The Golden Touch

The Golden Touch is a Silly Symphony short that was released on March 22, 1935. It was the last short Walt Disney would direct himself. It is a version of the story of King Midas

Synopsis
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, but warns him that it's a 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 ("Is the richest king in all the world to starve to death?"). Deprived of his favourite meal and fear of starvation (he hallucinates himself in a golden skeleton form in his mirror; then as he runs away from this horrifying image, 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 and agrees to surrender everything he owns. Finally he exchanges the golden touch and his castle for a hamburger ("With onions!").

Characters

 * King Midas
 * Goldie

Behind the Scenes
Dissatisfied with some of his other directors' take on the short, Walt chose to direct it himself, something he hadn't done in five years. In the end however, Walt would consider it his greatest mistake and forbade his workers from ever speaking of it again.

Home video releases
DVD
 * Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies