Disney’s Ham Actors: The Three Little Pigs
This May marked the 74th anniversary of a major animated milestone for the Walt Disney Company, and it has prompted me to dig through my files to find some interesting stories to share with the MousePlanet readers, including the story of a “lost” (or at least unknown) Disney “Three Little Pigs” cartoon.
Today, it is hard to imagine the impact of the Disney Silly Symphony, “The Three Little Pigs.” It not only won the 1933 Academy Award for best animated film (the year after “Flowers and Trees” won the very first Oscar given to a cartoon) but it was the most successful cartoon that had ever been released up to that time.
It was the 36th Silly Symphony (the seventh in Technicolor) and cost $22,000 (not counting prints and publicity) but earned over $150,000 in its first 15 months of release. The average Silly Symphony generally grossed around $50,000 in its first year of release at this time.
Walt felt trapped with his popular Mickey Mouse cartoon series because audiences had certain expectations for those cartoons and Mickey Mouse as well. Walt used the Silly Symphonies for the experimentation he couldn’t risk in the Mickey Mouse cartoons and that experimentation eventually resulted in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The three pigs were physically the same but could be easily identified by the audience because of their different personalities. In fact, notice how during the film each of the pigs’ tails coil and uncoil during the cartoon depending upon their exhaustion or elation.
This type of animated acting was a turning point in the history of animation, where previous characters were often defined by what they looked like rather than how they acted. This lesson was later applied to the dwarfs.
In the original folk tale, the wolf eats the first two pigs after he blows down their houses, and then he drops down the chimney of the pig with the brick house and ends up in a pot of boiling water—and gets eaten himself. It was Walt Disney himself who revised the story so that neither the pigs nor the wolf are eaten. It was also Walt who came up with the idea to give the pigs musical instruments and have them sing and dance.
A memo from Walt circulated to his staff in 1932 states: “These little pig characters look as if they would work up very cute and we should be able to develop quite a bit of personality in them…. Might try to stress the angle of the little pig who worked the hardest, received the reward, or some little story that would teach a moral… These little pigs will be dressed in clothes. They will also have household implements, props, etc. to work with, and not be kept in the natural state. They will be more like human characters.”
Animator Fred Moore (barely out of his teens) was the primary animator on the pigs, although Dick Lundy did the sequences where they danced. Another animation legend, Norm “Fergie” Ferugson, brought the memorable Big Bad Wolf to life, along with the voice work of Billy Bletcher who was also the voice of Peg Leg Pete.
United Artists, who was distributing the Disney cartoons, was unimpressed with “The Three Little Pigs.” They let Walt know they felt it was a “cheater” since there were only four characters while the previous Silly Symphony, Father Noah’s Ark, had dozens of animals.
“The Three Little Pigs” premiered at Radio City Music Hall on May 25, 1933 and ran for one week. However, it did very well at local neighborhood theaters as well as runs at other New York theaters, including the Roxy and the Translux. One New York theater played it so long that the manager drew beards on the pigs in the lobby poster, and as the cartoon kept playing week after week, the beards grew longer and longer.
Variety declared: “Three Little Pigs is proving the most unique picture property in history. It’s particularly unique because it’s a cartoon running less than 10 minutes, yet providing box office comparable to a feature, as demonstrated by numerous repeats.”
The song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” became the popular theme song of the Depression and was played constantly on the radio. It was the first time that a cartoon had generated a hit song. In fact, there were multiple competing recordings on different record labels. An interesting fun fact is the song is never heard complete and uninterrupted in the actual cartoon.
The song was composed by Frank Churchill (with the help of Pinto Colvig, the voice of the Practical Pig, on the ocarina). A publicity release of the time told the story of how, as a child, Churchill had been given three piglets by his mother to look after and he played them tunes on his harmonica. A real life big bad wolf came down from the hills one day and eliminated one of the pigs.
The Three Little Pigs appeared on a variety of merchandise from toys to stationery to playing cards to books to just about anything that could be imagined including Christmas tree lights. References and images of the pigs and the wolf appeared in editorial cartoons, essays and more.
Walt said, “It was just another story to us and we were in there gagging it just like any other picture. After we heard all the shouting, we sat back and tried to analyze what made it good.”
In fact, the film is packed with very funny visual gags. In Practical Pig’s house, even his piano is made of bricks, and on the wall is a picture of a string of sausages and underneath it is the one word caption: “Father.”
There were requests from theaters for more cartoons featuring the pigs, and these requests were supported by Roy Disney who convinced Walt it would be good for the business.
