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"A Silly Symphony"
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Released by United Artists Pictures
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Resulted in three sequels, "The Big Bad Wolf", "Three Little Wolves", and "The Practical Pig."
This short was remade in 1941 for the National Film Board of Canada as an advertisement to support the war effort and entitled "The Thrifty Pig." In order to make the metaphor apparent, the Big Bad Wolf was shown wearing a Nazi armband, and all the bricks in Practical Pig's house (including the piano) were made from Canadian War Bonds.
Animators incorporated the fact that the degree of curl in real pigs' tails reflects their mood and attitude into their animation for this short.
Walt Disney's original retelling of the story called for only two pigs, but director Bert Gillett convinced him to add a third.
From J. D. Weil : Historical foot-note here: Even though Carl Stalling left the Disney studio in 1930, he still made occasional visits to the place. Stalling was making one such visit at Disney's on the day that the music track was to be recorded, and was immediately drafted for the recording session. Stalling played the solo piano part and is heard prominently when the wolf tries to blow down Practical Pig's door.
From Jerry Edwards : The merchandising of many items with the images of the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs was hugely successful - especially considering this was the Depression era. A reenactment of the writing of "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" was included in the Disney TV show "Cavalcade of Songs" (2/16/55), shown often on the Disney Channel. There are four versions of the Three Little Pigs. I do not think I've ever seen the original short. Both the soundtrack and animation has been changed from the original. The four version are (1) the original uncensored short (2) short censored with the animation changed so that the Jewish caricature mask the Big Bad Wolf was wearing is changed to just his face - probably done in the early 1940s - this version with the original soundtrack was supposedly shown as part of the 1973 16mm compilation "Milestones In Animation" and shown on the Disney Channel in the early years around 1983 (3) short censored with the original animation intact but with the original "Big Bad Wolf sounds Jewish" sound changed to non-Jewish - this copy was accidentally included on the video "Disney Favorite Stories The Three Little Pigs." (4) short censored with both the animation changed and the soundtrack changed - this is the version on most videos and shown on the Disney Channel. I only have versions 3 and 4.
From Ryan : While I am not a big fan of the "Silly Symphonies", I actually liked this cartoon. It was pretty funny. I remember owning its sequel "Three Little Wolves" on video at one time. I had not yet seen this one. One funny scene was seeing the pictures of the parents on the wall. The mother was a nursing pig and the father was a bunch of weiners.
From Atsuko : Another one of my favorites. I prefer the sequels "Three Little Wolves" and "The Practical Pig", but that's just me I guess. Very interesting message within in the cartoon dealing with the Depression. The wolf is one nasty villain, and that fall in the boiling pot just isn't enough to pay back for all the torture he puts the pigs through! I loved the "Poor Little sheep" disguise of the wolf. His disguises are always so obvious! I guess Practical is the only one of the pigs to ever notice this.
From Brian Edward Johnson : My daughter loves the Three Little Pigs short. We have rented the video so many times, and have finally decided to buy it. Whose afraid of the big bad wolf? Not our three year old.
From Tom Wilkins : How anyone can say that this cartoon is not one of the greatest cartoons in American history has not lived life! Plain and simple, this is a classic I am dealing with.
It all begins with Fifer Pig constructing his house of straw very carelessly. No duh! He toots his flute and don't give a hoot! At least give credit to Fiddler Pig who at least was attempting to construct his house of sticks, unlike the first pig who just threw his straw around and acted as if he invented the house. Be glad that Fiddler was not using a sawblade to play his fiddle.
Then, of course, comes the captain of the three hams on rye - Practical Pig. This pig had his priorities set, unlike the other two, since he knows that work and play do not mix. Trust me ... Practical was always one step ahead of every other character, including the other pigs.
With Piper and Fiddler already merrily playing their respective instruments, Practical was still hard at work on the rooftop of his house. Practical, unlike the other two, aced his way through several construction courses. He certainly took his time putting the brick house (and I don't mean the Commodores) together. The other two mock Practical claiming he has no time to play, but Practical gave his explanations quite clearly to them because there was some creature known as a wolf lurking about. The other pigs laugh, thinking Practical was nuts, because they assumed that there was no wolf, and if there was one, they could handle it themselves. Of course, little did they know.
