On This Day (May 27, 1933) : Disney Releases ‘The Three Little Pigs’.
By Verity Vincent
Disney’s Silly Symphony series produced a total of 75 shorts between 1929 and 1939 with the aim to introduce new characters in the one-off animations. The Three Little Pigs were the exception to this and were given three sequels to their debut.
The story builds around 3 brothers, Practical Pig, Fiddler Pig and Fifer Pig. They choose to build their houses with differing materials of bricks, sticks and straw. After Fifer and Fiddler have built their straw and stick houses with ease, a wary Practical warns “I’ll be safe and you’ll be sorry when the wolf comes through your door!”
In a series of events that have since become iconic, the wolf blows down the two unsturdy houses with the 2 pigs taking refuge in Practicals safe brick house, culminating in the trio singing ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?’
The story won the Academy Award in 1934 for Best Animated Short Film and in 1994 was voted 11 out of the top 50 greatest cartoons of all time.
