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Three Little Pigs (film)
Encyclopedia
Three Little Pigs is an animated
short film released on May 27, 1933 by United Artists
, produced by Walt Disney
and directed by Burt Gillett. Based on a fairy tale of the same name
, Three Little Pigs won the 1934 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons
. In 1994, it was voted #11 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. In 2007, Three Little Pigs was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
– Fifer Pig plays the flute
, Fiddler Pig plays the fiddle
and Practical Pig plays the piano
. Fifer and Fiddler build their straw and stick houses with much ease and have fun all day. Practical, on the other hand, works all day long to build his strong brick house, but his two brothers poke fun at him. An angry Practical warns them that if they don't build a better house, the Big Bad Wolf will threaten their lives (saying "You can play and laugh and fiddle. Don't think you can make me sore. I'll be safe and you'll be sorry when the Wolf comes through your door!"). Fifer and Fiddler ignore him and continue to play, singing the now famous song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
".
One day, the Big Bad Wolf really comes by, and blows Fifer's house down (except for the roof). Fifer manages to escape and hides at Fiddler's house. The wolf pretends to give up and go home, but returns disguised as an innocent sheep. The pigs see through the disguise, whereupon the Wolf blows Fiddler's house down (except for the door). The two pigs manage to escape and hide at Practical's house. The Wolf arrives disguised as a Fuller Brush man to trick the pigs into letting him in, but fails. The Wolf then tries to blow down the strong brick house (losing his clothing in the process), but is unable. Finally, he attempts to enter the house through the chimney, but smart Practical Pig takes off the lid of a boiling pot filled with water (to which he adds turpentine
) under the chimney, and the Wolf falls right into it. Shrieking in pain, the Wolf runs away frantically, while the pigs sing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" again. Then Practical plays a trick on the others by knocking on his piano, causing the other two pigs to think the Wolf has returned and hide under Practical's bed again.
Animator Chuck Jones said, "That was the first time that anybody ever brought characters to life [in an animated cartoon]. They were three characters who looked alike and acted differently". (Other animation historians, particularly admirers of Winsor McCay
, would dispute the word "first," but Jones was not referring to personality as such but to characterization through posture and movement.) Fifer and Fiddler Pig are frivolous and care-free; Practical Pig is cautious and earnest.
The moderate, but not blockbuster, success of the further "Three Pigs" cartoons was seen as a factor in Walt Disney's decision not to rest on his laurels, but instead to continue to move forward with risk-taking projects, such as the multiplane camera
and the first feature-length animated movie. Disney's slogan, often repeated over the years, was "you can't top pigs with pigs."
The original song composed by Frank Churchill
for the cartoon, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", was a best-selling single
, mirroring the people's resolve against the "big bad wolf" of The Great Depression; the song actually became something of an anthem of the Great Depression. When the Nazis
began expanding the boundaries of Germany
in the years preceding World War II
, the song was used to represent the complacency of the Western world in allowing Hitler to make considerable acquisitions of territory without going to war, and was notably used in Disney animations for the Canadian war effort. The song was further used as the inspiration for the title of the 1963 play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Two cartoons inspired by this cartoon were produced by Warner Bros.
, The first was "Pigs in a Polka
" which tells the story to the accompaniment of Johannes Brahms
' Hungarian Dances. The other was "The Three Little Bops
", featuring the pigs as a jazz band, who refused to let the inept trumpet-playing wolf join until after he died and went to Hell
, whereupon his playing markedly improved. Both of these cartoons were directed by ex-Disney animator Friz Freleng
.
The pigs and the Big Bad Wolf also appear at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
as meetable characters.
The Three Little Pigs were featured in House of Mouse, and the Big Bad Wolf was one of the villains in Mickey's House of Villains
. Practical Pig was featured in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse
.
A miniature set of the pigs’ homes is featured in the Storybook Land Canal Boats
attraction in Disneyland Park (Anaheim)
.
A poster in the queue area for the Magic Kingdom
attraction Mickey's PhilharMagic
features the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf as The Wolf Gang Trio.
