Disney Animation Collection 2: Three Little Pigs

Movie: out of
Disney brings a collection of seven cartoon shorts, centered around 1933’s Oscar-winning Three Little Pigs, a Silly Symphony short that tells the classic story of The Big Bad Wolf trying to capture three pig brothers, by blowing down their houses made of straw and wood, only to be defeated when trying to blow down their house of brick. In Silly Symphony tradition, music plays an important part in the story telling, and introduced generations to the classic song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” which would become an anthem for optimism during the Great Depression. However, this is the censored version of the film, with new animation added to replace the Wolf’s appearance when he arrives at the house of bricks. This animation is very obvious, as the picture quality and animation style changes dramatically during this sequence, then reverts back to the original short.

On the heels of the success of Three Little Pigs, the sequel The Big Bad Wolf, one year later, combines the story of its predecessor with “Little Red Riding Hood.” The two pigs escort Riding Hood through the woods to Grandma’s house, against the advice of their brick-laying brother, who seems to be working on an additional story to his house in this film, and eventually comes to the rescue of Riding Hood and Grandma.

Thee Little Wolves, from 1936, adds the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” story to the mix, with the two gullible pigs misusing the Wolf alarm invented by their brick-laying brother. The Wolf has some help this time around in the form of three wolf pups, disguised as sheep, with the Wolf dressed as Bo-Peep. The pigs’ brick-laying brother comes to the rescue once again, with the Rube Goldberg-inspired Wolf Pacifier.

Rounding out the disc are four animal-themed shorts. Sterling Holloway narrates Lambert the Sheepish Lion, from 1952, the story of a lion cub mistakenly delivered to a mother lamb. This is an entertaining take on “The Ugly Duckling,” and also shows how much the Disney animators have learned with body language and facial expressions in the twenty years since the “Three Little Pigs” series.

1943’s Chicken Little, produced as part of Disney’s World War II propaganda effort, has Foxy Loxy convincing the titular character that the sky is falling through the use of Psychology, in an attempt to devour the chicken coop. This cartoon has a surprisingly dark ending, especially for Disney.

Three Blind Mouseketeers, a Silly Symphony cartoon from 1936, takes the three blind mice story as musketeers, foiling several traps set for them by Captain Cat (who bears a striking resemblance to Pegleg Pete).

The disc concludes with another Silly Symphony cartoon, Elmer Elephant, from 1936. Elmer attends the birthday party of Tillie Tiger. When the other kids make fun of him, Elmer leaves in embarrassment. But, when Tillie’s treehouse catches fire, Elmer is triumphant when he is able to put out the fire efficiently with his trunk.


Video: out of
All of the cartoons on this disc are presented in their proper aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The overall video quality is very good, with inky blacks and colors that are not over-saturated. Film grain is visible, with minimal noise and compression artifacts. There were a few shots in “The Big Bad Wolf” that appeared as if the three-strip Technicolor separates were not matched up properly, giving a blooming rainbow effect to edges, and colors on “Three Blind Mousketeers” had a pinkish tint to them. Otherwise, this is a decent disc considering the majority of the films are over 70 years old.


Audio: out of
Although the box states Dolby Digital Surround Sound, all of the shorts on this disc sounded very mono to me. Since these were mono to begin with, I have no issue with that, other than the mislabeling. The 192 kbps Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack provided is generally clear of distortion, with good fidelity and intelligible dialogue throughout.


Special Features: out of
Only a collection of Sneak Peeks have been provided on this disc. Included are trailers for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves on Blu-ray, Disney/Pixar’s summer theatrical release Up, The Princess and the Frog (Disney’s return to traditional animation), Bedtime Stories, Disney Movie Rewards, Monsters Inc on Blu-ray, Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too, The Black Cauldron: Special Edition, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Big Splash, and Disney Parks.


Overall: out of
Of the three volumes in Disney’s new Animation Collection series of DVDs, content and quality wise, this is the better disc to own. Overall audio and video are fairly consistent, and, with a minor exception on “Three Little Pigs,” the shorts are presented here in their original form and aspect ratios.