Prod. US34 - Three Little Wolves

I thought it nice to end the year with a bang, albeit a little one. Originally prod. S32, the number of Three Little Wolves was changed to US34 to let Broken Toys have a Christmas release. If you find S32 here, it was what was on the bar sheet and the draft.

Directed by Dave Hand, assistant director Jack Cutting, story by Bill Cottrell, Joe Grant and Bob Kuwahara (Feb. 1934-May 1935 - Outline 4/10/1934). Music by Frank Churchill. Layout by Ferdinand Huszti Horvath, backgrounds by Mique Nelson and animation by Norm Ferguson, Fred Moore, Eric Larson and Bill Roberts.
It premiered in front of Chaplin's Modern Times at the Dallas Majestic, 4/18/1936, and can now be found on Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies (2001). It was the first Disney picture held over for a second program at Radio City Music Hall. (Thank you, Russell Merrit and J B Kaufman!)

Three Little Wolves is timed in a classical "start slow, speed up, fast climax, slower ending" pacing, as you can see by this timeline:

I really hope this stuff is studied, as I feel it is just as important to know how this works now, as it was when the films were made...

Check the timing on this annotated film:
 

Again, for good measure, the draft, from 1/13/1936.
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Well, I'm 45 today. To everyone a Happy New Year, from myself, and from everyone at A. Film in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Germany!

[Addition 03/31/2015: I removed it from YouTube because they find it infringes the song "R3tric-Black Is Night", sound recording administered by: Believe Music. Go figure. YouTube should fix their automatic recognizer instead of threatening strikes.]

Comments

  1. ThadDecember 31, 2006 at 11:56 AM

    Thanks for sharing the meat and bones of this one, Hans! This is one of the very best and most underrated Disney cartoons.

    I was told Grim Natwick did animation on this film, but I guess they were wrong.

    Oh and happy birthday!

    THAD

    ReplyDelete
  2. FantasiaManDecember 31, 2006 at 6:59 PM

    Happy Birthday & a Happy New Year to you, Hans!

    This is one of my favorite Silly Symphonies!

    I can tell Eric Larson was probably still an assistant at the time, because he usually did all the debris animation for Fred Moore & Ham Luske.

    I like Bill Roberts' animation. He always was given the zany action scenes, particularly ones with Goofy.

    Fred Moore's animation is so great, the greatest compliment couldn't possibly give it justice! Fred always seems to get the best scenes in any picture he's assigned to. He can make the simplest movement so appealing & beautiful that it's beyond extraordinary.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hans PerkJanuary 1, 2007 at 11:20 AM

    Thanks, Thad and fantasiaman! Let's hope that the new year brings new revelations!

    --Hans

    ReplyDelete
  4. David NJanuary 4, 2007 at 10:21 PM

    "Well, I'm 45 today. To everyone a Happy New Year, from myself, and from everyone at A. Film in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Germany!"

    I'm behind in my blog reading , but now I'm catching up , so belated Happy Birthday wishes and Happy New Year !

    You and I share a birthday , Hans, though not the same year (close). I'm Dec. 31, 1962.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hans PerkJanuary 5, 2007 at 12:57 AM

    In that case a belated Happy Birthday to you, too, David!

    ReplyDelete
  6. SparkyMK3August 3, 2011 at 12:39 PM

    AUGH! That metronome could drive someone bonkers with they listened to it long enough!

    That said, thats very nice of you to give a shorthand for what a 12X beat is, which the bulk of the film runs on, with a very brief use of 14x beat, and 8x beat. I'll have to take notes of this!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2013 at 3:57 AM

    Hi there! I'm currently writing my doctoral thesis on animation and am talking about the anti-German elements in this cartoon. I was just wondering where you got your information on the production background for this short. Getting specific information on the production timescales for Disney shorts is notoriously difficult!! Many thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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