Blitz Wolf

Blitz Wolf is a 1942 American animated propaganda short film produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A parody of the Three Little Pigs told via a World War II perspective, the short was directed by Tex Avery (in his first cartoon for MGM) and produced by Fred Quimby.[2] It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons but lost to Der Fuehrer's Face, another anti-Nazi World War II parody featuring Donald Duck.[3]
== Plot[edit] ==
The plot is a parody of the Three Little Pigs, told from a Second World War anti-German propaganda perspective. In this cartoon, the danger is from Adolf Wolf (Adolf Hitler), who is set on invading the pig's nation of Pigmania. The pig who built his house of stone, "Sergeant Pork" (an homage to Sergeant York), take his precautions and outfits his house with defense machinery, but the two pigs who built their houses of straw and sticks claim they don't have to take precautions against the wolf because they signed a non-aggression pact with him.
Adolf Wolf invades Pigmania, despite the two pigs protesting that he signed a treaty with them. He destroys their houses, the straw house with "Der Mechanized Huffer Und Puffer" and the stick house with an artillery shell, forcing the pigs to take shelter in the third pig's house, prompting a battle between the two parties. Towards the end of the cartoon, Adolf Wolf is blown out of his bomber plane by the pigs' artillery shells, fired from their multi-barreled "secret weapon" and filled with Defense bonds, and plummets down to Earth followed by a bomb from his own plane, which promptly blows him to Hell upon impact. There he realizes he is dead and says: "Where am I? Have I been blown to... ?", whereupon a group of devils adds: "Ehhhh, it's a possibility!", in reference to a then well-known catchphrase by Artie Auerbach on the Al Pearce radio show.[4]
== Voice cast[edit] ==
* Bill Thompson as Adolf Wolf (uncredited)
* Pinto Colvig as Sgt. Pork (uncredited)
* Frank Graham as narrator (uncredited)
* Sara Berner as pigs (uncredited)
* Kent Rogers as devils (uncredited)[4]
== Cultural references[edit] ==
* This is Tex Avery's first cartoon at MGM, and also the first film at MGM for animator Ed Love. Love had arrived at MGM with Kenneth Muse just after the 1941 Disney animators' strike.
* The MGM lion, Tanner, roars to the tune of "Hold That Tiger", with 5 quick and short roars. Same background music of "Hold That Tiger" occurs in Rudolf Ising's Chips Off the Old Block (1942) start. 21 days (3 weeks) differ among their dates. This film, Tex Avery's Blitz Wolf (1942) was first, Saturday, August 22, 1942, and Rudolf Ising's Chips Off the Old Block (1942), was second on Saturday, September 12, 1942. Adolf Wolf, the antagonist of the cartoon, would serve as inspiration for Tex Avery's unnamed wolf, who would appear in other cartoons such as Red Hot Riding Hood and Northwest Hounded Police.
* Tex Avery would once again parody the story of the Three Little Pigs in One Ham's Family and The Three Little Pups.
Category:1942 cartoons
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoons
Category:Adolf Wolf Cartoons
Category:Cartoons directed by Tex Avery