Pigs in a Polka

I remember that I first heard Johannes Brahms's "Hungarian Dances" in "The Great Dictator", when Charlie Chaplin is shaving the guy to the tune of that song. For "Pigs in a Polka", the Termite Terrace crowd continues its tradition of mixing classical music with wacky images, and they do a great job with it. OK, so "Three Little Pigs" is one of the easiest stories to spoof (they later applied music to it again with "Three Little Bops"), but how can you not like how the cartoon came out here? Probably the most eye-opening aspect is how, far from being a triad of warm, cuddly brothers, the pigs have some conflicts. The smartest one - who built his house out of bricks - doesn't like how his siblings take an irresponsible attitude towards everything.

Among other things, we have to remember that these cartoons were not created for children. What they portray requires some knowledge of world history and culture. As it is, I've long considered it honorable that these cartoons could teach children about classical music (much like "What's Opera, Doc?" could).

All in all, a very enjoyable cartoon short.

This is a decent Looney Tunes cartoon that somehow managed to be nominated for an Oscar. While this made little sense, there was some justice in life as the wonderful DER FUEHRER'S FACE from Disney took the actual award.

I think part of the reason I am less than thrilled with this cartoon is that I couldn't help think of two main problems. One, the 1933 Disney version of the Three Pigs was a much, much better tale--with better laughs and much better animation. The story here in PIGS IN A POLKA just seemed like a copy. Two, while this is a pleasant cartoon, compared to the other toons being made by Warner Brothers at the time, this is pretty limp. I'd much rather have seen Daffy Duck or the Studio's latest creation, Bugs Bunny, instead of seeing these pigs dancing to Brahms' "Hungarian Dances".

Overall, good but far from great. If you are looking for it yourself, I suggest you buy the Looney Tunes Golden Collection and avoid the version I saw. I saw it on a DVD entitled "Cartoon Crazys: And The Envelope Please". This is a rather poor compilation of supposedly award winning and nominated films. Poor because several of the films are very lame and are NOT award nominated, the prints are rather bad and parts of some of the cartoons are missing! In the case of PIGS IN A POLKA and THE DOVER BOYS cartoons, the entire opening and closing is missing--and you'd never know they were Looney Tunes cartoons! While these cartoons both have lapsed into the public domain, clipping the cartoons like this and not acknowledging the people who made this is just plain sleazy.

'Pigs In A Polka (1943)' is a 'Merrie Melodies' short set to the tune of 'Hungarian Dance no. 5' by Johannes Brahms, with each on-screen movement timed perfectly to the classic piece of music. Its story is that of the three little pigs, and it follows that well-established narrative pretty much to a tee. Although it's amusing to see the smooth animation speed up and slow down as dictated by the score, the film lacks strong comedic gags and feels a little bit standard when it comes to its slapstick. It's not bad, by any means, but it does feel a little bit lacking when compared to the zany freneticism usually associated with 'Merrie Melodies' and 'Looney Tunes'. It's a solid short overall, however, and its animation is consistently good.

"This is our interpretation of the familiar tale of 'The Big Bad Wolf And The Three Little Pigs.'" An announcer is telling this to an audience, of which we are privy. He adds this story "is set to the delightful music of Joann Brahm's 'Hungarian Dances.'"

So that's what we get: this fairy tale set to music. The announcer, butchering Brahms' name, is funny, but not a lot of other things are in here. In fact, that might be it. What you mainly have here is a cartoon in which the actions of the people, from walking to dancing and prancing to the wolf chasing the pigs all is set to the music.

Maybe it's just me, but I prefer humor in my cartoons. This was not something I'd watch again.

Set to classical music, this is a retelling of the story of three little pigs who each go off and build their houses out of different types of material, only to each be set upon by a wolf who wants to `eat them all up'.

The film opens with a different and amusing little pre-story introduction by the wolf, but the rest of the film fails totally to live up to any early promise. The plot is, of course, the three little pigs but set in time to a piece of well known classical music. The film could be seen as a brave attempt to bring classic music to the masses, but it doesn't really work because the cartoon isn't good enough to reach `the masses'.

The immediate lack of good characters is a problem. The pigs are overly cute and speak with a horrid little squeaky voice. The wolf is OK but doesn't really say very much and doesn't impose his character onto the film – a shame, he is the most interesting one of the bunch.

A bigger problem is that the film isn't funny. Instead of coming up with jokes, the makers seem to have put all their energy into making the action match the music, than making the action funny in it's own right. The end result is the film constantly altering it's pace in time with the music, occasionally it's amusing but it is never consistent.

Overall this is a good attempt to bring classic music into a popular medium but it doesn't really work at all. The characters are no good and the action is more tailored to fit the music rather than generate laughs.