Los tres lobitos

The third Three Little Pigs cartoon short from Disney, following the Academy Award-winning Three Little Pigs and the enjoyable Big Bad Wolf. This one introduces the Wolf's three sons (the three little wolves of the title). They're kind of irritating but it is fun to watch them be brats to their father. Anyway, once again Practical Pig (the one who built the brick house in the first cartoon and warned his brothers about entering the woods in the second) is having to deal with his stupid brothers, Fifer and Fiddler. This time they're playing pranks on Practical and sounding the wolf alarm. He warns them about "crying wolf" and they just scoff. Of course, they live to regret this when the wolf and his sons show up. The animation is colorful and fluid. The voice work is great and the score by Frank Churchill is exciting. It's a fun cartoon; about as good as the second short in the series but not on the level of the first. Once again the highlight is the wolf in drag, this time as Little Bo Peep.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

The Big Bad Wolf returns to the forest, this time with his sons, the THREE LITTLE WOLVES. Fortunately for them, Fifer & Fiddler Pigs are as gullible & silly as ever...

A follow-up to THE BIG BAD WOLF (1934) and THE THREE LITTLE PIGS' second sequel, this is a very pleasant cartoon with lots of good imagination at work. The 'Wolf Pacifier' is fascinating & must have warmed the heart of Rube Goldberg himself. Followed by the non-Symphony THE PRACTICAL PIG (1939).

The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most fascinating of all animated series. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.

Because "The Three Little Pigs" was such a popular short and garnered an Oscar, it's not surprising that Disney Studio would bring back the pigs for some sequels. One is "The Big Bad Wolf" and another is this film, "Three Little Wolves". And, like the prior sequel, it's a mash-up--combining two old stories into one. In this case it's "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" along with "The Three Little Pigs".

The short begins with not just the Big Bad Wolf but his three kids--who he's teaching how to capture pigs. As for the pigs, they are EXACTLY the same as in the previous shorts. In other words, the two stupid pigs are still quite stupid and seem to have learned nothing! This really annoyed me and had me wanting to see the wolves win! The two idiot pigs find a new game--yelling 'WOLF' just to watch their industrious brother come running. After a while, he gets sick of their games and, once again, I kept hoping the wolves would have a nice pork dinner. Unfortunately, this wasn't to be as the smart pig eventually arrives to save his awful brothers when they are captured by the hungry wolves. Well animated but the story is getting a bit thin.

The title characters are the children of the Big Bad Wolf. They are taught by Dad how to carve up pigs for food. Meanwhile, two of the three little pigs fool around while the smart brother works hard. He is building an anti-wolf machine. The two lazy ones blow a warning horn, ala the boy who cried wolf. Of course, while they screw around, they are captured. They don't deserve the kind treatment they get from their brother.

Little Little Wolves (1936)

*** (out of 4)

The third film in Disney's series follows THREE LITTLE PIGS and THE BIG BAD WOLF. This time out the wolf is teaching his three children the portions of a pig to eat. While this is going on the two lazy pigs are playing pranks by blowing the emergency alarm, which means there's a wolf in the camp. Finally the two pigs venture off and really are captured by the wolf who plans on eating them with his kids. This third film mixes the Three Little Pigs tale with that of The Boy Who Cried Wolf and the end results are another winner for Disney. With that said, I must admit that by this time I was really cheering for the wolf to win because those two darn lazy pigs are just rather annoying considering they still haven't learned their lesson. With that said, as you'd expect the animation is very good and there are plenty of laughs scattered throughout the running time. The highlight comes towards the end when the wolf shows how hard he can blow the horn and what follows is very funny.