Oh look, they're stealing the spotlight now.
Piggy Tales is a CGI-Claymation animation mini-series based on Bad Piggies, a spinoff of Angry Birds, and is the second series created in the franchise, after Angry Birds Toons. With the birds completely absent from this seriesNote , it follows the misadventures of the minion pigs, who tend to be goofing around, following orders, having a competition with each other, doing anything stupid... Well, you name it!
The series premiered in April 2014 and ended in May 2019 with a total of 4 seasons and 122 episodes. It also has unique setting starting from season 2 onward. The series could be viewed on ToonsTV until its closure in 2017 and on YouTube, as well as Netflix alongside other Rovio Entertainment series through compilations.
- Piggy Tales (Season 1): The first installment that started it all. This season follows the life of the minion pigs as they figure out their surroundings with their limited wisdom. It consists 31 episodes.
- Piggy Tales: Pigs at Work (Season 2): This season follows the pigs in the middle of a construction yard as they try to tackle their jobs (or even goofing off sometimes). It consists 26 episodes.
- Piggy Tales: Third Act (Season 3): Set up in a Piggy Theater, this season showcases the pigs acting out their trademark antics and pay tribute to the classics of stage and screen. It consists 35 episodes and marks the change of the animation style into fully CGI, redesigning the minion pigs to their The Angry Birds Movie designs, and having an actual setting for the show instead of just a colorless background.
- Piggy Tales: 4th Street (Season 4): A follow-up to Third Act, and the final season in the series. It shows the minion pigs' daily life in the middle of the movie version of Pig City and consists 30 episodes,
Piggy Tales provides examples of:
- All-CGI Cartoon: Subverted with the first 2 seasons as the animation made with a mix of claymation. Played straight in the third season with the animation become fully CGI.
- In the fourth season, it Double Subverted by having the CGI animation occasionally blended with 2D Flash animation.
- Amusing Injuries: The minion pigs constantly get abused in this series to the point it become a Running Gag, espectially in the first season. It mostly happen due to their own doing, while the other because of just plain bad luck.
- Art Evolution: Starting from Third Act, the animation changes from the mix of CGI & Claymation into fully CGI, as well as bringing the minion pigs' character design from The Angry Birds Movie.
- Art Shift: The 4th Street episode "Slingshot Delivery" features a brief one to the original Angry Birds game, with Bomb, Red, and Chuck making cameos.
- Brick Joke: In "Abduction", one minion pig got "abducted" by a tiny alien pig and carried away. This same piggy somehow ended up going to the doctor in "Dr. Pork M.D" episode. Frankly, in Third Act, the former episode's scenario happened again in "Re-Abduction". And then, in the episode called "Snout Invasion" in 4th Street, the same thing happens... again.
- Butt-Monkey: If you think the minion pigs didn't get tormented enough in Toons, this series makes them suffer this up to eleven (see Amusing Injuries).
- Circling Saw: Appears in S1 E27 "The Catch".
- Composite Character: While Third Act introduces the minion pigs' character redesign from the movie, they remain being Inexplicably Identical Individuals (except for the large pig) like in original series, which itself carried to the mobile games that features the movie design.
- Couch Gag: The opening sequence of Pigs at Work has these. It mostly involve one minion pig interacting with the show's title offscreen, one way or another.
- Christmas Episode: There's "Snowed Up" from the first season. There also 3 Christmas-themed episode in Third ActNote and 2 episodes in 4th StreetNote .
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In "Rough-necks", the pig could be heard whistling to the Bad Piggies theme song on his second climb to the tower. Nonetheless, the theme also played during the end credits of "Fly Piggy, Fly!" and "Race Nuts".
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first episode has the pigs' design looked slightly deformed & the background looks more empty than in the later episodes.
- Furry Confusion: In "Swine Symphony", one of the pigs is seen eating a ham sandwich.
- Garden-Hose Squirt Surprise: In S4 E11 "Pork Brigade", this happens three times to the fire chief pig when trying to put out the fire.
- Grand Finale: "When Pigs Fly" for both 4th Street and the series as a whole.
- Gross Gum Gag: In "For Pig's Sake", one of the pigs sits down in a chair, and gets stuck to the chair by a wad of gum.
- Halloween Episode: There are 3 Halloween-themed episodes in Third Act: "Scared Sick", "Shadow Pig" and "Pumpkin Head".
- There's also two episodes in 4th Street: "Scary Fog" and "Ghost Hog".
- Heroic BSoD: Janitor Pig in the Third Act finale.
- Idea Bulb: Parodied in Pigs at Work E3 "Screw Up", where the pigs are trying to let go of as much weight as possible. One pig gets an idea, a lightbulb appears, and then he takes the lightbulb and throws it overboard.
- Insane Troll Logic: Due to their cluelessness, sometimes the pigs comes up with a rather absurd idea when they try to solve their problem. For example, in one episode, one pig thought he could help his friend to open his lunchbox by building a tower to topple it into. And it works.
- Recycled In Space: Starting from season 2 onward, the show added a setting for that particular season.
- Sequel Hook: In the final episode of Third Act, the pigs accidentally blow up the theater by putting an ignited dynamite into the storage after they cleaned the place up, which teared down the walls behind them and revealing Pig City. This is likely to lead to Piggy Tales: 4th Street.
- Show Within a Show: The setting of Piggy Tales: Third Act, where the pigs perform their antics in a theater. Although there's some episode where the theater has no audiences around.
- Story Arc: Piggy Tales: Third Act features this as a theme with 3 episodes each. There's Summer Sports, Back to School, Halloween, & Christmas.
- Suddenly Speaking: More specifically... Suddenly singing as one pig doing just this in 4th Street finale.
- Too Dumb to Live: The minion pigs as usual and this series usually making fun out of it.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The minion pigs may taunt, fight, and all around mean toward each other, but they still care about each other when the situation calls it. (Or if they're not too oblivious, that's all...)
