Three Little Bops

Every muso you speak to knows this cartoon. When I was in year 10 my school music teacher showed us this video. I'm now a high school music teacher myself and I want to share it with my students too. Unfortunately my old teacher has lost it and I can't find a copy of it anywhere. I've described it to my students and they have named their jazz band "House of Bricks". I may sound slightly obsessed but to me watching this cartoon was a defining moment in my musical career.

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.

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.

A variation on the Three Little Pigs fable set to toe tapping jazz swinging music. Has the pigs playing different clubs which the Wolf blows down when no one likes his trumpet playing and call him a square. This was an amusing short and the music was good so I enjoyed it. Not the best of the music-centric Looney Tunes shorts, but it's still a fun time to be had be all. This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It features a commentary by Jerry beck, as well as an optional music only track, and a vocals only track.

My Grade: B

The three little pigs are a city jazz combo who play to adoring crowds. When they are joined by a trumpet player by the name of `big bag wolf'. However the wolf is not a very good player and he threatens to spoil the career of the pigs. However when they kick the wolf out of the band, he blows down their gig at the Straw House. Despite their insistence that he is rubbish, he follows them to the Wood Club to try and get in again.

I have seen other Warner twists on the Three Little Pigs story, some of which have also been set to music but this one is a lot different as it totally changes the story. Sadly it is interesting enough to only watch once and then it will have lost it's novelty value and will expose it's many flaws too readily. The film is set to a constant jazzy/bebop style song and basically sees the wolf trying to play with the pigs and then taking revenge in the time honoured fashion when he is rebuffed. The material is not very funny and relies too much on the juxtaposition of the music and action. In this regard it is worth seeing once as it is a clever idea, albeit it one that needed better delivery.

The singer is not all that he could have been and doesn't sound like he is someone who sung that type of music for a living - I may be wrong but it sounded like the emphasis was on clear pronunciation of the words rather than an authentic feel to the music. On top of that the animation was too broad and colourful for me - lacking it's own feel. The characters also struggle over this and they feel too basic and blocky. Once the basic humour of the music and the action has gone the film has nothing left and didn't endear itself to me after this point.

For all it's flaws it is worth seeing once for it is a clever idea and is cool and jazzy enough to keep you happy for several minutes. However repeat viewings will not have this novelty value and you'll be left with nothing much else to replace it. Clever idea but needed better delivery.