Shortly after the rough animation on "Dumbo" was complete in May 1941, "The Legend of Happy Valley" went into production, using many of the same cast, although RKO doubted it would be a success. Since it was a simple, low-budget film, in six months, fifty minutes had been animated on "Happy Valley". Then on October 27, 1941, due to the Disney animators' strike and World War II which had cut off Disney's foreign release market caused serious debts so Disney put "The Legend of Happy Valley" on hold.