Customer Reviews

Unstable Fables - 3 Pigs and a Baby

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Presented by the Jim Henson Company, "3 Pigs and a Baby" mixes The Three Little Pigs with Three Men and a Baby. In this first 'Unstable Fable' from the Jim Henson Company, it tells the tale of the three little pigs. See, once upon a time, there were three little pigs. The first little pig built his house out of straw. The second little pig built his house out of sticks. The third little pig built his house out of bricks. One day, a special-ops team of wolves decided that they wanted to take out these three little pigs. So, they sent their most deadly agent...The Big Bad Wolf. The Big Bad Wolf huffed, and he puffed, and he blew down the houses of pigs One and Two. But when he got to the third house, he couldn't blow it down. So, he tries climbing down the chimney. That doesn't really work out. The Big Bad Wolf burns to death (off screen). This forces the special-ops wolf team to come up with an even newer plan. It would be something more inventive and ridiculous. They try to trick the pigs into adopting a baby wolf, who would grow up to eat the pigs. When they say it's an unstable fable, believe me--it is!

I'll be the first to admit, it is amusing little tale in the tradition of Hookwinked but don't expect this to be of the calibur that movies like Shrek, Happily N'ever After or Ice Age are. It simply isn't. Sure, it has it's moments of greatness and amusement but it just doesn't measure up. While it is a good purchase to make for the family, there's something a little off about the film that makes it not achieve greatness like the aforementioned movies did. It may be the character designs, I don't know. I just couldn't seem to get into it. At any rate, don't let my opinion about the film keep you from getting it..it is a good film..just not great!(Get what I mean?)

Brad Garrett, Steve Zahn, Jesse McCartney, and Jon Cryer head up the cast in vocal talent. Special features include: Animation Education, Re-imagining a Classic, and Voices of 3 Pigs and a Baby.

MY GRANDCHILDREN HAD SEEN THIS DVD SEVERAL TIMES, SO I PURCHASED IT FOR THEM SO THEY COULD WATCH IT AT ANY TIME. THEY LOVE IT.Unstable Fables - 3 Pigs and a Baby

I really love computer animated movies and the people portraying the
characters... so i bought this little unknown movie, basically a kid's
movie. The gamble paid off. Its not top notch, but it does tell a good
tale with a twist. One of the highlights of the movie was when the
wolves all break into a song and dance routine ...priceless.

This is a very much like a modern day three pig story, with lots of wit and humor,it was just hillarious watching it. My wife and I bought this animated movie, which we watched over the weekend, and there was laughter all throughout the show. The animation is just perfect and I think its a great movie for the adults and the children. Overall, I think the kids would just love it!!!

We watched this the other night with only adults in the room and there are laughs from beginning to end. It looks great and I'm sure kids will love it too!

Great Movie series. Bought all the different ones I could find. My 5 year old loves to play them on her portable DVD player with headset. :)

My daughter rented this movie from our local video store and fell in love with it. I could not find it anywhere in stores so I checked Amazon and ordered it for her 5th birthday. It was a wonderful surprise for her!

You really have to hand it to the Jim Henson Company for showing incredible adaptability throughout the years. From legendary beginnings in the realm of puppets, it seems only natural for the company to be making use of the current red-hot trend of computer generated animated feature films. While the big boys like Disney/ Pixar and DreamWorks have proven just how incredible this medium can actually be. The Henson Group (wisely) isn't attempting to go toe-to-toe with these juggernauts, but rather entertain audiences of all ages with a direct-to-DVD series they call the Unstable Fables- which essentially spoof classic fairy tales with contemporary references.

Yes this is the formula we've witnessed countless times in the past (Shrek, Hoodwinked, Happily Never After) but the Unstable Fables really capitalizes on the concept by combining just enough of the original fairy tale to retain the names and locations with a whole lot of pop culture.

Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby was the first animated film in the trilogy and reached the DVD market March 4, 2008.

In this new version of "The Three Little Pigs", the three pigs of various housing material fame become the target of a special-ops team of wolves. When huffing and puffing results in all three pigs cowering in the brick home, the wolves are forced to devise a plan to finally infiltrate the impenetrable house of bricks. What results is the idea to leave a tiny wolf cub on the unassuming pigs' doorstep. The pigs take the baby in and raise him as their own.

The cub grows up among an all-pig society naturally and isn't made aware of the wolves and their grand scheme until he's old enough to decide for himself whether he should be loyal to his genetic family or the one that raised him.

Even with the type of low expectations that typically accompany straight-to-DVD releases, this one comes up pretty short. The humor never fully develops to the potential demonstrated and the pacing is just askew enough to make this one feel much longer than its 76-minute runtime.

The Unstable Fables make it a priority to retain enough of the original fairy tale source material to be relevant despite abundant puns, pop culture references, and heavy-handed moral lessons.

Make no mistake, there are a few cute moments and bright visuals will surely hold the interest of the kiddies (for which this film was probably written). Perhaps my criticisms are overly harsh in taking that fact into consideration but the trouble with this one is that DreamWorks and Pixar have shown us just how well the formula can work. As such the dry dialog, mediocre animation, and unclear target age group all come off as a bit more glaring than they would otherwise.

Many of the pop culture reference attempts here must certainly have been included to provide a little comic relief for the adults stuck watching this with the younglings, as surely many of the references will be lost on them.

In all, I found this one a slight improvement over the franchise's take on Goldilocks and the 3-Bears but it is still a full tier below the better entries of the big animated studio houses. There's potential here and some genuine creativity sprinkled about but the overall delivery of all of the pieces comes off as an entirely mediocre effort.

My grandson loved this movie when I rented it for him, so I decided to buy him a copy.

I work for a school system as a techie and love bringing DVDs to an elementary school so kids can watch them. I especially love bringing a DVD that I think they've never seen. This is my first Jim Henson "Unstable Fables" DVD that I have watched. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. The animation is great and the story is funny and very unique. I think I'll purchase Unstable Fables "The Tortoise and The Hare" some time this year since I enjoyed this movie. I think kids will rate this 5 out of 5 stars.