Tales from the Crypt: The Third Pig tells the strange story of three Pig brother's named Dudley, Smokey & Drinky. An evil killer Wolf wants to eat the three Pigs but due to their stupidity manages to kill & eat only Smokey & Drinky. Their brother Dudley is accused of the killings & is sentenced to death but with help form the ghost's of his dead brother's manages to escape & plot revenge on the big bad Wolf...
Episode 13 from season 7 The Third Pig was the final ever episode of the generally excellent Tales from the Crypt telly series which ran for 93 episode between 1989 & 1996, this one was directed by Bill Kopp & Patrick Ventura & is a totally unique episode in the series. For a start the thing that really jumps out is that it is an entirely animated episode & not live action save for the opening & closing Cryptkeeper sequences. The second thing of note is that The Third Pig is the only episode in the entire seven seasons not to be based on a story from one of the E.C. horror comic books although the 'Tales from the Crypt' comic book is still credited. With that in mind I don't quite know how to rate The Third Pig or what to make of it, it's basically a mental version of The Three Little Pigs with a bit of Frankenstein thrown in there for good measure. On a really dumb juvenile sort of level The Third Pig entertains but there's no real story here, the parodies of nursery rhymes & Frankenstein don't really come off & the violence is incredibly slapstick & silly. The script seems only intent on taking traditionally child friendly looking cartoon character's & making them behave badly like killing, smoking, drinking, being sick & lusting after women & generally against expectation for a cute looking cartoon character. At only twenty fives minutes in length at least it's short & it is sort of amusing in a strange oddball sort of way but I doubt I would ever want to watch it again & I really have no idea what the production team were thinking.
The story, if you can call it that, is told largely in rhyme with the Cryptkeeper narrating it to fill in some of the exposition. There's some violence & over-the-top gore towards some of the character's but since it's animated in such a one dimensional way it's hard to take seriously. The character design is silly & stupid & the entire episode is played for laughs, the animation looks cheap, the backgrounds are basic & static although the deliberately childish & simplistic look might have been intentional I think it looks pretty poor when compared to say Japanese Animee like Urotsukidôji I: Legend of the Overfiend (1989) or the Ninja Scroll (1993) film. The opening & closing Cryptkeeper sequences sees him looking for new writing staff which is probably an acknowledgement that the production team had used up off the available stories from the comics.
The Third Pig is a bizarre way to spend twenty five minutes & in a oddball sort of way quite fun & entertaining but I don't think I would ever want to see it again & as the last ever Tales from the Crypt episode one has to say it's a bit of a disappointment. While The Third Pig was the final Tales from the Crypt telly episode two films were made Demon Knight (1995) & Bordello of Blood (1996).
Episode 13 from season 7 The Third Pig was the final ever episode of the generally excellent Tales from the Crypt telly series which ran for 93 episode between 1989 & 1996, this one was directed by Bill Kopp & Patrick Ventura & is a totally unique episode in the series. For a start the thing that really jumps out is that it is an entirely animated episode & not live action save for the opening & closing Cryptkeeper sequences. The second thing of note is that The Third Pig is the only episode in the entire seven seasons not to be based on a story from one of the E.C. horror comic books although the 'Tales from the Crypt' comic book is still credited. With that in mind I don't quite know how to rate The Third Pig or what to make of it, it's basically a mental version of The Three Little Pigs with a bit of Frankenstein thrown in there for good measure. On a really dumb juvenile sort of level The Third Pig entertains but there's no real story here, the parodies of nursery rhymes & Frankenstein don't really come off & the violence is incredibly slapstick & silly. The script seems only intent on taking traditionally child friendly looking cartoon character's & making them behave badly like killing, smoking, drinking, being sick & lusting after women & generally against expectation for a cute looking cartoon character. At only twenty fives minutes in length at least it's short & it is sort of amusing in a strange oddball sort of way but I doubt I would ever want to watch it again & I really have no idea what the production team were thinking.
The story, if you can call it that, is told largely in rhyme with the Cryptkeeper narrating it to fill in some of the exposition. There's some violence & over-the-top gore towards some of the character's but since it's animated in such a one dimensional way it's hard to take seriously. The character design is silly & stupid & the entire episode is played for laughs, the animation looks cheap, the backgrounds are basic & static although the deliberately childish & simplistic look might have been intentional I think it looks pretty poor when compared to say Japanese Animee like Urotsukidôji I: Legend of the Overfiend (1989) or the Ninja Scroll (1993) film. The opening & closing Cryptkeeper sequences sees him looking for new writing staff which is probably an acknowledgement that the production team had used up off the available stories from the comics.
The Third Pig is a bizarre way to spend twenty five minutes & in a oddball sort of way quite fun & entertaining but I don't think I would ever want to see it again & as the last ever Tales from the Crypt episode one has to say it's a bit of a disappointment. While The Third Pig was the final Tales from the Crypt telly episode two films were made Demon Knight (1995) & Bordello of Blood (1996).
