Question? How many kids nowadays do you think will be giggling hysterically when they hear the title “The 7D?” Because with this and the Nut Job my immature inner child is laughing hysterically. Yes today we get the first of the brand new series of the summer, the Seven Dwarfs reimagining simply known as the 7D. Now to be completely fair to the show I just want to make it clear that I won’t be making any comparison to Snow White’s Seven Dwarves in this spotlight. I haven’t seen the movie in years so how could I fairly compare the seven dwarves of the original fairy tale classic to the 7Ds now. I can’t. However I am able to snarkily state that from where I stand the 7Ds are the COOL modernized version of the Seven Dwarves, and by that description you can already estimate whether you’ll like the show or not. But what about me?
I’ll start off with the premise and the format of the show. In the town of Jollywood there lives Queen Delightful and she is under constant attacked by the Glooms, Grim and Hildy, so each episode she calls on the 7Ds to save the day. And in this pilot we got two episodes, one where the Glooms have frozen Jollywood in a blizzard after kidnapping their town’s magical rooster, and the second where Hildy transforms Grim into a giant spider to scare away the queen. It’s your straightforward problem of the week series, which will probably bounce between the princess’s problems and the 7D’s issues among themselves.
Now I’m sad to say that the main aspect of the show that got me giggling was the dick innuendo I extrapolated from the title, watching the show itself was only really making me smile softly. But why? First of all, the seven dwarves aren’t particularly interesting or really funny characters because as their names imply they have one note to each of them. Happy is happy, Sleepy is sleepy, Sneezy is sneezy, Dopey is dopey, Grumpy is grumpy, Doc is the smart one and the one I always forget Bashful is… no wait his only defining personality so far is that he covers his face with his hat. Those sound like hilarious characters don’t they?
This is a big issue when you get stuck with characters with these basic personality-defining names because you kind of write yourself into a box. Because how else are you supposed to write a character called Sneezy… in fact, in the pilot he doesn’t even sneeze once. That’s kind-of false advertising I sarcastically say. Although there isn’t anything unlikable about the 7Ds and they can make some funny jokes… when the writing isn’t just on repeat. My favorite of these repeated jokes is when grumpy is walking in front of Happy and happy is all “Happy Happy I’m all happy, Happy!” and Grumpy with a groan says “Does he have to be behind me?” They do this joke, no joke, three times and it doesn’t change. It’s the exact same setup to punchline over and over through throughout the first episode.
Now an unwritten rule of comedy is The Magic of three’s. A running joke running in three’s usually goes basic setup the first time, the second time you add a little spin to keep it somewhat fresh and the third you basically do the same joke from a different angle. Now obviously this doesn’t apply to all jokes everywhere but if I was in the writing room I would at least ask the other writers if we could at least ask our actors to give different inflections during each repeated joke read so it didn’t sound like the episode was glitching and repeating dialogue.
Oh yeah and the design of the characters looks a lot like the Phineas and Ferb style, with the cueball eyeballs and the vast amount of contrasting colors on individual characters, which would normally be really cool but makes me wish the 7D pilot had demonstrated more visual freedom like Disney did with Phineas and Ferb. In Phineas and Ferb’s pilot we got a gigantic roller coaster going through the city. And when you compare that with the 7D’s pilot, the sets and situation feel a tad standard by comparison. But I guess that’s to be expected when you get a snowy mountainside and the inside of a castle as your introductory set pieces. But come’on we didn’t even get to see the D’s house in the pilot. We get glimpses of it in the opening and closing credits. We see their cave and windmill home and they actually look like cool places I’d like to at least be introduced to. But we’ll have to wait until the series begins airing more episodes weekly to see that… but I think you can elaborate that I won’t be sticking around to find out.
But now you must be asking, did I like anything in the 7Ds? Well The Glooms were really fun villains. No I’m dead serious. These two made the show tolerable to watch. Hildy and Grim have this sort of angry lover’s connection that is really funny to see unfold each episode. It’s not like in most traditional shows where it’s the evil witch and the bumbling sidekick… okay it is, but that added tongue and cheek lover’s connection makes up for the cliché. This allows Hildy and Grim to speak the most self aware and emotional dialogue in the show leading to jokes that actually made me laugh out loud and consider these two the best characters in the show. Screw the Ds, give me more Glooms, even if they do look like Hot Topic exploded in their faces.
So, while watching the show you can tell by all my critiques that I wasn’t really jumping with glee, and that makes me feel kind of bad because Disney has done WAY better TV shows in even the past two year. Plus I feel like I’m biting the hand that feeds me because the creator of the show Tom Ruegger is an awesome guy. Creating a bunch of classic cartoon shows like Animaniacs and the show that shall not be named. But he’s a really great writer and has plenty of experience writing for a general audience. Ah Ha! But that’s the key isn’t it? a General audience. Is the 7D’s intended audience the general one? In my opinion, no.
It’s definitely more for the kiddie Grade 5 and under sort of show and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve watched plenty of shows that are just stupid kiddie fun. Shows like King, Jimmy Two Shoes and Spliced are clear examples of this sort of humor. They’re just a silly show, in an outrageous setting. No real rhyme or reason for the visuals it was just a fun ride before you turned off the TV and did your Saturday chores, but I think that’s where The 7D falters. While King, Spliced and Jimmy Two Shoes really had a handle on their main premises to not only create very memorable visuals but support their sometimes overdone plots, the 7D just isn’t showing the creative potential to go beyond the safe and standard at the moment.
The 7D isn’t what I would call a bad show but a standard one. It’s at the moment just a typical show that any animation studio could put out in the same time slot and tone wise it would be the same coming from all of them.
UPDATE: And after watching a few more episodes… yeah I’m sticking to my standard verdict and adding that this show is not showing that improvement that I was hoping to see.
But seeing as I’m just watching the pilot I’m open and hoping that the show can truly stand up and be one of the fun Saturday Morning cartoons that will gets kids running out of bed to watch it on TV or more realistically, nowadays run to their ipads to stream it.
Seeing as this is a TV Pilot I’m adding something special. I’m giving my prediction for how long the series will last based on the pilot. With its standard writing, and standard setting, mixed with glimpses of well thought out and repetitive comedy, I wager The 7D will last 2-3 Seasons. A standard run time for an animated kid’s show and hell for a modernization of the Seven Dwarves it isn’t disgustingly modern. Just warn me if the dwarves start dancing to dub step.
Written By: Taylor “Whyboy” Wyatt
Taylor Wyatt DC Blog 
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