Once the pigs noticed the wolf, the mood went from glee to sheer horror in a split-second and they ran for cover faster than James Jett of the Oakland Raiders. The wolf nearly caught Piper, but he was able to squeal his way out and into the straw house, which was the wolf's first target. Well, you know the rest. The straw house had no chance against the wolf's hurricane-force exhalation. I could only wonder if the animators were thinking about putting a little Pig - I mean, Turkey In The Straw music for this scene, but it would simply ruin the tone of the cartoon. Needless to say, Piper runs to Fiddler's stick house for shelter. The wolf plays possum, saying that the pigs were too smart for them and that he would leave. Obviously, the wolf was nowhere near done yet.
After a knock on the door, which the pigs hide under a blanket, the wolf decides to pull off disguise number one ... a wolf in sheep's clothing (and very poorly done, too). Clearly, the pigs were not fooled by this, and this angered the wolf into wiping out another house. For these two pigs, we do not know if either had renter's insurance, notwithstanding a mortgage. Unfortunately, Franklin D. Roosevelt could not give either pig substantial aid to repair the destroyed homes. Yet, as the pigs ran for Practical's brick house, the wolf was able to grab the two pigs by their tails and hung on for dear life until smacking into a tree. When they make it, Practical basically told them, "I told you so!"
Well, the wolf was now thinking, "Two down...one to go." Well, once again there's a knock on the door and the first two pigs hide under the bed. The wolf is a brushman (who says he worked his way through college, but I tend to differ) and surprisingly Practical accepts the brush through the locked door. Practical knew what he was doing, so there was no need to worry. Once he accepted, the wolf was on the attack, but got nowhere near Practical and the pig clobbered him several times with the brush, which he later discarded. The wolf is even angrier than before and is ready to use his iron lungs to wipe out the brick house, but after several unsuccessful attempts (with musical background by Practical), the wolf seems to have suffered an asthma attack.
The wolf recovers quickly and figures if he can't blow it down, I'm coming in anyway! So he jumps up on the housetop (reindeer laugh hysterically) and prepares to make an unannounced Santa Claus entrance. With a hot water pot at the bottom of the chimney and soot raining down on it, Practical again thinks ahead and takes his bottle of turpentine, pours it in the water, and prepares to see what happens when the wolf lands in it. Obviously, the wolf takes off like the Space Shuttle and runs with third degree burns on his fanny.
The pigs celebrate that they have won round one against the wolf (remember, there are still three more to go within the next five years), but Practical throws in one last "practical" joke. He knocks on the piano, and the other pigs, thinking it was the wolf, take cover under the bed ... again.
Please be sure you take a look at the other write-up with all the historical content about this cartoon ... extremely fascinating stuff!
From Slightly : After seeing this short 90 times this year, I wanted to comment on it and this is what I have to say. The 3 pigs short is a wonderful cartoon to watch over and over again, the music, the animation, and the sounds were very good. Billy Butcher's voice as the wolf was magical; it was like the wolf was actually really alive and talking. Wwhen I was about 2 I was watching the 3 little pigs and when I saw the wolf coming up on the screen and spying on the pigs I just laugh at him and then when he blew the straw and stick it was so funny that I couldn't stop laughing. But when the short got to the part where the wolf was getting angry I was scared of him. I thought he would come to my home and blow it down and eat me. The disney bad guys used to scare me until now. This is one of Walt's most wonderful, magical, enchating, and golden cartoon in the Disney history. That's why I love it.
From Christopher : To me this is one of the best Disney "Silly Symphonies". I have grown up watching this cartoon, and never realized that it wasn't the original version. I have just see the original uncut theatrical version on the big screen. The music is a bit different, and the beginng and ending titles are totally different than that shown on the Disney channel, or on the videos. If anybody else has seen this short on the big screen please tell me so. It is such a great experience. The reason that I had seen this on the big screen was in part of the OSCARS 75th anniversary that's being held here in Los Angeles. If anyone is in Los Angeles you should check out this film series, for they have more Disney restored uncut shorts to show.