Fiddler Pig, Fifer Pig, and Zeke the Wolf appeared in Who Framed Roger Rabbit
.
dressed as a Jewish peddler was excised from the film after its release and was re-animated so the Wolf would be a Fuller Brush Man, albeit one with a Yiddish accent. Airings on American television have edited this further by using the Fuller Brush Man footage and redubbing the Wolf's voice so that he does not sound stereotypically Jewish.
, the short was first released on VHS
, Betamax
and Laserdisc
in 1984 as part of its "Cartoon Classics" Home Video series. The topical 'Fuller Brush Man' line "I'm the Fuller Brush Man...I'm giving a free sample!" was changed to the incongruous "I'm the Fuller Brush Man - I'm working my way though college" for this and all subsequent home video releases. It made its DVD
debut on December 4, 2001, included in the Silly Symphonies
set of the Walt Disney Treasures
line. It was later included in Walt Disney's Timeless Tales, Vol. 1, released August 16, 2005, which also featured The Pied Piper (1933), The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934), The Tortoise and the Hare (1935) and The Prince and the Pauper (1990).
In those other countries to whom the original 1933 cartoon was first released with original soundtracks in both English and other foreign languages, the uncensored images -with original 1933 soundtracks in both English and other foreign languages- are still issued by the Disney Corporation in home-release videos.
, also directed by Burt Gillett and first released on April 14, 1934. All four characters of the original film returned along with two new additions: Little Red Riding Hood
and her grandmother, originating from a different folktale which also featured a wolf as the villain
. The plot was fairly simple. Practical Pig is seen building an extension to the shared residence of the three pigs. The added space is presumably needed as the residence was originally intended for a single occupant. Meanwhile, Fiddler and Fifer Pig offer to escort the Red Riding Hood to her grandmother's residence. Against the advice of Practical, the trio attempts to follow a shortcut through the forest
. They encounter the dressed-in-drag
Wolf and barely evade capture. He proceeds in running ahead of them to the residence of the old woman. The Wolf places her in a closet
and then awaits her granddaughter to arrive. The young girl soon does, but also enters the closet with the assistance of her grandmother. Then Fiddler and Fifer Pig alert their brother to the situation. Practical arrives and soon manages to send the Wolf running by placing hot coal
s and popcorn
into his trousers
. The short contained several gag
s but at the time failed to repeat the commercial success of the original. Modern audiences have found it entertaining enough but still inferior to its predecessor.
In 1936, a third cartoon starring the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf followed, with a theme more towards The Boy Who Cried Wolf
. This short was entitled The Three Little Wolves and it was so called because it introduced the Big Bad Wolf's three pup sons, all of whom just as eager for a taste of the pigs as their father.
One more cartoon short featuring the characters, The Practical Pig
, was released in 1939, right at the end of the Silly Symphonies' run.
In 1941, much of the film was edited into The Thrifty Pig, which was distributed by the National Film Board of Canada
. Here, Practical Pig builds his house out of Canadian war bonds, and the Big Bad Wolf representing Nazi Germany
is unable to blow his house down.
A new character, Lil Bad Wolf, the son of the Big Bad Wolf, was introduced in subsequent Disney comic book
s. He was a constant vexation to his father, the Big Bad Wolf, because the little son was not actually bad. His favorite playmates, in fact, were the Three Pigs.
There were subsequent sequels made for the Disney TV series Mickey Mouse Works
as well.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
short film released on May 27, 1933 by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
, produced by Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
and directed by Burt Gillett. Based on a fairy tale of the same name
Three Little Pigs
Three Little Pigs is a fairy tale featuring anthropomorphic animals. Printed versions date back to the 1840s, but the story itself is thought to be much older...
, Three Little Pigs won the 1934 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons
Academy Award for Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....
. In 1994, it was voted #11 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. In 2007, Three Little Pigs was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
Practical Pig, Fiddler Pig and Fifer Pig are three brothers who build their own houses with bricks, sticks and straw respectively. All three of them play a different kind of musical instrumentMusical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
– Fifer Pig plays the flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, Fiddler Pig plays the fiddle
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and Practical Pig plays the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. Fifer and Fiddler build their straw and stick houses with much ease and have fun all day. Practical, on the other hand, works all day long to build his strong brick house, but his two brothers poke fun at him. An angry Practical warns them that if they don't build a better house, the Big Bad Wolf will threaten their lives (saying "You can play and laugh and fiddle. Don't think you can make me sore. I'll be safe and you'll be sorry when the Wolf comes through your door!"). Fifer and Fiddler ignore him and continue to play, singing the now famous song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" is a popular song written by Frank Churchill with additional lyrics by Ann Ronell, which originally featured in the 1933 Disney cartoon Three Little Pigs, where it was sung by Fiddler Pig and Fifer Pig as they arrogantly believe their houses of straw and twigs...