Walt later regretted bowing to pressure and producing three more cartoons featuring the characters: “The Big Bad Wolf,” “Three Little Wolves,” and “The Practical Pig.” These were not bad cartoons, but they were not as memorable as the original, and it prompted Walt to offer his famous statement: “You can’t top pigs with pigs.” It meant that instead of sequels and repeats, that the Disney Studio would devote itself to always finding something new. So when theaters demanded Disney shorts featuring Dopey from Snow White, Walt didn’t even consider those requests, remembering what happened with the pigs.
The film itself has been parodied many times over the years from Tex Avery’s “The Blitz Wolf” to Friz Freleng’s “Three Little Bops,” to name just two of the most popular. The Disney pigs did pop up in cameos in other Disney cartoons, including “Mickey’s Polo Team,” “Toby Tortoise Returns,” Mickey’s Christmas Carol and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
However, there was one Disney three little pig cartoon that has been generally unknown to United States audiences for decades. Here’s the story just for MousePlanet readers.
In the Fall of 1962, Walt Disney called Bill Justice and X. Atencio to his office to introduce them to Carlos Amador and his movie star wife, Marga. Disney fans may know Justice as the primary animator of Chip’n’Dale in their classic cartoons, and Atencio as the lyricist for both the Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion theme park attractions. However, their many different projects for the Disney Company could literally fill books.
Amador was preparing a live action movie about the life of a famous south-of-the-border writer. Since one of the stories was about the three little pigs, Amador wanted to use Disney’s three little pigs in a four-minute animated segment.
The reason Walt agreed and assigned Justice and Atencio to the project was that half of the profits would go to help provide poor Mexican children a free lunch each school day. Walt had decided to donate the animation, especially since the charity was the favorite of the Republic of Mexico’s first lady and it was, in fact, the only way many children could be persuaded to attend school.
Amador wrote the adaptation with Justice and Atencio doing the production work.
In the film, a young boy and girl on their bed look at a framed picture of three sleeping pigs. As they gaze at the picture, it comes to cartoon life. The three little pigs are tucked into bed and given a kiss by their mother.
One dreams of being a king and having lots of tasty treats brought for him to gorge on, Another pig dreams of having his own rowboat but with disastrous results when he ends up in the water and back in bed, a tear trickles down his face.
The Practical Pig dreams of the Big Bad Wolf threatening his mother that she must pay the rent by tomorrow. La Fiesta Las Flores (that features re-used animation from The Three Caballeros) offers the pigs an opportunity to win some money to pay the rent as the three pigs perform a musical number.
Of course, they win and return home late at night whistling “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.” However, they are attacked by the wolf, but escape as the wolf shakes his fist. The wolf is standing by a palm tree and a coconut drops from its palms to bonk him on the head. The pigs give the money to their mother, who hugs all three of them at one time. The film then shifts back to the live action children.
Fortunately, you can actually view this segment on youtube at this link.
A few months later the finished product was shown to Walt for his approval, and it was followed by an invitation from Amador for Justice and Atencio, along with Gene Armstrong of the Disney Studio’s Foreign Department and their wives to visit for 10 days. The Disney staff was treated like royalty. At the Mexico City airport, they were greeted by a mariachi band and their wives were given bouquets of roses.
One evening at a special dinner as the guests of honor of the First Lady of Mexico, Justice and Atencio were given gold medals for their work.
A Disney press release from Fall of 1963 announced:
“The Three Sleepy Pigs, a new four minute segment of animation in Spanish, has been produced by Walt for incorporation in a live action Mexican feature called Cri-Cri, El Grillito Cantor or in English, Cri-Cri, the Little Singing Cricket.
“The feature itself is based on the life of Gabilondo Solar, a famous south of the border song writer, while Walt’s contribution to it is based on Solar’s popular ballad, Los Cochinitos Dormilones.
“Proceeds of the feature, which is set for widespread theatrical release throughout Mexico beginning in October, will go to the Institute for the Protection of Mexican Children, an organization that maintains thirty-two plants engaged in the packaging and shipping of food to million school-age youngsters all over the country.”
Justice and Atencio were invited back to Mexico again in November 1963 to attend an international film festival, where the completed film was to be given an award. Tragically, the screening was during the same time that President Kennedy was assassinated. Justice and Atencio attended and the film festival continued, but Bill told me he still remembers how deeply the people at the festival expressed their sympathy when they discovered he was a citizen of the United States.
Although they have been eclipsed by other Disney animated stars, at one time the Three Little Pigs were superstars whose huge success allowed the Disney Studio to flourish and create even greater triumphs.
