Welcome back to Classic Shorts Showcase and today, we conclude Three Little Pigs Thursday as I take a look at the most recent short to star the Pigs that came out in 2002. In this short, we are introduced to a new character, L'i'l Bad Wolf or L'il Wolf. While he technically first appeared in Raw Toonage. This short is more in line with the other Three Little Pigs shorts and I may not be correct in saying this but I believe that is one of the few shorts to be labeled as A House of Mouse Cartoon as it premiered during an episode of House of Mouse.
The Plot
The plot of this short is rather basic. The Big Bad Wolf is trying to teach his son, Li'l Wolf how to catch pigs. Though L'l Wolf does not want to capture pigs as he likes the pigs and considers them friends. Now I want to clarify something in this short, Big Bad Wolf has a different son than he did in Three Little Wolves and The Practical Pig. Some may find that odd but I don't and the best way I find to look at this is think of the '90s shows from the Disney Afternoon era where characters such as Goofy & Pete were given kids. It's more like that.
Characters
Just like The Big Bad Wolf, this will be broken down into New, Returning, & Villain. Though seeing as how this short came out long after the original, I will be listing the voice actors. Just for fun here, Bill Farmer the current voice of Goofy voiced Practical just as Pinto, the first Goofy voiced Practical and Jim Cummings, the current voice of Pete voiced The Big Bad Wolf just as the original Pete, Billy Bletcher, voiced The Big Bad Wolf.
New Character
Li'l Wolf voiced by Andrew Lawrence
Li'l Wolf unlike the Three Little Wolves isn't an evil child. Rather, he is the exact opposite of his father. He doesn't want to be a Big Bad Wolf but he still goes with his father to learn how to capture pigs as to please him. He is an all right character and likable enough. Though in some ways, I felt like we had seen this character before and that mostly comes from his voice performance. Because each time, he spoke I could not shake it out of my head but he sounded a lot like Max akin to Goof Troop. I may need to go back to watch that show but I swear he sounded like Max at the age of ten. Now this does not mean that he is a bad character but it was stunning. Moving on, it was shown that The Pigs are his best friends and he sabotaged how all of his father's attempts to catch the Pigs. Save for the last one when Big Bad Wolf tricks his son and uses his friendship with the Pigs to kidnap them. Here Li'l Wolf uses all of the lessons that his father had been teaching him and is able to save his friends. That was a nice touch and I actually enjoyed seeing someone else take down the Wolf and not to mention that this is the first time Practical didn't save the day.
Returning Characters
Practical voiced by Bill Farmer, Fifer voiced by Cathy Cahn, Fiddler voiced by Pat Musick
Just as with last time, I have decided to group the Pigs together because in all honesty, the short did that as well. While the Pigs were fine and their new voice actors did a commendable job voicing them, I felt as though this short forgot that their names were not just labels but also what gave each pig an individual personality. Now I understand that they are not the main stars of this short but for many children watching House of Mouse at the time of this short's premiere, this may have been their introduction to The Pigs and well this short did not make them interesting enough for a new audience. Though of course, you could make the argument that with all the characters that appeared on House of Mouse that the audience if they had not seen where these classic Disney characters came from may want to find out more but granted most of those characters come from film that most children know and compared to them, The Pigs are pretty obscure by today's standards.
Villain
The Big Bad Wolf voiced by Jim Cummings
The Wolf was really toned down this time and that is kind of sad and most of his failures this time around come from his inventions and methods that don't work. Granted, as I stated his son tinkered with them as to protect the Pigs. In this short compared to the others he didn't feel as threatening but instead fell into the trap of becoming a comedic villain. Now don't get me wrong in the early shorts there were comedic elements to him but he was still a real threat. It makes me wonder since this was a short that was made for TV, if he had to be toned down and if it was made as a short to be shown in theaters, there would be more sense of threat to him. Now while he was toned down, Jim Cummings still made him a good villain and while he is able to capture all three Pigs for the first time, he was more of a letdown here.
My Final Thoughts
This is an okay short but not as good as the classic Pigs shorts. While I don't enjoy it as much as the others, it is still enjoyable. Honestly, this short is not that bad if you take it on it's own merits. This is one of the first Pigs short that I ever saw and if I had not seen the other Pigs shorts, my ranking of this short would be a bit higher. However watching all of the other Three Little Pigs shorts, just shows me that something is missing from this short making it fall flat in some areas. Also it feels as though this short feels like it was meant more for a TV audience and only a TV audience. That just boggles my mind. Did I like it? Hmm, it's okay but I wouldn't place it as high as the other Three Little Pigs shorts. So ends Three Little Pigs Thursday. I hope you have enjoyed my look at all of the Three Little Pigs shorts and tell me in the comments, which one is your favorite.
The Plot
The plot of this short is rather basic. The Big Bad Wolf is trying to teach his son, Li'l Wolf how to catch pigs. Though L'l Wolf does not want to capture pigs as he likes the pigs and considers them friends. Now I want to clarify something in this short, Big Bad Wolf has a different son than he did in Three Little Wolves and The Practical Pig. Some may find that odd but I don't and the best way I find to look at this is think of the '90s shows from the Disney Afternoon era where characters such as Goofy & Pete were given kids. It's more like that.
Characters
Just like The Big Bad Wolf, this will be broken down into New, Returning, & Villain. Though seeing as how this short came out long after the original, I will be listing the voice actors. Just for fun here, Bill Farmer the current voice of Goofy voiced Practical just as Pinto, the first Goofy voiced Practical and Jim Cummings, the current voice of Pete voiced The Big Bad Wolf just as the original Pete, Billy Bletcher, voiced The Big Bad Wolf.
New Character
Li'l Wolf voiced by Andrew Lawrence
Li'l Wolf unlike the Three Little Wolves isn't an evil child. Rather, he is the exact opposite of his father. He doesn't want to be a Big Bad Wolf but he still goes with his father to learn how to capture pigs as to please him. He is an all right character and likable enough. Though in some ways, I felt like we had seen this character before and that mostly comes from his voice performance. Because each time, he spoke I could not shake it out of my head but he sounded a lot like Max akin to Goof Troop. I may need to go back to watch that show but I swear he sounded like Max at the age of ten. Now this does not mean that he is a bad character but it was stunning. Moving on, it was shown that The Pigs are his best friends and he sabotaged how all of his father's attempts to catch the Pigs. Save for the last one when Big Bad Wolf tricks his son and uses his friendship with the Pigs to kidnap them. Here Li'l Wolf uses all of the lessons that his father had been teaching him and is able to save his friends. That was a nice touch and I actually enjoyed seeing someone else take down the Wolf and not to mention that this is the first time Practical didn't save the day.
Returning Characters
Practical voiced by Bill Farmer, Fifer voiced by Cathy Cahn, Fiddler voiced by Pat Musick
Just as with last time, I have decided to group the Pigs together because in all honesty, the short did that as well. While the Pigs were fine and their new voice actors did a commendable job voicing them, I felt as though this short forgot that their names were not just labels but also what gave each pig an individual personality. Now I understand that they are not the main stars of this short but for many children watching House of Mouse at the time of this short's premiere, this may have been their introduction to The Pigs and well this short did not make them interesting enough for a new audience. Though of course, you could make the argument that with all the characters that appeared on House of Mouse that the audience if they had not seen where these classic Disney characters came from may want to find out more but granted most of those characters come from film that most children know and compared to them, The Pigs are pretty obscure by today's standards.
Villain
The Big Bad Wolf voiced by Jim Cummings
The Wolf was really toned down this time and that is kind of sad and most of his failures this time around come from his inventions and methods that don't work. Granted, as I stated his son tinkered with them as to protect the Pigs. In this short compared to the others he didn't feel as threatening but instead fell into the trap of becoming a comedic villain. Now don't get me wrong in the early shorts there were comedic elements to him but he was still a real threat. It makes me wonder since this was a short that was made for TV, if he had to be toned down and if it was made as a short to be shown in theaters, there would be more sense of threat to him. Now while he was toned down, Jim Cummings still made him a good villain and while he is able to capture all three Pigs for the first time, he was more of a letdown here.
My Final Thoughts
This is an okay short but not as good as the classic Pigs shorts. While I don't enjoy it as much as the others, it is still enjoyable. Honestly, this short is not that bad if you take it on it's own merits. This is one of the first Pigs short that I ever saw and if I had not seen the other Pigs shorts, my ranking of this short would be a bit higher. However watching all of the other Three Little Pigs shorts, just shows me that something is missing from this short making it fall flat in some areas. Also it feels as though this short feels like it was meant more for a TV audience and only a TV audience. That just boggles my mind. Did I like it? Hmm, it's okay but I wouldn't place it as high as the other Three Little Pigs shorts. So ends Three Little Pigs Thursday. I hope you have enjoyed my look at all of the Three Little Pigs shorts and tell me in the comments, which one is your favorite.
No comments:
Post a Comment