LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

TheLittleSongbird And do it in a way that not only is a great way of introducing younger audiences to classical music, but be very well-made and hugely entertaining in its own right.One thing that stands out about 'Pigs in a Polka' is how beautifully animated it is. It's all vibrantly coloured, all the characters are well drawn and the backgrounds have so much smoothness and detail as well as being rich in colour. The animation also matches the music wonderfully, making for some inspired visuals and beautifully timed and often hilarious visual gags, the best moments coming from the wolf.'Pigs in a Polka' makes prominent use of Brahms' "Hungarian Dances". Not everybody is a fan of Brahms, this reviewer loves a lot of his music and feels that the "Hungarian Dances" is not only great music and arranged beautifully and cleverly but also used to outstanding effect, not just excelling in fitting with the gags but enhancing their impact.The gags, almost all the funny moments are visual, are hilarious and help make the cartoon such rewarding viewing. Every sequence is choreographed and timed with few misfires, and synchronise with the music so well. The story adheres nicely to the original story with its own spin, especially with the wolf, and avoids being rushed, too stretched, too thin or dull.All four characters carry 'Pigs in a Polka' more than solidly with their actions and interactions also playing a huge part in the entertainment value, Disney's "Three Little Pigs" Silly Symphony shorts have slightly more memorable versions and the three pigs are more individualised in them. However the pigs are quite cute and amusing, without being annoying, but the wolf whose personality is more interesting and his material makes more impact is the best of the bunch. The voice acting is dependably top-notch, Mel Blanc is great as the wolf though he has had more to do elsewhere.It is agreed that 'Pigs in a Polka' while never dull properly comes to life when the wolf appears and gets even better with him. The very end is a touch abrupt, though with great animation and use of music.Overall, a winner of a cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . for PIGS IN A POLKA doesn't seem to be trained in Warnology, let's examine this WWII Era animated short from that perspective. When this cartoon was produced, America's Number One ally against Hitler--Russia--was at the top of nearly every U.S. church's Weekly Prayer List. But Warner, often looking forward 50 or 75 years ahead of its time, smelled a Russian Rat, and its name was Vladimir "Mad Dog" Putin. During the 1940s and 1950s Warner produced at least a dozen feature and short projects warning us of Putin's advent, and PIGS IN A POLKA falls into that category. The Big Bad Wolf character here, of course, represents Putin, with its incessant Russian Kick Dancing. The endangered pigs symbolize the World's Winter Olympic Athletes being lured to Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 Olympiad. Since Putin's Homophobia became the predominant theme of the build-up to these Games, Warner suggests that the bare-butt cross-dressing Little Pigs #1 and #2 are Gay. The only Oinker wearing bottoms, Little Pig #3, tries to convince his two fellow athletes to boycott Big Bad Wolf\Mad Dog's Fun & Games. But America ignored Warner's warning, like it usually does, leaving Putin free to dope up the Russian Olympians for the next couple Olympic Games (though they're banned from this week's World Indoor Track & Field Championships), and bomb most of the Doctors Without Borders Hospitals in Syria, to boot.

MartinHafer This is a decent Looney Tunes cartoon that somehow managed to be nominated for an Oscar. While this made little sense, there was some justice in life as the wonderful DER FUEHRER'S FACE from Disney took the actual award.I think part of the reason I am less than thrilled with this cartoon is that I couldn't help think of two main problems. One, the 1933 Disney version of the Three Pigs was a much, much better tale--with better laughs and much better animation. The story here in PIGS IN A POLKA just seemed like a copy. Two, while this is a pleasant cartoon, compared to the other toons being made by Warner Brothers at the time, this is pretty limp. I'd much rather have seen Daffy Duck or the Studio's latest creation, Bugs Bunny, instead of seeing these pigs dancing to Brahms' "Hungarian Dances".Overall, good but far from great. If you are looking for it yourself, I suggest you buy the Looney Tunes Golden Collection and avoid the version I saw. I saw it on a DVD entitled "Cartoon Crazys: And The Envelope Please". This is a rather poor compilation of supposedly award winning and nominated films. Poor because several of the films are very lame and are NOT award nominated, the prints are rather bad and parts of some of the cartoons are missing! In the case of PIGS IN A POLKA and THE DOVER BOYS cartoons, the entire opening and closing is missing--and you'd never know they were Looney Tunes cartoons! While these cartoons both have lapsed into the public domain, clipping the cartoons like this and not acknowledging the people who made this is just plain sleazy.

Robert Reynolds When Disney did the first The Three Little Pigs, I wonder if he knew he was starting a cottage industry at the very least and The Animators Lifetime Employment Act at most. I suspect more different animators have taken a turn at the Pigs than any other characters in the history of animation. There have been military takes (Blitz Wolf), Pigs as con artists (a meeting with Bugs Bunny) and musical takes, like this one. This is one of the better uses of classical music tied to animation (the best short to do so is Rhapsody in Rivets), with the action on screen fitted to the corresponding musical scoring. This was nominated for an Oscar and periodically plays on Cartoon Network. Recommended.