Cumulative rating:	(1 rating submitted)

Associated Studio(s)

National Film Board of Canada

Synopsis

Characters

Grumpy Dopey (II) Sleepy Bashful Sneezy Happy Doc (Voice: Van DeBar 'Pinto' Colvig)

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Distributor(s)

National Film Board of Canada

United States

Disney Treasures : On the Front Lines

Running Time: 3:47

Animation Type: Standard (Hand-drawn-Cel) Animation

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Cinematographic Format: Spherical

Color Type: Technicolor

Negative Type: 35mm

Original Country: Canada

Original Language: English

Print Type: 35mm

Sound Type: Mono: RCA Sound Recording

Reviews and Comments

From Jerry Edwards :

This second Canadian bond film makes good use of animation from Snow White. Instead of marching home from work, the dwarfs march into town to exchange their diamonds for savings certificates. The first six dwarfs rush into a post office to buy their bonds, but the door slams shut before Dopey, trailing the others, can enter. But he spies a nearby bank, which also sells the bonds - and leaves the bank with a big pile of bonds. The short ends with war images and slogans such as "Keep Your Money Fighting" and "Invest In Victory."

Some entertainment value but mainly interesting from a historical perspective.

From Ryan :

I find this short funny at the part where Dopey goes into the bank to buy war bonds after the door of the post office shuts on him. Like Jerry Edwards, I find this short more interesting historicalwise.

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project :

As 1941 winds down, and we move directly into the United States entering World War II, we will start to see more and more of the wartime films, such as today’s subject, Seven Wise Dwarfs. This short is part of the same contract with Canada that produced The Thrifty Pig, for wartime propaganda encouraging buying war savings bonds.

It’s interesting to me that Walt Disney would use some of his most popular characters of the time, such as the Three Little Pigs and the Seven Dwarfs in this sort of endeavor. In essence, he was loaning out the characters and risking their reputation somewhat. It shows you how tight money was during this time that Walt would do this.

This short focuses on the dwarfs, obviously, but the first half of it is mainly just the beginning of the “Heigh Ho” sequence from Snow White. There is very little changed about the sequence until the dwarfs leave the mine, their sacks bulging with precious gems.

It’s not until they start across the countryside that the dwarfs end up in a town, where they see the posting for war savings certificates. You can tell where this might be going. The dwarfs trade their gems for war bonds, and we move into a propaganda piece that is basically the same as the one at the end of The Thrifty Pig.

There’s not much info to be shared about this short, as it’s just a rehash of Heigh Ho and the ending sequence of The Thrifty Pig. It’s interesting from a historical standpoint, mainly, because it shows what the studio was doing in 1941 in order to survive.