Big Bad Wolf
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The Big Bad Wolf (sometimes called the Big Ol' Wolf) is a fictional character who first appeared in the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood, folk tales that can be traced to the literary salons of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Origins
The origin of the Big Bad Wolf lies in European folk tales and mythologies based on the deep ambiguity of human attitudes to the wolf. Wolves are usually afraid of human beings and prefer to keep to themselves, but in ancient Europe small settlements were allegedly sometimes attacked by starving or rabid wolves. The lone wolf attacking a flock of sheep or goats is a rarity, but a wolf faced with a penned flock that cannot flee will kill indiscriminately. Attacks on humans have always been extremely rare, and are usually associated with self-defense or defense of the pack's young, or less often with disease or starvation. However, the rarity of these attacks, during a period of European history in which most people lived on the verge of starvation or destitution, rendered them all the more stark.Conversely, humans have often observed the complex social lives of wolves. Known to pair bond for life, to be protective parents, and to engage in playful behaviour with other animals — especially carrion birds such as crows and ravens, wolves have also been the objects of a level of respect. There is ample anecdotal evidence of wolves occasionally fostering small children abandoned in rural areas (there is an especially large body of such tales from India). "Wolf Children" featured in folk tales, as did werewolves, creatures who perfectly embodied the human attraction to and fear of the wolf.
European mythology is replete with lupine imagery: in Norse mythology the god Odin possesses two wolves, Geri and Freki; the god Loki has a wolf son, Fenrisulfr, who bites off the hand of the god Tyr, and who will eventually devour Odin at Ragnarok; Romulus and Remus, mythological founders of Rome, were brought up by a she-wolf, and are usually portrayed as infants suckling on their foster mother; Aesop's Fables often centred on wolves, with The Boy Who Cried Wolf being the best known; the Greek goddess Hekate, who was associated with death and magic, is often represented as wearing three wolves' heads and/or accompanied by three dogs; the Greek king Lycaon was turned into a wolf by Zeus, and it is from his name that we get the term lycanthropy (the ability to turn into or take on the characteristics of a wolf). Interestingly, wolves appear to have been widely venerated and respected by Native American peoples, who were horrified by the European settlers' systematic attempts to exterminate the animal.
The Bad Wolf in fiction
Disney's Big Bad Wolf (Zeke Wolf)
The Big Bad Wolf with his wish-to-be dinner.
The character's best known incarnation is the villain of Walt Disney's animation Three Little Pigs, directed by Burton Gillett and first released on May 27, 1933. The Wolf's voice was provided by Billy Bletcher. As in the folktale, he was a cunning and threatening menace. But this version had also a taste for disguising himself; the audience could easily see through his disguises but they were convincing enough for the Pigs. The short also introduced the Wolf's theme song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf ?", written by Frank Churchill.
The short was so popular that Walt Disney produced several sequels, which also featured the Wolf as the villain. The first of them was named after him: The Big Bad Wolf, also directed by Burton Gillett and first released on April 14, 1934.
The Wolf next appeared in Mickey's Polo Team, directed by David Dodd Hand and first released on January 4, 1936. The short featured a game of Polo between four of Disney's animated characters (one of whom was the Wolf) and four animated caricatures of noted film actors.
He also appears in Lil Bad Wolf comic book stories as Lil Bad Wolf's father, here called Zeke Wolf, who wants his son to be as mean as he is, but Lil Bad Wolf does not live up to his father's expectations.
More recently he as recurringly appeared in Disney's House of Mouse, and is voiced by Jim Cummings.
Shrek's Big Bad Wolf
The popular computer-animated Shrek films of 2001 and 2004 reversed many conventional roles found in fairy tales, including depicting the Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood as a friendly misunderstood crossdresser (apparently still wearing her grandmother's clothes) and on good terms with the three little pigs. This depiction, along with a seemingly transgendered bartender (who the crew deny on the DVD commentary as having any sort of gender confusion) and Pinocchio's expansive nose in Shrek 2, raised the ire of some conservative groups who objected to the film's sexual content. However, these concerns were widely ridiculed in the media.In the fighting game Shrek SuperSlam, released 2005, Big Bad Wolf is a playable caracter and appears as "Huff n Puff Wolf".
Other Bad Wolves
An uncomfortable deconstruction of the "big bad wolf" archetype occurs in Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett. In this novel, a rogue fairy godmother, intent on making stories come true, has magically molded a little girl's life to follow the plot of Red Riding Hood. As part of the tableau, a wolf is reconditioned to act as humans perceive it, its mind clouded with human motivations to murder and destroy. Upon being found by the novel's heroines, a trio of good witches, the wolf begs for release from its madness, whereupon it is mercifully killed.
The Big Bad Wolf has become a regularly recurring puppet character on Sesame Street, appearing usually in purple fur (although he originally had blue shaggy fur.) He is generally puppeteered by Jerry Nelson (and Kevin Clash occasionally in the 80s).
Several versions of the Big Bad Wolf have appeared in Warner Bros. Entertainment's Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, particularly those of director Isadore "Friz" Freleng. In 2 Bugs Bunny cartoons directed by Robert McKimson (the second of which, False Hare which was released in 1964, was the last cartoon of American Animation's Golden Age to feature Bugs Bunny), the Big Bad Wolf had a cheerful nephew.
In the animated series Drak Pack, Howler, the werewolf, has super-breath powers, apparently derived from the Big Bad Wolf's "huffing and puffing" to blow the pigs' houses down.
The comic book series Fables by Bill Willingham features a reformed Big Bad Wolf as its protagonist. He appears to have become a kind of werewolf, staying mostly in human form, and goes by the name Bigby Wolf. He has a resemblance to Clint Eastwood, both in appearance and personality.
Kiefer Sutherland played a (human) character representing the Big Bad Wolf in the 1996 movie Freeway.
The 2005 series of Doctor Who on the BBC contains many references to "Bad Wolf", and this is carried through in the websites the BBC has set up to accompany the series. The various references in the television series have been listed at the BBC's [Bad Wolf website].
In the theme park Busch Gardens Europe, there is a suspended coaster named the Big Bad Wolf.
Recently in the promos for the new M. Night movie Lady in the Water a girl sings "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?"
External links
- Internet Movie Database's [profile of William Bletcher], his voice actor
- [Zeke Wolf's HooZoo Profile]
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