Capital, Crisis, and the Rise of Disney Fantasy

Abstract

Though other dates might be argued for, Disney’s “The Three Little Pigs” from 1933 marks a turning point for Disney animation, away from the short cartoons animators filled with gags, and towards a cartoon that would tell a story complete with a rudimentary plot, and characters both good and evil. Four years before the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but some five years after Mickey Mouse’s first appearance on screen in “Steamboat Willie” (1928), Disney released “The Three Little Pigs.” Competitors, however, were not far behind. “The Three Little Pigs” marks an evolutionary moment in the history of Disney fantasy because of its attempt to tell a story with characters and a coherent plot. Though “Pigs” is rich with cartoon gags, narrative and storytelling represent the primary organizing principle of the cartoon. Long gone are the figures of rubber hose animation, or even the stark and simple figures from “Steamboat Willie.” In “The Three Little Pigs,” storytelling became the most important development in Disney animation, for Walt Disney began to understand the nature of his own desire—he wanted to reach his audience via humor and gags, yes, when appropriate, but more than that, he wanted to partake of the tradition of the fairy tale, the folk tale, and engage in a cartoon discourse that would offer a way for the audience to address—though comically—the “great truths of life.”