Pigs in a Polka (1943)
The Three Little Pigs build their straw, stick, and brick houses while the Wolf tries every disguise to blow them down, including a gypsy dancer and a violin-playing beggar woman, all timed beat for beat to Brahms's Hungarian Dances.
Pigs in a Polka is Friz Freleng’s mashup of Disney’s Three Little Pigs with the classical-music-driven format of Fantasia, and it earned a 1943 Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject (Cartoons).
Background
Pigs in a Polka is a Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Friz Freleng that reworks the story of Disney’s Three Little Pigs. Its structure borrows from the concert-film format of Disney’s Fantasia, with the action set to classical music. The short earned a 1943 Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject (Cartoons). The cartoon’s timing and gag construction are typical of the studio’s wartime-era shorts. Friz Freleng directed many of the studio’s best-known shorts of the period.
What to watch for
The Three Little Pigs build their straw, stick and brick houses while the Wolf tries disguise after disguise to blow them down, including a gypsy dancer and a violin-playing beggar woman. Watch how the animation keeps time with Brahms’s Hungarian Dances, so the Wolf’s entrances, the pigs’ building and the slapstick gags all land on the beat. The Wolf’s disguises rely on caricature, and the gypsy dancer draws on a stereotype of Romani people that was common in cartoons of the period. Modern viewers may find that element dated and offensive, even though the musical construction remains impressive.
