Three Little Bops (1957)
Three hip, Little Pigs are travelling entertainers, moving from straw to wood, to brick nightclubs, playing swinging tunes for high-class, "with it" crowds, but an uncool Big Bad Wolf keeps intruding on their act with with his "corny horn" and uses it to blow their nightclubs down when they throw him out- until they are playing in their brick club and the Wolf tries a more drastic, explosive method for destroying the "House of Bricks".
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Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
On YouTube, I got to see three versions of this unique Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon. One was the original with the voices of Stan Freberg and the music of Shorty Rogers. That one is pure classic. Another one had an Italian-dubbed soundtrack that was another nice twist on the cartoon. And then there was one I saw linked from the Misce-Looney-ous blog. That one had a live version of the music and the other voices as performed at the Blackstump Festival at Australia in 1993 by the Belvedere Blues Band. That was fine too except for the slightly changed ending when it's mentioned that the wolf went to the pearly gates when he's still seen playing in "the other place" and one of the pigs says, "You've got to be SAVED to play it cool" instead of saying HOT. While this cartoon was not hilarious, there was one line that I was highly amused by when, after Freberg mentions Liberace, one of those pigs says, "I wish my brother George was here." On that note, I highly recommend all three versions of Three Little Bops that are uploaded on YouTube still as I'm writing this... Original version:**********, Italian-dubbed version: **********, Belvedere Blues version: *********.
Friz Freleng's 'The Three Little Bops' is a longtime favourite of mine. From the first time I saw it at a very early age, I was always on the lookout for a chance to see it again. While I was growing up during the 80s and 90s, Warner Bros. cartoons were frequently on TV and every so often this one came around. I was absolutely delighted when it finally became available for me to own on the essential Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. A jazz parody of Disney's famous 'Three Little Pigs' cartoon, 'The Three Little Bops' is entirely set to music with a great vocal by the underrated Stan Freberg (who finally gets screen credit in this cartoon). It tells the story of the Big Bad Wolf's unsuccessful attempts to be accepted into the Three Little Pigs nightclub act and each time he is rejected, he blows the nightclub down! The visuals are beautifully stylised, fitting perfectly with the modern theme of the cartoon, and Warren Foster's lyrics are often priceless ("Dew Drop Inn did drop down"!). It's not quite a perfect cartoon, since there are a couple of slightly mistimed moments and the section in which the Wolf adopts a series of disguises slows things down and unnecessarily breaks from the musical narration for a conspicuously long time. Nevertheless, if asked to list my favourite cartoons, 'The Three Little Bops' would always be one of the first to pop into my head. It's a toe-tapping delight of which I never tire.
The pigs play better than the wolf, but no more hip. They're mostly just vamping on a simple boogie that sounds a lot like "Rock Around the Clock" (And Stan Freberg's inability to find the right pitch is downright painful--way worse than the wolf.)Considering this was made the year Miles released "Kind of Blue," (a year after Bird died.) and considering the really adventurous stuff Shorty Rogers was doing for Stan Kenton around this time, I have to think Warner Bros. dumbed it down musically to what they thought the Lawrence-Welk/Liberace-listening public would like.For a cartoon that really does something with music, how about "The Rabbit of Seville"? Glenn
A variation on the Three Little Pigs fable set to toe tapping jazz swinging music. Has the pigs playing different clubs which the Wolf blows down when no one likes his trumpet playing and call him a square. This was an amusing short and the music was good so I enjoyed it. Not the best of the music-centric Looney Tunes shorts, but it's still a fun time to be had be all. This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It features a commentary by Jerry beck, as well as an optional music only track, and a vocals only track.My Grade: B