Three Little Bops

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Three Little Bops
series =


caption =
director = Friz Freleng
story_artist = Warren Foster
animator = Gerry Chiniquy
Bob Matz
voice_actor = Stan Freberg
musician = Shorty Rogers
producer =
distributor = Warner Bros.
release_date = 1957
color_process = Technicolor
runtime =
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0051078

"Three Little Bops" is a 1957 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, with voices by Stan Freberg and music by jazz composer/trumpeter Shorty Rogers. It is a takeoff on "The Three Little Pigs", told as a hip, jazzy musical. It is currently available in the DVD box-set .

ynopsis

The Big Bad Wolf is not interested in eating the pigs, but rather joining their band. His problem is that he is a terrible trumpeter and therefore fails to endear himself to the Bops (or the audience, all of whom refer to him as a "square"). Constantly thrown out of the clubs he visits, the insulted Wolf retaliates by using his trumpet to blast away the House of Straw and the Dew Drop Inn of sticks.

The club of bricks is where he runs into problems; wolves are not permitted in the club, but he is not the least bit discouraged. Like his forefather, the Wolf runs out of breath in trying to blow away the club. Unlike his forefather, however, the Wolf resorts to other measures to make his mark. He reenters in fur coat and ukulele with his rendition of the Charleston song (cut short by slipping on a strategically-placed banana peel). He returns in the disguise of a houseplant with his trumpet but gets blasted outside by a plunger shot from the double bass. For his third try, the Wolf shows up in drum major outfit playing a big bass drum. A dart is shot into the drum, leaving him to exit in humiliation.

Finally, he shows up with a large cylinder of TNT and snaps, "I'll show those pigs that I'm not stuck! If I can't blow it "down," I'll blow it "up!" The fuse is blown out on his first try, so he steps back a bit and lights it from there. Unfortunately, he is too far away and his weapon explodes while he's carrying it to his target.

The Bops hear his trumpeting from "the other place" (hell), and it has improved dramatically. One of pigs proudly replies, "The Big Bad Wolf, he learned the rule: you gotta get hot to play real cool!" Thus the Wolf achieves his goal in afterlife: becoming a member of the Bops.

Credits

Instrument Credits are believed to be:
*Vocals - Stan Freberg
*Saxophone - Art Pepper
*Trumpet/flugelhorn - Shorty Rogers
*Piano - Pete Jolly
*Guitar - Adam Rosen
*Bass - possibly Joe Mondragon
*Drums - Shelly Manne

This is one of only two Warner Brothers cartoons to give on-screen credit to an actor other than Mel Blanc during the period of Blanc's exclusive contract with the studio. The other short is "The Mouse That Jack Built", which credits the cast of "The Jack Benny Program".

Censorship

*The ABC airing of this cartoon cuts the scene after the House of Bricks is introduced where the Wolf peeks into the front door and gets punched in the face by the bouncer.

Later appearances

*The Big Bad Wolf and the three little pigs made a cameo appearance, and the cartoon appeared in the third act called "The Oswalds" of the Looney Tunes 1981 release "The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie", although a few scenes of the cartoon were cut in the movie.
*The Big Bad Wolf made an appearance in the 1983 Looney Tunes release "Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island". He was standing in the line where everybody is getting their wishes from the island's famous wishing well, but he was wearing shoes instead of showing his bare feet.

Trivia

*This is one of the few Looney Tunes cartoons that doesn't end with "That's All, Folks!"

External links