".
One day, the Big Bad Wolf really comes by, and blows Fifer's house down (except for the roof). Fifer manages to escape and hides at Fiddler's house. The wolf pretends to give up and go home, but returns disguised as an innocent sheep. The pigs see through the disguise, whereupon the Wolf blows Fiddler's house down (except for the door). The two pigs manage to escape and hide at Practical's house. The Wolf arrives disguised as a Fuller Brush man to trick the pigs into letting him in, but fails. The Wolf then tries to blow down the strong brick house (losing his clothing in the process), but is unable. Finally, he attempts to enter the house through the chimney, but smart Practical Pig takes off the lid of a boiling pot filled with water (to which he adds turpentine
Turpentine
Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...
) under the chimney, and the Wolf falls right into it. Shrieking in pain, the Wolf runs away frantically, while the pigs sing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" again. Then Practical plays a trick on the others by knocking on his piano, causing the other two pigs to think the Wolf has returned and hide under Practical's bed again.
Voice cast
- Pinto ColvigPinto ColvigVance DeBar "Pinto" Colvig was an American vaudeville actor, radio actor, newspaper cartoonist, prolific movie voice actor, and circus performer whose schtick was playing clarinet off-key while mugging....
... Practical Pig - Billy BletcherBilly BletcherWilliam "Billy" Bletcher was an American actor, comedian, and voice artist, a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.-Career:...
... The Big Bad Wolf - Mary ModerMary ModerMary Moder was an American voice actress for The Walt Disney Company known for the voice of the Fiddler Pig in the Three Little Pigs short subjects. She died of a heart attack in 1993 at the age of 87.-External links:...
... Fiddler Pig - Dorothy ComptonDorothy ComptonDorothy Compton was an American voice actress born in the early 1900s. An early friend of Walt Disney, she made her first acting debut in The Three Little Pigs as the voice of Fifer Pig...
... Fifer Pig
Reaction and legacy
The movie was phenomenally successful with audiences of the day, so much that theaters ran the cartoon for months after its debut, to great financial response. A number of theaters added hand-drawn "beards" to the movie posters for the cartoon as a way of indicating how long its theatrical run lasted. The cartoon is still considered to be the most successful animated short ever made, and remained on top of animation until Disney was able to boast Mickey's popularity further by making him a top merchandise icon by the end of 1934.Animator Chuck Jones said, "That was the first time that anybody ever brought characters to life [in an animated cartoon]. They were three characters who looked alike and acted differently". (Other animation historians, particularly admirers of Winsor McCay
Winsor McCay
Winsor McCay was an American cartoonist and animator.A prolific artist, McCay's pioneering early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades...
, would dispute the word "first," but Jones was not referring to personality as such but to characterization through posture and movement.) Fifer and Fiddler Pig are frivolous and care-free; Practical Pig is cautious and earnest.
The moderate, but not blockbuster, success of the further "Three Pigs" cartoons was seen as a factor in Walt Disney's decision not to rest on his laurels, but instead to continue to move forward with risk-taking projects, such as the multiplane camera
Multiplane camera
The multiplane camera is a special motion picture camera used in the traditional animation process that moves a number of pieces of artwork past the camera at various speeds and at various distances from one another...
and the first feature-length animated movie. Disney's slogan, often repeated over the years, was "you can't top pigs with pigs."
The original song composed by Frank Churchill
Frank Churchill
Frank Churchill was an American composer of popular music for films. He wrote most of the music for Disney's 1937 movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, including "Whistle While You Work" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come"...
for the cartoon, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", was a best-selling single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, mirroring the people's resolve against the "big bad wolf" of The Great Depression; the song actually became something of an anthem of the Great Depression. When the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
began expanding the boundaries of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in the years preceding World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the song was used to represent the complacency of the Western world in allowing Hitler to make considerable acquisitions of territory without going to war, and was notably used in Disney animations for the Canadian war effort. The song was further used as the inspiration for the title of the 1963 play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee that opened on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theater on October 13, 1962. The original cast featured Uta Hagen as Martha, Arthur Hill as George, Melinda Dillon as Honey and George Grizzard as Nick. It was directed by Alan Schneider...
