Western Animation / The 3 Little Pigs: The Movie

From left to right: Felix the mouse, Beemo, Wally (red shirt), and Feeno (blue shirt)

The 3 Little Pigs: The Movie, is an French-Belgian animated feature length musical adaptation of The Three Little Pigs, released in 1995, then dubbed into other languages & released in other counties in 1996 onwards.

Has no relation to Disney’s 1933 Silly Symphony adaptation,The Three Little Pigs.

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The 3 Little Pigs: The Movie provides examples of:

A-D

• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Since the original story is quite short, to expand it to be a feature length flick, extra scenes are added before the pigs build their houses, and after they have the main encounter with the wolf, with the bulk of the film taking place between the two original events.
  • Several characters and subplots are added. The motivations of the characters from the original story are also altered/expanded on.
• Adjective Animal Alehouse: Big Boss owns and runs The Inn of the Gentle Wolf.
  • After Big Boss is gone, the pigs take ownership of the inn, and rename it The Inn of the Singing Pigs.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Big Boss & other wolves, rabbits, the mole, Aromé the skunk, some unidentified predators, and what might possibly be a tiger, have blue fur. Some other animals have vibrant yellow fur.
• Agony of the Feet: Felix jumps on the exhaust pipe of Rublad’s motorcycle as he drives away with Wally & Beemo, resulting in a brief Hurt Foot Hop from the pain of standing on hot metal.
• Angry Mob Song: While not exactly a full-fledged musical number, the dinner guests at The Inn of the Gentle Wolf get into a pretty decent rhythm when demanding a refund, after the main course of their dinner and a show gets kidnapped.
  "Money back! Money back! Or else we’ll beat you blue and black!"
• Aside Comment: Throughout the film, characters occasionally look towards the audience and comment on the situation.
  Felix: (Half whispering, after sneaking on Rublad’s motorcycle after the fox tricks Wally & Beemo into coming with him) "They’re out of their minds!"
• Bad Boss: Big Boss has next to no respect for his sole employee, Aromé the skunk. Not only does he overwork her, but he also kicks her around almost whenever she’s near his feet.
• Bag of Kidnapping: How Rublad transports Wally & Beemo back to his place from the inn, although when we see them, they are already bagged.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Suzette and her mother wear dresses/gowns, but no shoes.
• Bears Are Bad News: Played with:
  • The first bear we see is friendly, and quietly helps Feeno make mortar for brick-laying.
  • The next bears we see are some of the dinner guests at the inn. One is fairly passive, and asks for a jar of honey, only to be thrown out by his fellow patrons for not requesting meat. The rest of the bears are just as rowdy as the other guests, slamming their fists on tables, and later along with the rest of the guests, trashing the place.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Big Boss the wolf and Rublad the fox work together to get Wally and Beemo into their clutches, with the only thing keeping them from being a truly effective pair of villains, is that the two do not get along, and look out for the perfect opportunities to screw the other over in their dealings.
• The Big Bad Wolf: In this version of the story, the wolf is called “Big Boss”, who owns & runs an inn in the forest.
• Big Eater: Both Wally & Beemo pack away a veritable feast, provided by Big Boss at the inn. The only negative effect suffered by either of them is that Wally felt ill from a stomach ache later, although given that he was about to perform in front of a crowd for the first time, it also could have just been stage fright.
• Blind Without 'Em: The mole who lives nearby the pigs at one point mistakes Big Boss for a young lady because he left his glasses behind someplace and can’t find them.
• Blow You Away: Like in the original tale, Big Boss can blow away the first two pigs houses easily. Strangely (or impressively, in a way) enough, he is capable of this despite being a heavy smoker.
• Book Ends: In the 1996 VHS English language release, the movie opens with “On the Road to Fame” playing over the opening credits, and the film ends with the pigs performing the song at the end of the movie and continuing to sing throughout the end credits.
• Brains and Brawn: Downplayed with Rublad and Big Boss as the Brains and Brawn respectively. While Big Boss isn’t a complete idiot, and Rublad doesn’t do half bad in his fight against Big Boss, Big Boss can still be incredibly stupid at times, falling for tricks that Rublad would likely have seen through, and Rublad tries to use the canning machine he made to finish off Big Boss, instead of doing it himself.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Wally and Beemo have quite a talent for composing and performing awesome songs, but don't do much with it on account of their supreme aversion to hard work until around the middle of the film.
• Carnivore Confusion:
  • The pigs and other animals seem to know of the concept of animals eating other animals, but are very confused as to why the human farmer wants to eat the pigs. Granted, they wear clothes like humans and share the same language as the humans, so their confusion as to why they are suddenly on the metaphorical chopping block is at least somewhat understandable.
    Wally: "Why us? What have we done?"
  • One butcher named “Grizzly” is presumably a bear who butchers other animals for meat to sell.
  • Rublad the fox, Grizzly’s meat supplier, creates a machine to pack and label live animals into cans. He even sings a song about how much he wants to cook and eat Wally and Bimo.
    Rublad: "A little pig is so many pretty things, roasted, smoked, or. As. Pâ. Té!"
  • Big Boss wants Wally and Bimo killed so he can serve fresh pork to his carnivorous guests after the two entertain the guests at the inn with a song & dance.
• Cartoon Creature: The species of some of the predatory dinner guests aren’t clearly defined, with one in particular looking vaguely cat-like, but has a pig-like nose. Some of them being Amazing Technicolor Wildlife (the aforementioned guest has yellow fur and black stripes) does not help.
• Chekhov's Gun: Early in the film, Roublard is shown inventing a machine designed to package all of the forest animals into cans for him to sell to hungry humans and predators...guess how both he and Big Boss get their comeuppance in the end?
• Chimney Entry: Like in the original story, Big Boss enters Feeno’s house through the chimney, although the story goes with the Lighter and Softer result of Big Boss preforming a Pain-Powered Leap back the way he came.
• Circling Vultures: Two vultures perch on a tree near the inn and hope the dinner guests let them have some bones to gnaw on after the Dinner Theatre where Wally and Beemo will be the stars of the show.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Rublad is a meat supplier who has next to nothing to eat.
• Color-Coded Characters: Of the three pig brothers:
  • Feeno, the most responsible sibling, wears a blue shirt.
  • Beemo, who likes to play music, wears a green shirt.
  • Wally, who liked to laze around and eat, wears a red shirt.
• Comically Missing the Point: When Felix warns Wally and Beemo that their houses won’t protect them from the wolf, Wally pops his head through the wall of his house to look at him and ask why.
• Cool Bike: Rublad (an orange fox with a green vest) has an orange motorcycle with a green sidecar made to look like a shoe. Aromé later stows away in the side car when he kidnaps Wally & Beemo.
• Covers Always Lie: Some covers show the pigs in a more Disneyesque art style. Additionally, Beemo’s shirt is often mistakenly coloured in as yellow instead of green, and Felix is shown to be grey instead of brown.
• Creepy Crows: A shifty looking crow follows Rublad to Big Boss’ inn while he sings his Villain Song. This is notable as the other forest animals that see Rublad treat him like The Dreaded, and duck out of sight when he walks by.
• Cunning Like a Fox: Rublad the fox is a Gadgeteer Genius, who uses his cunning to get the upper hand in his fight against Big Boss, (with the help of a bit of Rule of Funny thrown in).
• Dating What Daddy Hates: During the opening song on the farm, we see Suzette’s father staring daggers at Felix, but he doesn’t say a word. Later, when Felix tells Wally & Beemo he isn’t going to do their jobs for them, Suzette’s father pulls a Parental Marriage Veto, stating that he doesn’t want his daughter marrying " - a lazy bones who’s afraid of hard work".
• Darker and Edgier: While some parts of the story have been made lighter, one part of the original story the film does not shy away from, is the seriousness of the pigs lives being in real, immediate danger, with some characters going into specific detail about what they want to do with the pigs remains.
  Vulture: "I hope they let us have some bones to gnaw on, eh Alfred?"
• Death Glare: Suzette’s father does this towards Felix in the opening song two times, despite desperately trying to ignore his daughter Dating What Daddy Hates so he can read his newspaper.
• Devoured by the Horde: After waiting over an hour to eat something at the inn, the guests come close to rushing the stage to “help themselves” to Wally & Beemo. Luckily for the pigs, Rublad had other plans
• Dinner Theatre: Big Boss’ plan for the pigs, is to serve them to the guests at his inn, after the two preform a song and dance.
• Distant Finale: Downplayed: After Big Boss is gone, the story skips ahead by anywhere from a few days to maybe a month, and the pigs are seen fixing up The Inn of Gentle Wolf and giving it a new coat of paint, having taken ownership of it. Feeno then invites everyone to the opening night of the newly dubbed Inn of the Singing Pigs, where Wally and Beemo close out the movie by preforming a reprisal of "On the Road to Fame", leading into the end credits.
• The Dog Bites Back: Aromé gets a chance to literally bite Big Boss when helping the other forest animals keep Big Boss busy so Wally and Beemo can get away from him & to Feeno’s house.
• The Dreaded: As Rublad merrily makes his way through the forest singing his Villain Song, every forest animal except a crow cower and hide at the sight of him. We later see he had been catching animals from the forest for his meat supply business, so it’s a pretty reasonable reaction on their part.
• Drool Deluge: Whenever Big Boss thinks about eating Wally & Beemo, he starts salivating heavily, to the point where after having an Imagine Spot of the two on a dinner plate, he almost looks like he has rabies.
• Dub Name Change: Wally was called "Goulu" in the original French version (which means "greedy" in English).

E-W

• Eek, a Mouse!!: Suzette, Felix’s girlfriend, creates an offscreen diversion at the farmhouse so that Felix and the Pigs can sneak away before the butcher and the farmer realizes they are gone, with the latter freaking out at the sight of her.
• Establishing Character Moment: The pigs personalities are first shown to when an alarm clock awakes them from their sleep. Wally and Beemo are groggy and demand Fino shut the damn thing off so they can keep sleeping, showcasing their laziness. Fino on the other hand hops out of bed in a heart beat and starts going morning stretches, showcasing his dedication to work...while Beemo calls "completely crazy" showing his brothers contempt for said passion.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Big Boss, big time, with a deep, gravely voice. It’s not clear though if his voice is like that naturally, or if it’s like that from all those cigars he likes to light up.
• False Teeth Tomfoolery: After managing to cough up a bee, a pair of dentures go flying out of Big Boss’ mouth. He quickly stuffs them back in.
• Flying Postman: The postman who brings Felix and the pigs their mail is a stork.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Wally & Beemo are the foolish siblings, while Feeno is the responsible sibling, although Beemo’s role changes, depending on which of the other two you pair him with:
  • With Wally, Beemo is the responsible sibling while Wally is the foolish sibling.
  • With Feeno, Beemo is the foolish sibling while Fino is the responsible sibling.
• Full-Boar Action: Some of the rowdy dinner guests are boars. Like the others, they aren’t amused after waiting over an hour for food, only to have Big Boss not give them Wally & Beemo, or at the very least a refund.
  Boar Dinner Guest: "So you take us for fools?!"
• Gadgeteer Genius: The canning machine is entirely Rublad’s invention, and is as impressive as it’s function is horrifying, able to can animals whole, without killing them, for easy storage and transportation.
  • According to Rublad’s comments, the machine also functions as an entire factory unto itself, capable of processing animals into individual cuts of meat, as well as more complex meat products like sausages and pies.
• Gluttonous Pig: Wally, the pig who builds his house out of straw and is the laziest of the three brothers, just wants to eat all day, as stated during one of the songs.
  Wally: " - and when I’m so full that I can barely move, I’ll have another bite."
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Big Boss is often seen either lighting up, or chomping on a big cigar when he’s at his inn.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Wally has a pair of tinted glasses that he never uses, wearing them on his head.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Big Boss wears a tie and pants with suspenders but no shirt or shoes, while Rublad only wears an open vest.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: If Rublad had not tried to use his canning machine to finish off Big Boss after gaining the upper hand in their fight, Big Boss wouldn’t have flailed his arms around and hit a lever on the machine, which then promptly cans it’s own creator instead of the wolf.
• Hurt Foot Hop: Felix does this briefly after suffering Agony of the Feet after jumping on the exhaust pipe of a running motorcycle.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Big Boss hates Aromé’s skunk smell, but he’s a heavy smoker, and tobacco isn’t exactly a pleasant smell.
  • The rowdy dinner guests toss one of their own out of the inn for requesting a jar of honey, on the grounds of “- absolutely no sweet things!” despite the fact Big Boss had offered them all lemonade and orange juice seconds earlier.
• It's Cuban: When at his inn, Big Boss likes to smoke big cigars.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Downplayed; during dinner in Feeno’s yet-unfinished brick house, from Feeno’s and Beemo’s perspectives:
  • Beemo points out that while he and Wally didn’t put a lot of effort into their houses, all they use them for is a place to sleep, and that the area they settled in is fairly safe.
  • Feeno points out that Beemo & Wally’s houses won’t stand up well to bad weather (or wolves), and that they should at least reinforce what they’ve built - if, for no other reason, to give Feeno peace of mind. By the next morning, Beemo actually comes around to the idea of reinforcing the houses, and convinces Wally that they should go get materials from the nearby quarry like Feeno suggested.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Feeno is pretty hard on his brothers for their laziness for a lot of the movie, but really does have their best interests at heart and even realizes he probably could have been a bit kinder about it.
• Limited Animation: The animation on the whole is pretty choppy and frequently uses walk cycles.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Some of the unidentifiable predators at the inn aside, some of the animals there are out of place for what seems to be a forest in the French countryside. Two vultures perch outside the inn hoping for scraps, and one of the guests appears to be a blue tiger. Possibly an Invoked Trope, as at least one of the flyers advertising the Dinner Theatre at the inn were delivered via Flying Postman, and it’s not made clear just how far the marketing campaign went.
• The Movie: Is a feature length adaptation of The Three Little Pigs. Invoked with the title of the film.
• Narrator: In some of the releases, the opening credits roll while a female narrator gives some background on the three pigs. One of the VHS releases lacks the narrator and instead plays “On the Road to Fame” from later in the movie over the credits.
• Non-Indicative Name: Big Boss runs "The Inn of the Gentle Wolf". Anyone who knows Big Boss personally, knows it’s a straight-up lie.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Fino pretends to fall for Big Bosses terrible chimney sweep disguise, saying that they'll be glad to hire him after Santa has come and gone. Cue Big Boss returning in an equally pathetic Santa Claus costume, which Fino again pretends to be fooled by and welcomes him to come down his chimney and give them presents..as part of his plan to have Big Boss fall into a pot of boiling water.
• Oh, Crap!: Wally & Beemo have this reaction when they realize the hungry dinner guests aren’t there to enjoy their song and dance.
• Only Six Faces: All three pigs look exactly the same only with different clothes.
• Pain-Powered Leap: After jumping into the pot of soup, Big Boss rockets out of the chimney, and falls through the roof of his inn. He then rockets back out through the roof, (possibly still in pain?), and straight into Rublad’s canning machine.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Big Boss pulls two to get into Fino's brick house. First as a chimney sweep and then as Santa Claus.
• Parental Marriage Veto: Susette’s father initially opposes Felix marrying his daughter, but his wife convinces him otherwise. The whole "saved Susette’s life" thing probably played a part in his sudden reversal.
• Pet the Dog: Bad Boss as he is, Big Boss was the only person willing to give Aromé a job, even though he finds her smell (which is what kept her from being accepted elsewhere) repulsive.
• Predators Are Mean: Are they ever. Big Boss, The Big Bad Wolf, is a Bad Boss, Rublad the fox tricks the pigs into coming with him to the wolf’s inn, not to mention kidnapping a significant portion of the forest’s animal population (including travelers/visitors) for his meat supplying business, and the (primarily) carnivorous dinner guests threaten to beat Big Boss to a pulp if he won’t give them a refund for not providing the food they payed for, and proceed to start a riot, trashing the inn.
• Redhead In Green: Rublad, a red fox, wears a green vest. He even extends the aesthetic to his Cool Bike, with the Motorcycle being orange, and the sidecar, built to look like a shoe, being green.
• Round Hippie Shades: Wally wears a pair, but only on his head.
• Rule of Three:
  • Like in the original tale, there are three little pigs, and the wolf goes to each of their houses to try and get them.
  • In the 1996 English VHS release, "On the Road to Fame" plays once during the opening credits, a second time during Wally & Beemo’s performance at the inn, and a third time at the end, leading into & playing during the end credits.
• Savage Wolves: Besides Big Boss as The Big Bad Wolf of the story, several of the rowdy dinner guests that go to the inn for the Dinner Theatre and later trash the place are wolves.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: A very literal example by the end of the film, as Big Boss and Rublad end up stuffed into their own respective cans, alive, and refuse to let their fight end, and continue attacking each other while stuffed into said cans.
