Three Little Bops (1957)

Three pigs' career as a jazz band is complicated by a wolf they rejected for membership who keeps blowing down their gigs.

Director:

Friz Freleng

Writer:

Warren Foster (story)

Star:

Stan Freberg

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Stan Freberg	...	Narrator / Big Bad Wolf / Three Little Pigs (voice)

Storyline

Three hip, Little Pigs are travelling entertainers, moving from straw to wood, to brick nightclubs, playing swinging tunes for high-class, "with it" crowds, but an uncool Big Bad Wolf keeps intruding on their act with his "corny horn" and uses it to blow down their nightclubs when they throw him out - until they are playing in their brick club and the Wolf tries a more drastic, explosive method for destroying the "House of Bricks".

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Plot Keywords:

pig | nightclub | jazz | jazz trio | dart | 

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Genres:

Animation | Short | Comedy | Family | Musical

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Did You Know?

Trivia

There aren't any sound effects in the cartoon except for the "deflating" of the Big Bad Wolf's bass drum. All other sound effects were provided by the jazz combo.

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Quotes

Narrator: Well, the Big Bad Wolf was really gone / And with him went his corny horn / Went out of this world without a trace / Didn't go to Heaven, was the other place.

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Crazy Credits

Rather than closing with the "That's All Folks!" card, the cartoon ends with "The End" superimposed over an iris-out.

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Connections

Featured in Behind the Tunes: Once Upon a Looney Tune (2007)

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Soundtracks

Charleston
Music by James P. Johnson

User Reviews

Like, The Coolest Three Little Pigs Anywhere

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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 January 1957 (USA)

Also Known As:

3匹の子ブタロック

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

7 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1