1957 was the year of Sputnik, beatniks, and cars with tail fins bigger than airplane wings. It was also the year that Friz Freleng directed one of the most beloved cartoons in Warner Bros. history. A masterful collaboration between director, voice actor, and musical artists, Three Little Bops is a confluence of cartoons and pop culture rarely seen in the 1950s.
This cartoon has been studied and analyzed numerous times. There is no doubt that many animation fans know the interesting facts (no voice work by Mel Blanc, a song written by Stan Freberg, who did all the vocals, nifty jazz music by Shorty Rogers and his combo, and modern art styling in the incidental characters and backgrounds).
I’m going to take a different tack on this marvelous short and attempt to make a case for it using some research. I believe that Three Little Bops was, in reality, a sequel to a Warner cartoon featuring the same characters fourteen years earlier.
Three Little Bops (henceforth “Bops”) shares so many features with the 1943 short Pigs in a Polka (henceforth “Polka”) that it is possible to consider it a sequel rather than another variation of the Three Little Pigs fable. In short, what if the characters in Bops are the same ones in Polka, only fourteen years into the future?
Let’s make some connections. The director for both cartoons was Friz Freleng, who was responsible for some of the most precise musical timing seen in the Warner shorts. Witness also Freleng’s hand in directing Rhapsody in Rivets (1941), another cartoon syncopated closely to music. Freleng was also known for creating continuing characters, so why not these pigs, only in a more mature form?
Also on hand in both 1943 and 1957 were several creative minds who were long-time mainstays on the Freleng unit; Warren Foster had a hand in writing both stories (although uncredited in Polka), and Gerry Chiniquy also animated in both cartoons.
Another possible clue comes in the opening lyrics of Stan Freberg’s singing, which is accompanied by a still of the pigs looking very much like they did in 1943:
Remember the story of the three little pigs
One played a pipe, and one danced jigs
The three little pigs are still around
But they’re playing music with a modern sound
Could this be a reference to the young pigs in the 1943 cartoon? In 1957, they were still around and remained musicians, only grown-ups now with modern jazz tastes.
The Polka pigs are much closer in design to Porky than Chiniquy’s more mature-looking porkers, but might that be the result of the pigs aging into professional musicians? After all, character design does undergo updating; Bugs Bunny in 1954 does not look like he did in 1940.
Polka’s pigs wear three different hats and have three different color shirts. But so do the Bops, who all dress differently from one another in their 1957 cartoon. Was it a character trait held over from their youth?
It’s a bit harder to account for the wolf of Bops, who is clearly a different design from the wolf in the 1943 cartoon. However, in Bops, he apparently knew of the “Bops” beforehand, since he knowingly crashed their gig. (“Well, sho’ he was friendly, he shook their hand/ Announced he was joining up with the band/Instead of starting an argument/a one and a two and away they went”) The Bops regard him skeptically, but maybe they give the wolf another chance? This wolf is clearly musical in both his 1943 disguises as a gypsy dancer and a violin-playing older woman. Did he later decide to turn his “talents” to jazz?
Oh, the disguises! The wolf uses several in Bops, and also in Polka. They all fail. In the original fable, the wolf uses no disguises; in 1943 and 1957, he uses them extensively. The wolf is more like a continuing character who never learns from having his plans foiled (Wile E. Coyote says, “Hold my beer”).
The fable is a parable about the dangers of sloth and carelessness, and the wolf clearly wants to eat the pigs. In 1943, this plotline follows closely. But in 1957, the wolf is motivated by the desire to be a great musician (Well, the big bad wolf was really mad/ He wanted to play music and he wanted to play bad) and be appreciated for it. These are the main thematic differences between the 1943 and 1957 cartoons. (The fable’s ending is echoed in Bops, with the wolf in Hell, boiling in a pot before rising to join the band).
These differences are very significant, but do not really weaken the possibilities that the characters in Polka and Bops may actually be the same ones, in more evolved versions, and in different settings. Is it possible that when Freleng and Foster sat down to develop Bops, they were perhaps subconsciously channeling their earlier cartoon? There are undoubtedly arguments against this, but a bit of conjecture is always fun. (Don’t worry, I know how to duck!)
WB blocks the full “Three Little Bops” cartoon on You Tube, so I’m unable to embed it here. You can watch it on Vimeo.
Drummer Shawn C. Martin has posted this video (below) – as a tribute the jazz performers on the cartoon soundtrack:
Stan Freberg – main vocal
Shorty Rogers – trumpet/flugelhorn
baritone (unknown)
Barney Kessel – guitar
Pete Jolly – piano
Red Callender – bass
Stan Levey – drums
Martin Goodman is a veteran writer specializing in stories about animation. He has written for AWN and Animation Scoop – and lives in Anderson, Indiana.
