice, now I give thee gold."). At first Midas is happy about that (He turns many things in his garden to gold, then talks to himself in his mirror about turning the Earth and then the Universe to gold), but then he finds out he can't eat and can't drink anymore (even his bite turns a roast chicken to gold). Deprived of his favourite meal and fear of starvation ("Is the richest king in all the world to starve to death?", he hallucinates himself in a golden skeleton form in his mirror and not long after that, sees his shadow on the wall morph into a golden Grim Reaper, after which a terrified Midas flees back to his counting room), he summons the elf who agrees to take back the Golden Touch in exchange for everything Midas owns. In exchange, Midas is given a hamburger ("With onions!").
[edit] History
The Golden Touch was an attempt by Walt Disney to direct a cartoon, which he hadn't done for five years. Disney had been criticizing his cartoon directors, and decided to direct the cartoon himself. He was dissatisfied with the result and forbade his workers to talk about it. Despite being an infamous disappointment, the film was included in the first Silly Symphonies DVD collection.
[edit] Sources
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