David Hand | Three Little Wolves / 1936

seduced by bo peep

by Douglas Messerli

 

William Cottrell, Joe Grant, and Bob Kuwahara (screenplay), Norm Ferguson, Fred Moore, Eric Larson, and Bill Roberts (animation), David Hand (director) Three Little Wolves / 1936

 

Disney’s second episode in the lives of the Three Little Pigs focuses, in a much more serious mode, with allegorical apparatus, on the Three Live Wolves and their father The Big Bad Wolf.

     In the beginning of this 9-minute adventure, The Big Bad Wolf is teaching his boys, in a heavy German accent, selected words about the parts of the pig and how good they are to eat. The little wolfies are no better in minding their daddy, however, than are Practical Pig’s brethren in taking heed of his advice, and they quickly break up their lesson of pork parts with a slew of sling shots sent to their daddy’s crown and bottom, singing that favorite ditty “Who’s Afraid of the Big Wolf” to their own father.

     Meanwhile, Practical Pig is once again at work, this time building a large contraption he calls the “Wolf Pacifier,” a machine to punish Bad Wolves who try to eat him and fellow brothers, Fifer and Fiddler. Just as in The Big Bad Wolf the other two pigs make fun of his new project, blowing the horn he’s left in the woods as a call for help against the wolf. This time he comes running, but warns them, “Someday the Wolf will get you and then you’ll be a fix. You’ll the blow the horn and I won’t come. I’ll think it’s one of your tricks.”

      They giggle, blow the horn once more, and scurry off into the forest.

      This time Bad Wolf and his pups play out another drag drama, as the Wolf dresses up as Little Bo Peep, truly in tears over her lost sheep, who turn out to be the three little wolves in sheep’s clothing. The naïve little pigs chase them all the way back to the wolves’ cave, as Bo Beep follows, entering behind them, locking the door, and swallowing the key.

      As if in total remonstrance of the new Production Code Administration’s proclamations the Disney artists provide Fifer and Fiddler with dirty minds as they turn dark red, presuming Bo Beep’s motives have to do with sex.

       The Wolf wastes no time, however, turning back into himself and, along with his young ones, stuffing the pigs into a roasting pan with apples and turnips. In the previous chase the pigs have attempted to blow the horn, but when Practical Pig finally hears it, just as he warned, he believes the call to have been in jest and goes back to work.

     By this time the little wolves have the horn and one of the cubs blows it. Now suddenly knowing what’s at stake, the pigs respond “That’s a sissy blow”—surely another poke at Breen and his decree against even mentioning pansies in film. The challenge, of course, is taken up by the Bad Wolf himself, as he blows magnificently, finally bringing their brother to the rescue.

     Practical Pig arrives with his new cart, pretending to be an Italian grocer selling fresh tomatoes. When The Big Bad Wolf shouts out, “Why let me have it!” Practical pig awards him a face full of ripe tomatoes, inducing the Wolf to chase him into his new contraption. There, through endless Rube Goldberg-like devices, he tortures the Wolf, finally tar and feathering him and sending him off into space in a canon, the little wolves racing off to find him.

      The Three Little Pigs end the piece patriotically, Fifer on flute, Fiddler playing a drum, a Practical Pig waving a white flag, the Wolf’s Bo Peep bloomers.

       As Geoffrey Cocks in his 2004 book The Wolf at the Door: Stanley Kubrick, History, and the Holocaust has argued, along with others, this Disney cartoon also contains a pre-war message to Germany and the US alliances in Europe. Although I rarely rely on Wikipedia for my sources, their entry on this film nicely summarizes the short film’s allegorical statements:

 

“While Disney produced the sequels in order to capitalize on the success of the Three Little Pigs as characters, this film in particular was also a symbolic message about the threatening danger of European fascism, and can be seen as an indication of the levels of fear and patriotism it aroused in the American populace. In the opening scene, the Big Bad Wolf is instructing his three rowdy wolf pups in "German", pointing to a chart of pork cuts and saying "Ist das nicht ein Sausage Meat", etc., reinforcing the interpretation that he is a stand-in for Adolf Hitler.

      While the hapless Fifer and Fiddler have their naval garb, musical instruments, and professed bravado—a possible critique of European military allies who were unable to stop Hitler's advances—their confidence cannot save them from being trussed and on the verge of being deposited in the oven by the time that Practical Pig comes to their rescue. Practical Pig, the industrious "American" brother, in workman's overalls, relies on the "Italian" character for distraction, and while the Wolf is focused on his free sample of tomatoes, he is pulled into an elaborate mechanical contraption, which points to the idea that technological superiority is the secret to winning the impending war. At one point, while receiving the mechanized pummeling from the machine, the Wolf's hair is parted and slicked down the center, producing a brief resemblance to Hitler.”

 

Los Angeles, June 22, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (June 2023).