I’m afraid I’m going to have to mention the elephant in the room, or, if you will, the mouse. Disney’s Silly Symphony “The Three Little Pigs” (1933) is one of the most popular and influential animated shorts ever made. It won an Oscar, spawned three sequels, and turned “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” into a hit song and a national sensation. Like “Polka” and “Bops”, it’s a musical cartoon; the three pigs look alike but dress differently; the wolf tries to trick them by donning disguises; and so on. The Disney influence on “Polka” is manifest in its opening scene, a parody of “Fantasia”. I think it’s reasonable to assume that Freleng and Foster gave more than a passing thought to “Polka” when they made “Bops”; but the influence of Disney over both cartoons, as well as any other cartoon using those characters, tends to obscure any direct line of cause and effect that one might attempt to draw between the two.
“Polka” and “Bops” are both great cartoons; but personally, I find McKimson’s “The Windblown Hare” (1949), also written by Foster, to be much funnier than either of them.
This is a very interesting theory, which is certainly valid given the connections between the two cartoons. The ultimate influence was doubtless Disney’s 1933 hit Silly Symphony cartoon, which quickly worked its way into public consciousness and might be considered as a template for all of the three little pigs variations that followed. There is certainly a kind of counter-Disney sensibility informing “Pigs in a Polka” and “Three Little Bops.” At the time, the 1933 film was still around, appearing on television, in home movie format, shown in schools, and I believe occasionally being re-released to theaters as well. Plus, the characters appeared in costume at Disneyland. The other animation studios often took good-natured potshots at Disney.
I’m surprised at how much the characters in “Pigs in a Polka” resemble the Disney version: a Piper Pig and a Fiddler Pig who are pantsless, and the Practical Pig who wears overalls. Does anyone know how Walt reacted when he saw it?
The wolf may not wear disguises on the original story, but he does in the Disney version. He disguises himself first as a sheep, then as a travelling salesman (originally a Jewish peddler), and the pigs see through those disguises. This trend continues in the follow ups: he’s a fairy queen and Red Riding Hood’s grandma in “The Big Bad Wolf”, Little Bo Beep and a messenger boy in “Three Little Wolves”, and a mermaid and yet another messenger in “The Practical Pig”. Disney’s “Three Little Pigs” was a major hit, and the characters remained popular for decades. Whenever other Golden Age studios did the story, it was almost always a direct parody of the Disney pigs.
If I’m not mistaken, it was Mike Maltese who wrote ‘Pigs in a Polka’, not Warren Foster.
True enough, but Warren Foster and Tedd Pierce were uncredited story men on “Polka.” Foster remains a link to the later cartoon.
There was a middling Columbia short that opened with the wolf on the gallows, giving his version of the story to the sheriff and his western-style mob. The wolf presents himself as a tutor of classical music living in a fussily tasteful house. The pigs, sporting tough guy accents, were potential pupils. They destroyed his home while playing jazz (broadly defined). The mob turns against the pigs, who flee as if guilty. The wolf admits to the camera it was all a lie, and ends up hanging by his tail.
In the same ballpark was a very late limited-animation Paramount, with a dopey cat trying to catch a jazz trio of beatnik mice.
In fact, it was the Walter Lantz cartoon, “”the Hams that Can’t be cured”, a Swing Symphony from 1943
A Three Little Bops/Pigs in a Polka connection is an interesting theory. But I can´t help but feel that this supposed “connection” that you´re making is one of those fanboy assumptions that is what helps misinformation to spread (Example of one of these fanboy assumptions: Since Mel Blanc worked at WB and there is a male voice in a WB toon it MUST be Mel Blanc…except no it´s actually Daws Butler).
Even though Friz Freleng DID indeed reuse plots sometimes (see The Dogfather) it was more obvious and blatant. About all Pigs in a Polka has in common with The Three Little Bops is the fact that both are about The Three Little Pigs and are musical versions of it. That´s really it. Heck, Pigs in a Polka has more in common with A Corny Concerto than The Three Little Bops (both are Fantasia take-offs, about CLASSICAL music, with little dialogue, and a bespectacled character – ala “Deems Taylor” – on a raised podium, introducing what we are about to see).
It’s probably just a coincidence. But I will say that I ultimately prefer The Three Little Bops over Pigs in a Polka.
Of course, I was expecting this, and even said so in my last line. That’s OK. There must be many, many variations on this theme featuring the Three Little Pigs, and the comment section is at least as interesting as the article, if not more so. One quibble, though: I have never been a “fanboy” and do not make “fanboy” assumptions about animated cartoons. Everything else in the comments section is fair game.
I never said you were a “fanboy”, I just stated that I felt like the assumptions you made were a little like that. Maybe my choice of the word “fanboy” was a little too harsh though…
(Not trying to diss you BTW…. you are great)
I should clarify that I do not think you are a fanboy and you don’t make fanboy assumptions. You are a hardworking historian.
No problem, Mejo! I’m not taking it personally and don’t feel dissed. I’m just glad and grateful that you took the time to read my piece and give it some thought. All the best to you.