The Three Little Pups

Snoopy, Loopy, and Droopy are the three little pups. It's the story of the Three Little Pigs but this time, the Big Bad Wolf is a dog-catcher.

I can't believe that this has a Snoopy although the Charlie Brown Snoopy came out a few years before this. It's interesting as a quirk of animation history. It's a solid Tex Avery cartoon. Droopy is Droopy and the Big Bad Wolf is a great antagonist for him.

This is the tale of Snoopy, Loopy and Droopy. In other words, a twist on The Three Little Pigs. Instead of the big, bad wolf we have the city dog catcher as the villain, coming to blow their houses down and take them to city dog pound.

I enjoyed seeing Droopy make a brick dog house; the dog catcher's unique "sneak" system on his truck; When the dog catcher first spoke, I almost fell over: it was Daws Butler, doing the slow drawl voice he made so famous in cartoons a decade and more later, such as "Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound."

Anyway, this character - and his truck - are flat-out hilarious. His "asides" lines to us, the audience, almost had me in tears laughing. The man was unflappable, with a funny remark after each disaster.

This is the best "Three Little Pigs" story I ever saw.

A variation of the fable The Three Little Pigs, this early '50s Tex Avery short displays the highly stylized backgrounds that were the influence of UPA cartoons, an influence that changed cartoons forever.

The short also displays a completely new twist in Avery bad-guys. The Dog-catching Wolf first appears as a sinister fanged being who blows down the flimsy houses of Droopy's brothers, and when he fails with Droopy's brick abode, he furiously tries to break in, pounding on the roof with an axe, then pounding the door with a sledgehammer - and instantly he stops, looks at the audience, and softly drawls on the quality of the doghouse's construction.

From here the Dog-catcher is a totally different character; he tries to break into the house, but the malice of before is now gone, replaced by calm effort foiled at every turn by Droopy, whose countermoves receive respectful praise from the Dog-catcher after one gag blows up in his face. So unflappable is the Dog-catcher that when he catches a dog in the wrong place, he changes clothes, twice, and even tells the other dog to leave.

Daws Butler voices the Dog-catcher and here we see the genesis of Huckleberry Hound in the southern drawl as the Dog-catcher eventually reaches the last straw and vows if his final gag doesn't work he'll do something about it - and does, without even a hint of regret.

Other cartoons would use this style of villian, but few ever did it better than The Three Little Pups.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. Generally like the Droopy cartoons and the character himself a lot, his best cartoons are classics and among Avery's best. Both are true for 'The Three Little Pups', one of many variations of the old 'The Three Little Pigs' story but one of the best, funniest and most imaginative along with Friz Freleng's 'The Three Little Bops' from 1957.

Droopy, as usual, is so well established in personality and is high on the humour and charisma scale. Stealing the cartoon from under him is the uproariously funny but also subtly menacing dog catcher, up there as one of the best adversaries in a Droopy cartoon.

Typically, Avery (returning after Dick Lundy did a surprisingly good job with the still very good 'Caballero Droopy', that just suffered from inevitable comparison to the previous Avery cartoons so lacked the unique wildness and wackiness, while still being very well made and funny) does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected.

Once again there is nothing sadistic or repetitious, instead it's imaginative and hilarious (especially that razor sharp in wit dialogue). It is no surprise either that the animation is superb. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

Can never fault the voice acting in the Droopy cartoons, and Daws Butler particularly excels.

Summing up, wonderful. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This is kind of a boring take to the classic fairytale, Three Little Pigs. Here, three little pups (one of them being Droopy) build their respected homes, but also try to escape from the dog pound, which is driven by a wolf.

Not much laughs in this one, just a smack of slapstick stuff here and there. The characters were a little emotionless, even the wolf, who keeps whistling like the like a devil may concern attitude. Not too much fun.

Grade C-