The Winged Scourge is the first of a series of health-related educational short films produced by the Disney studios and the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs for showing in Latin America. It was also the only one to use established Disney characters (the Seven Dwarfs).
Synopsis[]
In this propaganda short, the viewers are taught about how the mosquito can spread malaria. A young mosquito flies into a house and consumes the blood of an infected human. She then consumes the blood of a healthy human, transmitting the disease into him. It turns out that this is actually a film within a film and the Seven Dwarfs are watching it. The Dwarfs volunteer to get rid of the mosquito by destroying her breeding grounds and encouraging its natural predators.
Characters[]
Voices[]
- Art Baker - Narrator
Trivia[]
- A scene from this cartoon where one of the mosquito larvae hatches was used in a 1991 episode of the PBS series Shining Time Station during a story about a kid who got sick though here the larvae is portrayed as a germ.
- An instrumental version of "Whistle While You Work" is used during the dwarfs' scene.
- The short mentions the use of Paris green and motor oil to control the spread of malaria-borne mosquitoes, both of which are no longer recommended; Paris green was once used as a pigment and later an insecticide but has since been discontinued due to it being extremely poisonous.
- Another outdated element was the idea of burying empty and discarded tin containers. Today, the dwarves would be more encouraged to gather them up, clean them out and dispose of them for recycling.
- The means of draining wetlands is now consider environmentally problematic considering the growing knowledge of their ecological role and the threat of habitat destruction. However, modifying them carefully to encourage natural predators, be fish or frogs like in the film, is especially encouraged today.
Gallery[]
