Released on May 27th, 1933, in the USA, the short Three Little Pigs film was such a hit with audiences that some theatres held it over for weeks after it was scheduled to run (in fact, some theatres drew beards on the characters’ faces on the poster, to illustrate how long it was playing).
Additionally, Three Little Pigs gave
the country a song that provided hope during the difficult Depression, and the
short has become one of Walt Disney and animation’s most iconic films.
Ninety-two years later, the impact of this eight-minute film still resonates.
The famous fable dates back to the 1840s and was
first suggested as the basis of a “Silly Symphony” by Walt’s wife, Lillian, and
her sister, Hazel Sewell (head of the ink and paint department at the Studio).
The Disney story team removed the fable’s darker elements focusing on the titular characters, the Fifer Pig, who plays the flute; the Fiddler Pig, who fiddles the day away; and the Practical Pig, who is focused on building a sturdy house of brick to protect him when the Wolf comes to the door.
And, the Big Bad Wolf (one of Disney’s first indelible villains) does arrive, huffing and puffing at the houses of straw and stick built by the Fifer and Fiddler Pig. He does indeed blow them both down, and they seek refuge at the brick house of the Practical Pig.
The Wolf tries to huff and puff here but to no avail. He then attempts to come down the chimney but slides into a boiling pot, shooting back up the chimney and leaving the Pigs victorious and safe inside the sturdy house.
Directed by the
legendary Burt Gillett, with animation by other legends Norm Ferguson, Dick
Lundy, Fred Moore, and Art Babbit, Three Little Pigs crafted indelible
personalities for its main characters that not only connected with audiences but also made others in the animation
industry take notice.
