Three Little Bops

Why this absolutely brilliant 1957 "Looney Tunes" entry was not nominated for an Academy Award, I'll never know. In a 1992 television viewers' poll, it was deservedly voted one of the best twenty cartoons in the whole Warner Brothers' repertoire.

For once, the UPA cartoon style isn't employed by the Warner artists simply because it's flavor of the month, but because it's highly suited to the subject matter. The backgrounds and the character animation all perfectly compliment the up-beat vocal.

No matter how many times you watch and listen to "The Three Little Bops", repeated viewing does little to lessen the impact of its cleverly off-beat visual and verbal humor.

Jazz, 1950s style, takes precedence in this cartoon of the "The Three Little Pigs" who are jazz musicians. They're good, too, on sax, drums, piano with a bass handy, if needed. The whole cartoon is told in song, with Stan Freberg doing his best to sound jazzy as he sings the story. It actually sounds more like very early rock 'n roll.

The story is basically a hip-dressed wolf who enters the club, hears the pigs and wants to join in with his trumpet. The pigs are nice guys and can't say "no" but when the wolf starts blowing his horn, well, it ain't' good. As Fregerg sings, "The three little pigs were really gassed; they never heard such a corny blast."

The pigs tell the wolf, "We've played in the West; we've played in the East, we've heard 'the most,' but you're 'the least!' They escort the wolf out. He winds up blowing the house of straw down!

This happens in several places as the pigs entertain elsewhere, each time the wolf coming in and getting thrown out for his horrible playing until the pigs finally build a place made out of bricks ("made in 1776" - each line is rhyme in this cartoon.)

It's this kind of dialog and singing (along with the dress-ware of the musicians) that makes this cartoon just a huge hoot to watch and hear. I loved it! It was different from anything else I've seen on these Looney Tunes collections. I felt like I was in a jazz club back in the '50s or at a Bill Haley rock 'n roll concert. This is one cartoon I will play over and over.

The Three Little Pigs are a performing trio playing at the House of Straw. The Big Bad Wolf tries to join the band, but he plays badly. The Pigs call him square and rejects him. He leaves and blows down the place. The Pigs' next gig is the House of Sticks. The Big Bad Wolf tries again and the audience is disgusted with his playing. He gets thrown out and once again, he blows the place down. Finally, the Three Little Pigs are playing at The House of Bricks. This one has a sign that reads, "No Wolves Allowed". The wolf keeps trying, but he can't ever blow it down.

The Three Little Pigs are Looney Tunes favorites despite not being uniquely to them. I really like doing this take. Mostly, I love the narration mixed with this song. It is loads of fun and I love the ending.

It is always interesting to see Warner Brothers cartoons featuring characters that are not the classic ones we know and love and are iconic in animation history.

'Three Little Bops' is one of the finest examples of an animated masterpiece. It is so well made, so fun, so energetic and so cool with phenomenal music and impeccable timing that that the story is a slight one, and basically a gags matched to music experience, is completely forgotten while watching. Proof that when it comes to Warner Brothers animation, one does not need the likes of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck present to make it a good cartoon, with 'Three Little Bops' being on par with the best of their cartoons (high praise indeed and to me warranted).

As to be expected, the animation is great with beautiful colours and meticulous detail. The characters are drawn well with smooth movement. The music is phenomenal (being a music/gag-oriented cartoon, this component being good was essential to as whether the cartoon would work), making one sing along, tap their feet and get up and dance and it is just so infectious as well.

Furthermore, there is just so much energy and the gags are impeccably timed and often extremely funny and always clever.

Here, the characters are a joy. Especially the wolf, the funniest and most interesting character. Stan Freberg does a wonderful job here, some of the best work he ever did.

In conclusion, so much fun and so cool, a masterpiece (not a word often thrown around lately for me). 10/10 Bethany Cox

Through many of the Looney Tunes cartoons, I've derived that the creators probably had a way with jazz, and it plays out in "Three Little Bops", as a trio of jazz-playing pigs perform in clubs, but a square wolf keeps interrupting and blowing the clubs down. But then, they find a place built out of bricks.

Not only is this a jazz-centric cartoon, but I notice that the narration sounds like "Rock Around the Clock". But that shouldn't be any surprise; after all, rock 'n' roll was pretty much based in jazz and blues. All in all, this is a very fine cartoon. I can say with certainty that Stan Freberg was as great a voice artist as Mel Blanc was.