Pigs In A Polka + Favorite Moments

 

It's been quite some time since I last looked into a single cartoon. 

Previously, I was reviewing Chow Hound which is starting to become one of my favorite cartoons of all time. I love the shear menacing reality and dark final punchline.

This time I'll be talking about a well-known animated director I have some passion for.

When Friz Freleng makes a good cartoon, it really hits well for me and has some excellent acting and slapstick. My favorites are the Bugs and Yosemite Sam shorts, Birds Anonymous, and Show Biz Bugs. 

His 30s and early 40s run was kinda mid for me, some good, some really unwatchable but here's one that I genuinely wanted to talk about that has had an influence on me for quite some time.

I was trying to look for the somewhat original titlecards, believe me this is what we got as of now. I love this, definitely more better than the uninteresting blue ribbon version.

Just like with A Corny Concerto, this takes brief inspiration and parodies Disney's Fantasia.

I really liked that cartoon and so is this one. There's no dialogue which is a neat addition. I'm always keen on more focused cartoons since they don't have useless educational talk or trashy pop culture one-liners. 

I love these nostalgic blue skies in these two scenes. 

Some people relate this cartoon to Disney's Three Little Pigs cartoons from the 30s. What I like more about this singular cartoon whatsoever is the intensity of the music cues in some of the segments and the gags feel alot punchier. 

 

Now it's time for me to breakdown some of my favorite animation quips. I love the wolf dancing with his tambourine. Classic.

Here's him spinning in excellent flow. I love how both the pigs while they turn their heads, their legs are twisted. 

The sneaky walk dynamic is priceless here. Before I watched this short again, all I could think of what this scene here. It's amazing.

Freleng mastered the expressive stretch takes.

Another magnificent scene right here with gorgeous backgrounds.

While I was animating, the hardest part to do was the walk cycles. I'm sure it was easier back then because you can literally place the cels onto the background and move it as you go along but nowadays especially in cheaper animation programs your gonna have to step your gain. Add more complexity to your scenery instead of it being small and only sizeable for a 4:3 aspect or something.

I never paused a moment where as in the wolf's head moves, one of them looks to be faded.

You keeping on seeing the two pigs giggling and skipping around?

For all this time, I was noticing what the practical pig was thinking about. This is a hilarious bit and it's really hard to notice since it's not in front of you but that's such a unique detail. It happens alot in cartoons and whenever they do that you know that the animator knows it audience!

But eh, it's probably just a theory.

This cartoon is in the public domain so it's easy to watch and I don't have to shout at you to go to Toontales or buy a DVD from anywhere to watch it.

It's all free for you to experience and explore on YouTube. I think it's a really solid cartoon that has alot of creative potential and coherent music-based animation that I always admire best.