The Three Little Pups

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.

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-

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.

Two of the three little pups have built their houses of straw and and sticks, and the Wolf has no trouble dealing with them. Droopy, however, has built his of brick, so the other two move in. There follows a typical funny series of Tex Avery gags as the Wolf tries and fails.

I think the Wolf, as voiced by Daws Butler, is supposed to be based on Jubilo the classic Will Rogers comedy.

This is a bit unusual for an Avery cartoon, in that the funniest bits are not the sight gags, but the dialogue, particularly the commentary done by the wolf, a recurring character in Droopy cartoons, very Southern and so laid-back you almost feel you need to check him for a pulse. His asides to the audience and his interactions with a bulldog are hysterically funny. The same wolf appears in Billy Boy and Blackboard Jumble as well, among others. One of the funniest foils Droopy had. Spike was just relatively stupid and very greedy, with limited comedic potential. The wolf here was smarter and offered more of a challenge. Also, pay attention to the names of the other two dogs in this with Droopy. Well worth the effort to get. Most highly recommended.