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Blitz Wolf (1942) (animation short)
In Tex Avery's debut short film (almost ten minutes
in length) at MGM, a propagandistic version of Disney's Three
Little Pigs (1933) - with the character of a wolfish Adolf Hitler:
- the modified MGM logo, with the trademark lion Tanner's
roaring in four short bursts, to the tune of "Hold That Tiger"
- the cartoon's Foreword: "The Wolf in this photoplay
is NOT fictitious. Any similarity between this Wolf and that (*!!*--%)
jerk Hitler is purely intentional!"; P.S. The auto tires used
in this photoplay are fictitious." AND WE AIN'T KIDDIN' BROTHER!
- the traditional story of the three pigs preparing
for an invasion of Pigmania by the Wolf: one built his house of straw,
one of sticks, and the third (built by Sergeant Pork, a nod to Sergeant
York (1941)) resembled a bunker with cannons and armaments
- the two naive pigs taunted their ditch-digging pal,
with a 'fill-in-the-blanks' pause and freeze-frame during the song:
("You're in the Army now, You're not behind a plow, You're diggin'
a ditch, ................... (a bitch!), You're in the Army now");
they had signed a worthless Non-Aggression Pact with the Wolf
- the salivating Wolf's arrival in an armored tank limousine,
labeled: DER FEWER (DER BETTER), who held up a sign to the audience,
breaking the fourth wall: "GO ON AND HISS! WHO CARES" -
and was pelted with tomatoes; and his sneaky, tip-toeing and goose-stepping
salute and approach to the homes of the three pigs
- the Wolf's huffing and puffing at the first pig's
house, talking in garbled German (with slightly inaccurate subtitles): "Open
up the door, Schnitzel!! Or I'll huff - And I'll puff - And I'll
blow your house in!" - and the Wolf blew it down with a DER
MECHANIZED HUFFER UND PUFFER
- the many silly gags, such as the first house of straw
blown down, with two signs: "GONE WITH THE WIND" and "Corny
Gag Isn't It?", or the hot-foot incendiary bomb, and the labels
on the B-bombers, or the listening device with human ears attached
- the slightly objectionable use of labels for the enemy:
NO JAPS ALLOWED, and the prophetic destruction of the island of Japan
(and Tokyo) with a massive bomb, followed by a sign popping out of
the water: "DOOLITTLE DOOD IT!"
- the sexual innuendo in the joke about rejuvenating
a flaccid cannon barrel with a dose of Vitamin B-1, and the repulsion
and deactivation of incoming shells with a copy of ESQUIRE Magazine
(with a pin-up on the cover)
- the conclusion when a bomb drove the Wolf deep into
the hot center of the Earth, and he rhetorically asked: "Where
am I? Have I been blown to (Hell)?" and a group of red devils
with pitchforks answered in unison: "Umm-ya, it's a possibility!"
(a catchphrase of the time, attributed to comedian Jerry Colonna)
- the end credits added two signs: "THE END of
ADOLF" and "If You'll Buy a Stamp or Bond - We'll Skin
That Skunk Across the Pond!"
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The Three Pigs - Preparing for Wolf's Invasion
Wolf (as Hitler) in a Tank Ready to Attack Pigs' Homes
At the First Pig's House
At the Third Pig's House
The Bombing of Japan
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