Two cartoons inspired by this cartoon were produced by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, The first was "Pigs in a Polka
Pigs in a Polka
Pigs in a Polka is a one-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Merrie Melodies series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on February 6, 1943 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger and directed by Friz Freleng, with musical supervision by Carl W. Stalling...
" which tells the story to the accompaniment of Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
' Hungarian Dances. The other was "The Three Little Bops
Three Little Bops
Three Little Bops is a 1957 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, with voices by Stan Freberg and music by jazz composer/trumpeter Shorty Rogers...
", featuring the pigs as a jazz band, who refused to let the inept trumpet-playing wolf join until after he died and went to Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, whereupon his playing markedly improved. Both of these cartoons were directed by ex-Disney animator Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
.
The pigs and the Big Bad Wolf also appear at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is the segment of The Walt Disney Company that conceives, builds, and manages the company's theme parks and holiday resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises...
as meetable characters.
The Three Little Pigs were featured in House of Mouse, and the Big Bad Wolf was one of the villains in Mickey's House of Villains
Mickey's House of Villains
Mickey's House of Villains is a direct-to-video film produced by The Walt Disney Company. It is a film adaptation of the Disney Channel animated television series Disney's House of Mouse, starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Daisy Duck and Disney Villains that have appeared in...
. Practical Pig was featured in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse
Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse
Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse is the first direct-to-video movie spin off from the Disney Channel animated television series Disney's House of Mouse.-Plot:...
.
A miniature set of the pigs’ homes is featured in the Storybook Land Canal Boats
Storybook Land Canal Boats
Storybook Land Canal Boats is an attraction located at the Disneyland and Disneyland Park theme parks. Passengers embark on a leisurely-paced outdoor boat ride through a winding canal featuring settings from Disney animated films recreated in miniature...
attraction in Disneyland Park (Anaheim)
Disneyland Park (Anaheim)
Disneyland Park is a theme park located in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of the Walt Disney Company. Known as Disneyland when it opened on July 18, 1955, and still almost universally referred to by that name, it is the only theme park to be...
.
A poster in the queue area for the Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park is one of four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort located near Orlando, Florida. The first park built at the resort, Magic Kingdom opened Oct. 1, 1971. Designed and built by WED Enterprises, the park's layout and attractions are similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, California...
attraction Mickey's PhilharMagic
Mickey's PhilharMagic
Mickey's PhilharMagic is a 4-D film attraction found at the Magic Kingdom theme park in the Walt Disney World Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland and at Tokyo Disneyland. The film was directed by George Scribner, who is best known for directing Disney's 1988 animated film, Oliver and Company...
features the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf as The Wolf Gang Trio.
Fiddler Pig, Fifer Pig, and Zeke the Wolf appeared in Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
.
Censorship
One sequence in the cartoon which showed the Big Bad WolfBig Bad Wolf
The Big Bad Wolf is a term used to describe a fictional wolf who appears in several precautionary folkloric stories, including some of Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales.-Interpretations:...
dressed as a Jewish peddler was excised from the film after its release and was re-animated so the Wolf would be a Fuller Brush Man, albeit one with a Yiddish accent. Airings on American television have edited this further by using the Fuller Brush Man footage and redubbing the Wolf's voice so that he does not sound stereotypically Jewish.
Home video
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the short was first released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
, Betamax
Betamax
Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
and Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
in 1984 as part of its "Cartoon Classics" Home Video series. The topical 'Fuller Brush Man' line "I'm the Fuller Brush Man...I'm giving a free sample!" was changed to the incongruous "I'm the Fuller Brush Man - I'm working my way though college" for this and all subsequent home video releases. It made its DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
debut on December 4, 2001, included in the Silly Symphonies
Silly Symphonies
Silly Symphonies is a series of animated short subjects, 75 in total, produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939, while the studio was still located at Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles...
set of the Walt Disney Treasures
Walt Disney Treasures
The Walt Disney Treasures is a two-disc DVD set of classic Disney works. They cover work from the studio's earliest days to their more recent work...
line. It was later included in Walt Disney's Timeless Tales, Vol. 1, released August 16, 2005, which also featured The Pied Piper (1933), The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934), The Tortoise and the Hare (1935) and The Prince and the Pauper (1990).
