Jakob Yacker

The short I chose to write my short paper about is “Three Little Pigs” from the Walt Disney “Silly Symphony” series.

I’m drawn to this film because it’s based on a story we all heard as children. Seeing it visualized as a short film allows the characters we grew up hearing about come to life. What surprised me was the casual use of Jewish stereotypes, as it was a product of its time. With everything put together, there is a lot I can talk about regarding “Three Little Pigs”.

Elements to write about:
-Describing the story in detail, how the film was made, the animation technique, the soundtrack

-How successful it was, any clear influences, the original story

-If it holds up today, how it’s offensive, the original vs. revised versions, etc.

Shadow Puppetry and Optical Theatre had some similarities and differences. One similarity between the two styles of early animation is the use of external audio. For shadow puppetry, the puppeteer would speak and play instruments as he worked with the puppets. Optical theatre required a pianist to play music, along with a couple people reading out the dialogue. Both styles were accompanied by instruments and narration/dialogue. A difference between the two is that shadow puppetry was performed live, in the sense that the puppets were being moved in real time. However, optical theatre was already animated beforehand, and only required the projectionist to keep the film rolling.