The Wee Men
About The Wee Men
Irish leprechauns keep a crock of gold, and anyone who catches one must be led to it. On his 121st birthday Patrick is allowed a good deed, and he takes new shoes to poor houses, where the town miser catches him. Patrick shows him one tree stump and promises not to move the gold while the miser fetches a shovel. The miser returns to a forest of identical stumps. Patrick is walked home to a cake with 121 candles.
Cast & crew
More about The Wee Men
Bill Tytla directed, with Al Eugster as animation director. Isadore Klein wrote the story. Paramount released the Technicolor Noveltoon on August 8, 1947.
Themes
Making
Winston Sharples composed the score. An IMDb plot note adds that the shoe delivery is allowed only on a night with a full moon.
Look
Tytla sets the Irish forest at night, from Patrick's walk with the shoes to the miser's house and the trip back.
Music
Winston Sharples composed the score, including "Start the Day with a Song," later reused as the Screen Songs theme. Jackson Beck narrates.
Preservation
Thunderbean's Noveltoons Original Classics set includes a restored Technicolor print. The Internet Animation Database times one copy at 9 minutes 40 seconds.
Notes
- Jackson Beck narrates and voices the leprechauns.
- It is the first Noveltoon with these leprechauns. They return in the Screen Song The Emerald Isle and in Leprechauns Gold (1949), which the studio treated as a sequel.
- The Internet Animation Database says the song "Start the Day with a Song" later became the theme of Famous Studios' revived Screen Songs series.
- It is the ninth Noveltoon with its own opening sequence.
- A print timed by that database runs 9 minutes 40 seconds. MPAA number 4187. The picture is 35mm Technicolor, 1.37:1, RCA mono.
Scenes
- Patrick carries new shoes to poor houses on the night he turns 121.
- He leaves the miser with one stump and comes back to hundreds.
- The other leprechauns bring out a cake with 121 candles.
Influenced by
- Irish leprechaun stories about a captive who must show the gold
Influenced
- Leprechauns Gold (1949), billed as a sequel
Also available
- DVD and Blu-ray Noveltoons Original Classics (Thunderbean Animation, 2012 and 2019)