In those other countries to whom the original 1933 cartoon was first released with original soundtracks in both English and other foreign languages, the uncensored images -with original 1933 soundtracks in both English and other foreign languages- are still issued by the Disney Corporation in home-release videos.
Sequels
Disney produced several sequels to Three Little Pigs, though none were nearly as successful as the original. The first of them was The Big Bad WolfThe Big Bad Wolf (film)
The Big Bad Wolf is an animated short released on 14 April 1934 by United Artists, produced by Walt Disney and directed by Burt Gillett as part of the Silly Symphony series...
, also directed by Burt Gillett and first released on April 14, 1934. All four characters of the original film returned along with two new additions: Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
and her grandmother, originating from a different folktale which also featured a wolf as the villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
. The plot was fairly simple. Practical Pig is seen building an extension to the shared residence of the three pigs. The added space is presumably needed as the residence was originally intended for a single occupant. Meanwhile, Fiddler and Fifer Pig offer to escort the Red Riding Hood to her grandmother's residence. Against the advice of Practical, the trio attempts to follow a shortcut through the forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
. They encounter the dressed-in-drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
Wolf and barely evade capture. He proceeds in running ahead of them to the residence of the old woman. The Wolf places her in a closet
Closet
A closet is a small and enclosed space, a cabinet, or a cupboard in a house or building used for general storage or hanging clothes. A closet for food storage is usually referred to as a pantry...
and then awaits her granddaughter to arrive. The young girl soon does, but also enters the closet with the assistance of her grandmother. Then Fiddler and Fifer Pig alert their brother to the situation. Practical arrives and soon manages to send the Wolf running by placing hot coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
s and popcorn
Popcorn
Popcorn, or popping corn, is corn which expands from the kernel and puffs up when heated. Corn is able to pop because, like sorghum, quinoa and millet, its kernels have a hard moisture-sealed hull and a dense starchy interior. This allows pressure to build inside the kernel until an explosive...
into his trousers
Trousers
Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...
. The short contained several gag
Gag
A gag is usually a device designed to prevent speech, often as a restraint device to stop the subject from calling for help. This is usually done by blocking the mouth, partially or completely, or attempting to prevent the tongue, lips, or jaw from moving in the normal patterns of speech. They are...
s but at the time failed to repeat the commercial success of the original. Modern audiences have found it entertaining enough but still inferior to its predecessor.
In 1936, a third cartoon starring the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf followed, with a theme more towards The Boy Who Cried Wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf, is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 210 in the Perry Index. From it is derived the English idiom 'to cry wolf', meaning to give a false alarm.-The fable and its history:...
. This short was entitled The Three Little Wolves and it was so called because it introduced the Big Bad Wolf's three pup sons, all of whom just as eager for a taste of the pigs as their father.
One more cartoon short featuring the characters, The Practical Pig
The Practical Pig
The Practical Pig is a Silly Symphonies cartoon. Released on February 24, 1939, and directed by Dick Rickard. It was the second-to-last Silly Symphony made, and the fourth and final cartoon starring The Three Pigs...
, was released in 1939, right at the end of the Silly Symphonies' run.
In 1941, much of the film was edited into The Thrifty Pig, which was distributed by the National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
. Here, Practical Pig builds his house out of Canadian war bonds, and the Big Bad Wolf representing Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
is unable to blow his house down.
A new character, Lil Bad Wolf, the son of the Big Bad Wolf, was introduced in subsequent Disney comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s. He was a constant vexation to his father, the Big Bad Wolf, because the little son was not actually bad. His favorite playmates, in fact, were the Three Pigs.
There were subsequent sequels made for the Disney TV series Mickey Mouse Works
Mickey Mouse Works
Mickey Mouse Works is a television show that features the cartoon character Mickey Mouse and his friends in a series of animated segments. It is somewhat of an update of Mickey's Mouse Tracks....
as well.
External links
- Three Little Pigs in the Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts