Three Little Wolves (film)

Plot

The story begins with the Big Bad Wolf giving his three sons a lesson on which parts of a pig are good to eat. Meanwhile, Fifer Pig and Fiddler Pig stumble upon a wolf alarm shaped like a horn, and then find their brother Practical Pig working on a machine he calls the Wolf Pacifier. The two playful pigs sound the alarm to get Practical's attention, but when he realizes it is a false alarm, he warns them that if the real wolves ever catch them and they blow that horn, he will assume it is another trick.

The Wolf and his cubs are indeed stalking Fifer and Fiddler. The Wolf disguises himself as Little Bo Peep and tells the pigs he has lost his sheep. The pigs spot the wolf cubs dressed as sheep and flee to their cave. The Wolf locks them in and swallows the key.

At first, the pigs think Bo Peep has romantic intentions, but then the wolves spring their trap and overpower them. They try to blow the wolf alarm, but Practical Pig ignores it, just as he said he would. The wolves put Fifer and Fiddler into a roasting pan and repeatedly blow the alarm themselves. Hoping for rescue, the pigs taunt the wolf cub who is blowing the horn, telling him it was a weak, sissy blow.

To prove his family's strength, the Big Bad Wolf blows the horn himself. This time, Practical Pig realizes the danger is real and rushes to the rescue, dragging the finished Wolf Pacifier behind him. Just as the Wolf is about to shove the pigs into the oven, there is a knock at the door. Practical Pig is outside, disguised as an Italian vegetable peddler, offering a free tomato sample.

The Wolf comes out and says, "Let me have it," but Practical Pig throws the tomato right in his face. The furious Wolf chases Practical Pig straight into the Wolf Pacifier. Inside, the Wolf is buzz-sawed, hit on the head with rolling pins, kicked by boots, punched by boxing gloves, covered in tar and feathers, and finally shot out of a cannon, with his three sons following behind. The three pigs then emerge from the den, playing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" in a patriotic manner: Fifer on flute, Fiddler on drum, and Practical Pig waving a white flag made from the Wolf's Bo Peep bloomers.

Symbolism

The Three Little Wolves was produced by Disney as part of a series of sequels capitalizing on the popularity of the Three Little Pigs characters, but it also carried a deeper symbolic message about the threat of European fascism and the fear and patriotism it stirred in the American public. In the opening scene, the Big Bad Wolf speaks German to his three unruly pups while pointing to a chart of pork cuts and saying "Ist das nicht ein Sausage Meat," marking him as a stand-in for Adolf Hitler.

The hapless Fifer and Fiddler, dressed in naval garb and carrying musical instruments, display bravado that may critique European military allies unable to stop Hitler's advances; their confidence fails, and they are tied up and nearly thrown into an oven. Practical Pig, the industrious American brother in workman's overalls, uses an Italian character to distract the Wolf with a free tomato sample, then pulls him into a complex mechanical contraption, suggesting technological superiority as the key to winning the coming war. During the machine's pummeling, the Wolf's hair is parted and slicked down the center, briefly resembling Hitler.