''Pigs in a Polka'' is a 1942
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
''
Merrie Melodies
''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...
'' cartoon series directed by
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' ...
.
The short was released on February 2, 1943.
The film is a parody of two
Walt Disney Productions
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
films: 1933's ''
Three Little Pigs
"The Three Little Pigs" is a fable about three pigs who build three houses of different materials. A Big Bad Wolf blows down the first two pigs' houses which made of straw and sticks respectively, but is unable to destroy the third pig's house ...
'' and 1940's ''
Fantasia
Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...
''. The familiar story of the
Three Little Pigs
"The Three Little Pigs" is a fable about three pigs who build three houses of different materials. A Big Bad Wolf blows down the first two pigs' houses which made of straw and sticks respectively, but is unable to destroy the third pig's house ...
is set in this film to several of
Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
' "
Hungarian Dances Hungarian dance refers to the folk dances practised and performed by the Hungarians, both amongst the populations native to Hungary and its neighbours, and also amongst the Hungarian diaspora.
According to György Martin, a prominent folklore expe ...
", specifically No. 5, No. 7, No. 6 and No. 17 which appear in that order. It is also part of a light-hearted,
culturally subversive ''Merrie Melodies'' running joke, which would later be re-emphasized with another ''Fantasia'' parody, 1943's ''
A Corny Concerto
''A Corny Concerto'' is a 1943 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' directed by Bob Clampett. The short was released on September 25, 1943, and stars Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck.
They perform a parody of Walt Disney's ''Silly Sy ...
''. There is very little dialogue in the cartoon aside from the Big Bad Wolf's introduction of the story and the pigs introducing themselves.
It was nominated for the 1942
Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons.
Plot
After an introduction by the wolf, the plot loosely follows the traditional story of the three little pigs. The first pig, using a
prefabricated home
Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes or simply prefabs, are specialist dwelling types of prefabricated building, which are manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled. ...
kit, erects a wire structure, then quickly covers it with
straw
Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number ...
. The second pig uses hundreds of
match
A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...
es to make up his house, though when he puts the last match in place on the roof, the entire building collapses. The third pig goes through the tedious task of laying
brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
s for his house.
Satisfied with their homes, the first two pigs dance around, act silly, and laugh with each other; the first pig plays a violin, and the second pig a flute. The wolf arrives dressed as a
gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
, and sets about, through dance, trying to lure the first two pigs into a position to be captured. The pigs are suspicious and, when the wolf thinks he has them, the pigs instead rough him up and emerge each wearing parts of his costume; they briefly dance until the wolf approaches threateningly. He chases them to the straw house, which he incinerates in seconds with a lit match. The pigs flee to the match house. Though it has a front door, it is still in a state of collapse; the pigs speedily pile the matches up to form a house, then the wolf drops one last match onto the roof and it all falls apart. The pigs race to the brick house. The wolf attempts to bash in the front door, then resorts to huffing and puffing to blow the house down (to which the pigs respond by offering
Lusterine mouthwash), but he fails. The wolf sets up to run at the front door; the three pigs work together to squelch this effort.
The third pig is not thrilled to have the other two in his house, especially when they again begin dancing around with their instruments, acting silly and laughing. Then, they notice an apparently homeless woman (the wolf) outside the window, playing a violin in the
snow
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
. The 'snow' is actually talcum powder held on a stick above the wolf's head. The first two pigs take pity and push the third pig (who realizes it is the wolf) away from the door to let the despondent person in. The wolf continues the deception and continues playing the violin. The third pig, upon peeking under the clothing and seeing that the wolf has a
record player on his back, flips the record over. Fast-paced music begins and the wolf dances to it but loses his costume as a result. The wolf then chases the pigs up to the second floor of the house. The pigs make their escape in an
elevator
An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
, but when the wolf tries to use it he drops into an empty shaft. The wolf is unaware that he is falling, but rather thinks he is riding the elevator down. He politely doffs his hat as gentlemen in an elevator did back in the 1940s and just stands there politely looking up. After a long fall, the doors open and he falls at the feet of the pigs as the cartoon irises out.