From Benke Cloudberry : I´m a great fun of Disney Cartoons and have bought all the Disney Treasurers. Imagine my disappointment when I read the Jerry Edwards comment that part of this cartoon is censored! My disappointment has grown further when I captured the same cartoon last june from the Nordic Disney Channel and found out that it was complete (including the "jewish" disguise). How I liked the cartoon? Good, but none of my favorites. When I show it to my friends they enjoy that with the portrait gallery and so do I.
From Gijs Grob : One of the most succesful, most famous and most perfect cartoons ever made. After more than seventy years, the song is still catchy and the storytelling is extraordinarily economical and effective. Although one will always remember the short's cheerfulness, it contains some black humour, as well: look for the portraits of dad in the wise pig's house.
From Baruch Weiss : This is one of the most famous Disney cartoons of all time and I can see why. Who's afraid of the big bad wolf would really be useful at a time like this with the economy down. Another scene in the film that looks amusing is in the practical pig's house where there is a picture on the wall of his father who is depicted as sausages!
Referenced Comments
"The Three Little Pigs" was probably the most important and influential short that the Disney studios ever made. It was certainly the most popular.
The year was 1933. The tide of post World War One prosperity had ebbed and the mood of the country was bleak. The bottom had fallen out of the stock market. Editorial cartoons showed bankers jumping out of windows rather than face the questionable economic future. Lines of people looking for work stretched for blocks in some cities.
Ironically, the one business that the depression had not seemed to affect was the movie studios. People were still looking for distraction among the confusion of the times. Disney never specifically intended to create a cartoon to lift the country out of it's doldrums. But, when The Three Little Pigs made its appearance on May 27, it was, in every sense of the phrase, an overnight sensation.
Exactly why the short was such a success baffled even Walt Disney himself. Some saw in the short an analogy to the depression itself, with America as the pigs able to overcome adversity through hard work, invention and practicality. Others pointed to the catchy theme song, written by Frank Churchill, which was on everybody's lips, even as they left the theater. The song, in fact, was so omnipresent, that it led one cynical writer to state: "I am leaving tomorrow for Vladivostok, there to remain until this thing blows over, or reaches Vladivostok."
The short was influential for more
than a few reasons. Disney had always wanted to instill his cartoons with
real character and finally felt he had established it with the pigs. This
would set the standard for what audiences would expect out of an animated
character. No longer would audiences accept two-dimensional "cartoon" characters.
A further level of depth was required from here on in. From a technical
standpoint, it also made Technicolor a requirement. Since "Pigs" was made
in Technicolor, that was now the standard.
Theater owners loved it as well. In an era where a short would normally stay for a week or two, "The Three Little Pigs" stayed on for months. One owner painted beards on the poster of the pigs; the longer the short played, the longer the beards got. In Dallas, a small riot erupted when the owner forgot to show the short as advertised. Calm was only restored when the theater owner stopped the feature film and showed the short. Feature films came and went, but "The Three Little Pigs" stayed on, sometimes even garnering lead billing over the feature film; an unheard of feat for a short cartoon.
The owners also cried for a sequel. One wired to Disney just the two words, "More Pigs!" Disney acquiesced and made three more shorts with the pigs (although they never reached the status of Mickey or Donald.) But his answer and his philosophy always was "You can't top pigs with pigs."
Lyrics
(Fifer Pig)
I built my house of straw
I built my house of hay
I toot my flute
I don't give a hoot
And play around all day
(Fiddler Pig)
I built my house of sticks
I built my house of twigs
With a hey-diddle-diddle
I play on the fiddle
And dance all kinds of jigs
(Practical Pig)
I built my house of stone
I built my house of bricks
I have no chance
To sing and dance
For work and play don't mix
(Fifer and Fiddler Pigs)
He don't take no time to play
Time to play
Time to play
All he does is work all day
(Practical Pig)
You can play and laugh and fiddle
Don't you think you'll make me sore
I'll be safe and you'll be sorry
When the wolf comes to your door
(Fifer and Fiddler Pigs)
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf
Big bad wolf
Big bad wolf
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf
Big bad wolf
Big bad wolf
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf
I'll punch him in the nose
I'll tie him in a knot
I'll kick him in the shin
We'll put him on the spot
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf
Big bad wolf
Big bad wolf
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf