The Big Bad Wolf (film)

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = The Big Bad Wolf
series = Silly Symphonies
director = Burt Gillett
animator = Art Babbitt
voice_actor = Pinto Colvig
Billy Bletcher
Mary Moder
Dorothy Compton
producer = Walt Disney
distributor = United Artists
release_date = 14th April, 1934
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 9 minutes
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0024886

"The Big Bad Wolf" is an animated short released on 14th April, 1934 by United Artists, produced by Walt Disney and directed by Burt Gillett as part of the Silly Symphony series [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024886/|"The Big Bad Wolf"] IMDb Retrieved 11th August 2008] . Acting partly as a sequel to the wildly successful adaptation of "The Three Little Pigs" of the previous year (maintaining the previous film's titular characters as well as its villain), this film also acts as an adaptation of the fairy-tale "Little Red Riding Hood", with the Big Bad Wolf from 1933's "Three Little Pigs" acting as the adversary to Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.

Plot

Not taking the advice of Practical Pig, Little Red Riding Hood, escorted by Fiddler and Fifer, takes the short cut through the woods to Grandma's house. They end up encountering Goldilocks the Fairy Queen, who is soon revealed to be the Big Bad Wolf in disguise. Fiddler and Fifer run home, whilst Little Red Riding Hood escapes from the Wolf. The Big Bad Wolf, however, isn't giving up on getting dinner, and goes to Grandma's house, where he chases Grandma into the closet and gets in bed disguised as her. Little Red Riding Hood arrives and after the expected "what big eyes/nose/mouth you've got" spiel is terrified to see the Big Bad Wolf is posing as her grandmother. Fortunately, Fiddler and Fifer have managed to get Practical Pig and thus managed to beat the Wolf once more. As the cartoon ends, a reprise of "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" comes in.

Reaction

Made as a somewhat reluctant response to the success of the earlier short, "The Big Bad Wolf" did not quite achieve the levels of popularity of "Three Little Pigs" (which was huge) [Bob Thomas, "Disney's Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules" (1997) p.50] , though two more shorts predominantly featuring the Big Bad Wolf and the pigs came about ("The Three Little Wolves" and "The Practical Pig"), in addition to countless appearances in a variety of shorts, comic strips, war-time propaganda pieces and TV series.

References