• The Secret of Long Pork Pies: It’s heavily implied that Rublad plans to process several different animals into various meat products, then market and sell them as being made from "pork", although since the main cast consists of various animals, it comes across more like a generic shady business practice. He basically gives away the game when trying to stuff Big Boss into his machine during their fight
  Rublad: "Just wait here my friend, in a few moments, you will be a juicy pork pie!"
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Rublad, the more comical of the two main villains, gets canned before the climax of the film, paving the way for the signature scene from the original tale where the wolf goes to the pigs houses.
• Shout-Out: To the Disney version. When Wally and Beemo think Big Boss has given up, Wally mocks him, saying "Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?" and laughs with Beemo, like their counterparts do in the Silly Symphony short.
• Slasher Smile: The human butcher sports one of these as he makes his way to where the pigs are.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Grizzly the butcher is only interacted with twice throughout the film, but him threatening to leave Rublad for another supplier is what kicks off the main plot.
• Smelly Skunk: Aromé the skunk. Her smell is the reason no one except Big Boss was willing to employ her. Felix being familiar with " - that dreadful smell - " after meeting her is what let’s him and Feeno know that they must be on the right track when looking for Wally & Beemo, after they find the wheel marks from Rublad’s motorcycle, and Beemo’s handkerchief outside the inn sometime after it was trashed by the angry guests.
• Spared by the Adaptation: None of the character deaths from the original story, such as the first two pigs being eaten and the wolf being killed, get adapted.
• Super-Breath: How Big Boss blows away Wally and Beemo’s houses, although when he tries it on Feeno’s house, like the original, he can’t muster up a strong enough breath to take it down. When he tries to give it a second go with a bigger breath, a particularity sadistic bee decides to get itself inhaled and sting him from the inside, causing Big Boss to try getting in some other way.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The marketing campaign to promote the Dinner Theatre being held at the inn, and the drinks bought specifically for the event, as well as the big meals prepared for Wally & Beemo, end up eating into the profits for the event. So Big Boss docks the costs from Rubald’s cut of the profits.
• Tap on the Head: One of the steps the canning machine goes through, is smacking the soon-to-be-canned person/animal on the head with a gloved fist, although the only time we see it in use, it seems to cause a somewhat light concussion/stun rather than a full-on blackout for the victim.
• Tempting Fate: Feeno assures his siblings when they're escaping from the farm to avoid the knife of the butcher that no one will come to eat them in the forest...he's proven quite wrong.
• Too Dumb to Live: While camping in a creepy woods for the night, a scared Wally says they should have stayed on the farm...to which Felix irritatedly points out that he'd be a pork pie by now had he done so.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Fino starts out as a tightass workaholic who puts his little brothers down for their laziness every chance he gets, almost to the point of him being a Big Brother Bully. After they never return from the quarry, he starts to realize how hard he's been on the two and softens up towards them for the remainder of the film.
• Use Your Head: After his Super-Breath fails to take down Feeno’s house, Big Boss tries to brute force his way into the pig’s home, at one point repeatedly smacking his head into the front door. This doesn’t work.
• Vague Age: It’s not clear how old Feeno and Felix are:
  • What Feeno says at some points imply that Wally & Beemo are younger than him, but piglets are typically born at the same time in a litter. Additionally, the human butcher calls them piglets when talking to the farmer, and she doesn’t correct him.
  • Felix seems to be around the same age as them, but ends up engaged to Suzette by the end of the film.
• Vile Vulture: Two vultures eagerly wait outside the Inn of the Gentle Wolf, hoping that the arriving patrons will let them have some bones to gnaw on after the Dinner Theatre is over.
• Villainous Rescue: If Rublad had not kidnapped Wally & Beemo, it’s all but confirmed they would have been Devoured by the Horde.
• Villain Song: Rublad gets his own number, happily singing about all the different, delicious things he could make with “little pigs”, after spying on Wally, Beemo, and Feeno.
• The Voice: Grizzly the butcher never appears onscreen, and is only ever interacted with via landline.
• Wicked Weasel: The weasel is the rabble-rouser of the dinner guests, encouraging his fellow patrons to throw out one of their own for requesting a jar of honey instead of meat, and later reminds everyone of the food they payed for but hadn’t gotten yet.