The Merry Dwarfs (1929)

Please don't spend money on this.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

Oh my these earliest of Silly Symphonies sure are horrendously rough around the edges! But that's okay, it's very understandable that it was all still 'up in the air' as far as artistry was concerned at this point in time, everybody was still honing the craft, and you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs, and this one is definitely a busted egg! So it has dwarfs, cool. I love fantasy creatures, but the ones that feature here are pretty unlovable and insipid creations. They're not cute, I don't like their ugly elastic limbs, and they're all identical. And aren't dwarfs supposed to be a mite bigger than that? They're more like elves or pixies. I do like when they show stuff like the cricket-drawn little carriage and when they're hammering the anvils that spark, but it's not like that for very long, there's simply not much to it at all, it just becomes so many tipsy little dwarfs prancing and dancing it up. I did like the ending when the hideous barren background becomes all wavy, it was unexpected and a little bizarre. The drunken antics and how it ended made me wonder if they kept elements of the idea in mind and later used them in the classic gem Dumbo. Hm, for once nobody else seems to like it all that much either in the other reviews.. Anyway, if anyone would like to see some other animated shorts to feature dwarfs that are actually interesting, than I'd strongly recommend "The Sunshine Makers" and the Happy Harmony "To Spring" This though.. well it's quite boring but kinda cute and fun I guess. I don't really see how anyone could seriously find it great or anything.. To me it's mildly enjoyable..it's just not a favourite!

As I have said many times before, it is not as if I don't like Disney. I am a great fan, and I love most of the Disney cartoons, especially Babes in the Woods, Skeleton Dance, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Goddess of Spring, Father Noah's Ark, The Old Mill, The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met, Symphony Hour, The Band Concert and especially Flowers and Trees. The Merry Dwarfs just didn't do much for me. Granted it is not the worst Disney cartoon, that's El Terrible Toreador, but apart from some good animation, some nicely choreographed dancing some great music and a few good moments with one of the dwarfs impersonating a female, the blacksmith putting shoes on a grasshopper and an experimental-style ending it is a rather dull cartoon. Sadly what makes The Merry Dwarfs dull from my perspective was a story that never comes to life even in its storybook-like form, characters that are cute but rather bland and while well choreographed the dancing just goes on and on and on making The Merry Dwarfs rather tedious. Overall, not a bad cartoon but I can't really recommend it other than for historical value. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Out of the ten or so "Silly Symphonies" I've seen to date, 'The Merry Dwarfs (1929)' seems to be the weakest of all of them. Though 'The Skeleton Dance (1929)' and 'Springtime (1929)' were enjoyable, despite just portraying characters dancing in time with classical music, this particular cartoon seems to be lacking something. Surprisingly, there's very little charm in watching those little bearded fellows tap-dance across the grass, and, unlike the more nature-orientated Symphonies, we're stuck with the same performers throughout the six minutes. The most notable element of this cartoon is the unmistakable blueprint for Disney's first feature-length film 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937),' though, in the intervening eight years, you can certainly recognise how efficiently the studio managed to evolve its craft.This particular short was directed by Walt Disney himself, and contains no dialogue, only dancing set to pleasant classical music. At the end, Disney does have some fun with the dwarfs' inherent drunkenness, and the entire screen warps as they consume more alcohol than is healthy for them. They dance inside barrels, they dance inside hats, they dance on their hands, they dance of their beards; these dwarfs are enjoying such an agreeable morning that they're quite willing to dance any old way. It's just a shame that watching them dance isn't quite so exciting. 'The Merry Dwarfs' is ultimately a worthwhile early cartoon for fans of the Silly Symphonies, but there are many that can be considered a major improvement upon this effort. Just for the record, my favourite to date is Wilfred Jackson's 'The Old Mill (1937).'

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.It is a lovely day and THE MERRY DWARFS are frolicking in their woodland home, playing with the tiny insects & getting very drunk, indeed...There's no plot in this very early series entry; basically it's pleasant action/reaction animation. A comparison of the little fellows in this cartoon with Snow White's 7 companions eight years later reveals just how greatly Disney's artists improved during that time.The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most fascinating of all animated series. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.