American Cinematographer - November 1988 - 45

tortures and humiliations before

tarring and feathering
stuffing him into a cannon, which blasts him
away over the horizon.
This is an unusually witty, well-plotted car¬
toon, even for Disney. It is that rare film sequel which
technically surpasses its predecessor(s), yet serves as an
artistic complement to what has gone before. Not coin¬
cidentally, it is also the only Pig film to have been
directed by one of the top echelon of Disney directors Dave Hand, who, among his other accomplishments,
was about to become
supervising director of the stu¬
dio's first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Technically, Three Little Wolves at times amounts to a
"duet" between two great animators: Norm Ferguson,
animating the Wolf, and Fred Moore, animating the
Pigs. (Work on the little wolves was more or less evenly
him and

divided between the two. Another animator
film

this

Eric Larson, recently promoted from the
ranks of animation assistants, who would go on to
become one of the mainstays of the animation depart¬
was

ment.) Once again the music was by Frank Churchill.
Of

"Who's Afraid?" was heard
no Pig film
complete without it - but this time the Wolf
given a song, a German-dialect vaudeville

course

would be
was

also

number titled "Schweine Stew."

(By this time the Pigs had paved the way for
Silly Symphony sequels. The year 1936, during
which Three Little Wolves appeared, also saw the re¬
lease of Toby Tortoise Returns and More Kittens - sequels
to, respectively, The Tortoise and the Hare and Three
Orphan Kittens. By an interesting coincidence, Toby
Tortoise Returns includes a brief appearance by the
Pigs - along with characters from other Silly
Symphonies - and More Kittens includes a quick re¬
prise of "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?")
The Practical Pig (1939) finds the two playful
pigs going swimming, against their brother's advice.
The Wolf, ludicrously disguised as a mermaid (com¬
plete with portable "island"), lures them into his net
-

what else?

"Frankie

and

Johnny." But, having caught two of the pigs, he
cannot bring himself to cook them until he catches the
third one as well. This lapse into foolish pride brings
him afoul of Practical Pig's latest project, a "lie detec¬
tor," which punishes each of his fabrications by spank¬
ing him or scrubbing his mouth out with soap. The
Practical Pig continues a trend established in the two
previous films: the Wolf's disguise is more prepos¬
terous than ever, and the playful pigs, since they are
fooled by it, are more gullible than ever.
Although the basic premise is a good one,
and although transcripts of the story conferences testi¬
fy to the great care that was lavished on this film, The
Practical Pig is something of a disappointment. Some¬
how its humor and situations seem forced, especially
after the sustained invention and charm of Three Little
Wolves. The Practical
released
to

as a

Pig was the only Pig film not to be
Silly Symphony (that series was about

end).
Instead the

"A Walt

November 1988

opening and closing titles identify
- much as

Disney 'Three Little Pigs'"

might be labeled a "Mickey Mouse" or a
indicating that there may have been some
intention to create a regular series of Pig films. If
such a series was planned, it never materialized, and
The Practical Pig proved to be the official end of the
Pig saga.

"Goofy"

further

with the seductive strains of

another film
-

But the characters continued to appear

in
special promotional films and in cartoons starring
other characters. The Wolf was a member of Mickey's
Polo Team in the 1936 short of that title, and the Pigs
were seen jeering at him from the sidelines. One of the
characters' most unusual assignments came in 1941.
The Disney studio agreed to produce a series of trailers
for the National Film Board of Canada, urging Cana¬
dian audiences to buy government savings certificates
to support the war effort. The first of these trailers,
released in November 1941, was The Thrifty Pig, which
re-used liberal amounts of animation from Three Little

was seen building a
this time of bricks which, seen in close-

Pigs. Once again the Practical Pig
brick house

up, were revealed to be savings bonds. Original anima¬
tion of the Wolf was re-drawn to outfit him with a Nazi
hat and armband, and one long
home was re-drawn to show

shot of Practical Pig's
Union Jack flying

proudly in the front yard!
One of the most

fascinating addenda to the
Pig story is the case of the revised scene. When Three
Little Pigs was originally released in 1933, it included a
scene

in which the Wolf

came

to the brick house in the

exaggerated guise of a Jewish peddler. Ethnic stereo¬
types were, of course, not uncommon in films of the
early Thirties, and were usually essayed in a freewheel¬
ing spirit of fun, with no malice intended. But by the
time the film was reissued in 1948 (two further reissues
followed, in 1968 and 1976), social attitudes had
changed considerably "It came down to me from the
top office," says Jack Hannah, "that the Hays Office
said the Jewish people would be offended." Hannah, a
American

Cinematographer

American Cinematographer - November 1988

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