The Merry Dwarfs
About The Merry Dwarfs
In a village of dwarfs, everyone dances while working. A blacksmith hammers shoes onto a centipede and a grasshopper. Others play saxophones and drums. A band starts up. Townsmen roll out beer barrels, jump them, and drink. Two dwarfs dancing on a flower fall into a barrel underneath. They climb out drunk and keep dancing.
Cast & crew
More about The Merry Dwarfs
Walt Disney directed and produced the fifth Silly Symphony. Ub Iwerks, Wilfred Jackson, Les Clark, Johnny Cannon, and Jack Cutting animated it. Carlos Manriquez painted backgrounds. Carl Stalling wrote the music, including the Anvil Chorus from Verdi's Il trovatore. Columbia Pictures released it on 19 December 1929. A timed copy runs 5 minutes 57 seconds. The copyright was renewed in 1957. The short entered the public domain in the United States on 1 January 2025.
Themes
Making
Disney's unit treats the whole village as a dance: sweeping, shoeing, and drinking are the same step, scored by Stalling to the Anvil Chorus.
Music
Carl Stalling's score uses the Anvil Chorus from Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore (1853).
Preservation
A print survives. Copyright was renewed in 1957. The film entered the public domain in the United States on 1 January 2025.
Notes
- The blacksmith's customers include a centipede and a grasshopper, and he shoes their many feet.
- The last gag is two dancers falling off a flower into a beer barrel.
- Walt Disney Treasures: More Silly Symphonies, Volume Two, issued 19 December 2006, put the short in the "From the Vault" section because of the beer.
- It is the fifth Silly Symphony.
- A Wikimedia copy is in circulation.
Scenes
- The blacksmith hammers shoes onto a centipede.
- Two dwarfs dance on a flower and drop into the beer barrel below.
Influenced by
- The Anvil Chorus from Verdi's Il trovatore
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Merry Dwarfs (1929).webm)
- Walt Disney Treasures: More Silly Symphonies, Volume Two (DVD, 2006)
