Cultural References To Pigs - Pigs in The World of Children

Pigs in The World of Children

The most famous children's tale concerning pigs is that of the Three Little Pigs, which has appeared in many different versions since its first publication in the 1840s. The story was made adapted for an award-winning 1933 Disney film, entitled Three Little Pigs; Disney also featured Three Little Pigs characters in Silly Symphonies. The characters of the tale also appear as supporting characters in the popular Shrek film series. Many versions of the story have appeared in book form. David Wiesner's The Three Pigs won the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 2002. Roald Dahl included a version in his book of poetry for children, Revolting Rhymes. The tale is parodied in The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (1989), by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.

A popular English nursery rhyme and fingerplay, "This Little Piggy", originated in the eighteenth century and has been used frequently in film and literature. Several Warner Brothers cartoons, such as A Tale of Two Kitties (1942) and A Hare Grows In Manhattan (1947), use the rhyme to comic effect.

Several animated cartoon series have included pigs as prominent characters. One of the earliest pigs in cartoon was the character "Piggy", who appeared in four Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies shorts between 1931 and 1937, most notably Pigs Is Pigs. Piggy's character was rooted in the synonymy of pigs with gluttony. Warner Brothers later developed the character Porky Pig, who shared some of Piggy's character traits. Porky Pig was a prominent character in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, as well as making brief appearances in the films Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). The success of this character led to Warner Brothers creating another pig character, that of Hamton J. Pig, who first appeared in the series Tiny Toon Adventures in 1990 as a student of Porky Pig. Petunia Pig infrequently appeared in cartoons as Porky Pig's girlfriend. Two popular UK animated series with pigs as the main characters are Peppa Pig, which has been on television since 2004, and Pinky and Perky, who first appeared in the 1950s and were revived in 2008 in CGI form. Pigs also appear in Camp Lazlo and Iggy Arbuckle.

Miss Piggy is an anthropomorphized, fictional character from The Muppet Show television series, as are Captain Link Hogthrob and Dr. Julius Strangepork.

A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories and the Disney films based on them contain the supporting character, Piglet.

In the children's book Charlotte's Web, and the films based on it, the central character Wilbur is a pig who formed a relationship with a barn spider called Charlotte.

Babe and its sequel are films about a pig who wants to be a Herding dog, based on the character in the novel by Dick King-Smith. The original Babe film was released in the same year as the less successful film Gordy, which also featured a pig as its main character.

In Hong Kong, two popular children's pig characters are McMug and McDull, created by Alice Mak. Both have appeared in numerous comic books, and McDull has starred in three films: My Life as McDull (2001), McDull, Prince de la Bun (2004) and McDull, the Alumni (2006).

• Homer Simpson calls the pig a "wonderful, magical animal" in The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Vegetarian", unaware that bacon, ham and pork chops are all from the same animal. And in The Simpsons Movie, Homer Simpson adopts a pig and calls it "Spider-Pig". In an episode made after the movie, the couch gag shows Homer referring to Spider-Pig as his "summer love".