Three Little Wolves

Big "Bad" Wolf, now speaking with a German accent for some reason, takes his kids out to hunt, opting to finally finish off the three little pigs while they still frolic campily. The sensible pig is even building an elaborate torture device to protect them from Wolfie. His brothers have been crying wolf as a joke and doesn't take them seriously when he turns up in actual sheep's clothing.

Again, as much as I'd like to see those little pigs get shoved in the oven and Wolfie and kids finally be fed it doesn't happen. The sensible wolf brings his torture device and gives 1930s cartoon-going kids the pleasure of seeing an animal go through excruciating pain just for being what he is.

A disturbing metaphor if there ever was one.

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.

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.

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.

This is the second sequel to the Silly Symphony short, The Three Little Pigs, bringing back the three animals and the notorious Big Bad Wolf for even more forest fun and thrills. This time, the wolf, joined by his three children, the Three Little Wolves, are out to get the two carefree pigs for dinner, who seem to have learned nothing from their past encounters with the predator.

There are a good share of thrills and excitement in this one, especially in the part where the wolves capture the two devil-may-care pigs and places them on a dinner dish. And, the pigs' brother, the Practical Pig, using his wolf-proof invention on the Big Bad Wolf yielded some hilarious, laugh-out-loud results.

It's also very nice to hear a reprise of the song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf."

Lots of laughs and fun. Great, entertaining one for the family.

Grade A