“The bad boy of the fairy tales: The boy who cried wolf.”
Supervision by I. Freleng; Animation by Richard Bickenback; Story by Michael Maltese; Musical Direction by Carl W. Stalling. Released in 1942
Disney had already parodied Fairy tales with “Mother Goose in Hollywood.”, so why wouldn’t W.B. give it a shot?
This short consists of nothing but gags, so I hope you weren’t expecting any story. We begin with Sleeping Beauty (which isn’t a fable by the way) the prince shakes her awake. Tom Thumb has grown huge thanks to taking Vitamin B-1. The grasshopper and the ant is next. (which is a fable by the way) The ant tells the grasshopper that he’ll starve since he didn’t work, (The ant meanwhile will probably work itself to death) but the grasshopper has bought war bonds. Then a boy cries wolf and laughs at the poor schmuck who tries to save him. Jack runs from a two headed giant, who nearly captures him but has to take a breather because his other head has been sick. A wolf disguises himself with a sheepskin but only finds another disguised wolf, and Aladdin (who really isn’t a fairy tale) calls for his genie but finds him on strike. The boy is still crying wolf and the narrator tells him to give it a rest. The boy won’t listen. A goose is said to lay golden eggs, but now lays aluminum eggs for the war effort. (And is obviously Daffy. Listen to that voice and tell me it’s not Daffy.) Mother Hubbard goes to get her dog a bone, but finds it bare. The dog finds her hidden stash and lets the whole town know she is a hoarder. Then we are treated to “This little piggy.” (which isn’t even a story!) A thick accented mother plays the game with her infant. (And you know how I point out very tiny errors? Well, this one is barely unnoticeable. One of the baby’s leg’s disappears! How’d anyone miss that?) Oh yeah, the joke is that the mom accidentally hurts the baby by touching his corn. (Sorry, but I’m not forgetting that leg.) We are about to hear a variation on Cinderella, when the boy starts calling wolf again. The man comes to see (you’d think he would have given up after try #2) but is too late and only finds a wolf picking his teeth and laughing like the boy.
Personal Rating: 3