Throughout the short, the pigs'
motions are synchronized to the music.
Reception
Animation historian
Greg Ford
Greg Ford is an animator, director, historian and consultant to Warner Bros. Animation. He is perhaps best known for directing the films ''Daffy Duck's Quackbusters'', ''Weezer Slander: The Movie'', and '' (Blooper) Bunny''.
Biography
During ...
writes, "Friz Freleng invaded
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
territory with ''Pigs in a Polka'', an irreverent reworking of Disney's breakthrough ''
The Three Little Pigs
"The Three Little Pigs" is a fable about three pigs who build three houses of different materials. A Big Bad Wolf blows down the first two pigs' houses which made of straw and sticks respectively, but is unable to destroy the third pig's house t ...
'' (1933), here reimagined and propelled in its entirety by Brahms' ''Hungarian Dances''. From the obligatory scene-setting rigamarole of the three pigs slapping together their three separate houses of straw, matchsticks and bricks, it's abundantly clear that Friz means to reapply the same tweaked synchronization of classical music to animated action that he achieved in the
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
-driven ''
Rhapsody in Rivets
''Rhapsody in Rivets'' is a 1941 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on December 6, 1941.
Plot
At a busy urban construction site in a world of anthropomorphic animals, an appreciative crowd o ...
'' (1941). The music-action symbiosis is, if anything, more accentuated than before."
Home media
This film can be found in the
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 disc 3, ''
'' and several low-budget home video and DVD releases.
This is one of the 61 pre-1948 WB cartoons to fall into the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
as
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...
did not renew the copyright in time.
In other media
Short clips from this cartoon can be seen in the opening credits of the ''
Futurama
''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...
'' episodes "
Mars University
"Mars University" is episode eleven of the first season of '' Futurama''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 3, 1999. This episode was written by J. Stewart Burns and directed by Bret Haaland.
Plot
The Planet ...
" and "
Brannigan, Begin Again", the ''
Everybody Hates Chris
''Everybody Hates Chris'' is an American television semi-autobiographical sitcom that is inspired by the memories of the teenage years of comedian Chris Rock. The show is set from 1982 to 1987, although Rock himself was actually a teenager from ...
'' episode "Everybody Hates Gretzky", the ''
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...
'' episode "Prophecy Girl", "Season 1 Episode 2" of ''
The Man in the High Castle
''The Man in the High Castle'' (1962), by Philip K. Dick, is an alternative history novel wherein the Axis Powers won World War II. The story occurs in 1962, fifteen years after the end of the war in 1947, and depicts the political intrigues be ...
'' and in the movies ''
Training Day
''Training Day'' is a 2001 American crime thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by David Ayer. It stars Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris and Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, two LAPD narcotics officers over a 24-hour period in the gang- ...
'' and ''
Gracie's Choice
''Gracie's Choice: A Story of Love'' is a 2004 American drama film that premiered on Lifetime. It is written by Joyce Eliason; directed by Peter Werner; and stars Kristen Bell, Anne Heche, Diane Ladd, and Kristin Fairlie.
Plot
Gracie is a 17-y ...
''.
References
External links
Watch ''Pigs in a Polka'' on YouTube now, in fully restored HD*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pigs In A Polka
1942 animated films
Merrie Melodies short films
American parody films
Fairy tale parody films
Films about pigs
Short films directed by Friz Freleng
Films based on The Three Little Pigs
Films based on fairy tales
1942 short films
Films scored by Carl Stalling
Animated films about wolves
1940s dance films
American dance films
1940s animated short films
Films produced by Leon Schlesinger
1940s Warner Bros. animated short films
Films with screenplays by Michael Maltese
1940s English-language films
American animated short films