Piggy is the name of two

animated cartoon Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

s in the ''

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...

'' series of films distributed by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

The first character was a fat, black

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

wearing a pair of shorts with two large buttons in the front, and his first film was ''

You Don't Know What You're Doin'! ''You Don't Know What You're Doin'!'' is a 1931 Warner Bros. '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoon short directed by Rudolf Ising. The short was released on October 21, 1931, and stars Piggy, one of the series' early recurring characters. First released ...

'' Piggy's name came from one of two brothers who were childhood classmates of Freleng's, nicknamed "Porky" and "Piggy".

Merrie Melodies

Animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

Rudolf Ising Rudolf Carl Ising (August 7, 1903 – July 18, 1992) was an American animator best known for collaborating with Hugh Harman to establish the Warner Bros. and MGM Cartoon studios during the early years of the golden age of American animation. In ...

introduced Piggy to replace his previous character, Foxy, as the star of the ''Merrie Melodies'' series Ising was directing for producer

Leon Schlesinger Leon Schlesinger (May 20, 1884 – December 25, 1949) was an American film producer who founded Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the Golden Age of American animation. He was a distant r ...

. Nonetheless, Ising had only made two Piggy shorts in 1931 before he left Warner Bros. with partner

Hugh Harman Hugh Harman (August 31, 1903 – November 25, 1982) was an American animator. He was known for creating the Warner Bros. Cartoons and MGM Cartoons and his collaboration with Rudolf Ising during the golden age of American animation. Career He ...

. The animators who took over the ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoons dropped the Piggy character (as well as his girlfriend Fluffy) and turned the series into a string of one-shots. Piggy's coloration and dress were identical to those of the

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

character

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

before the advent of color film. John Kenworthy argues that, considering the fact that some sketches of mice that Hugh Harman had drawn in 1925 were the inspiration for the creation of Mickey Mouse, Harman and Ising never intended to copy Disney. Despite their clichéd lead character, Ising's two Piggy shorts are well received by some critics. In the first, ''You Don't Know What You're Doin'!'', Piggy visits a surreal nightclub where he heckles and plays with the club's jazz band. Cartoon historians

Jerry Beck Jerry Beck (born February 9, 1955, in New York City) is an American animation historian, author, blogger, and video producer. Beck wrote or edited several books on classic American animation and classic characters, including ''The 50 Greatest C ...

and

Will Friedwald Will Friedwald (born September 16, 1961) is an American author and music critic. He has written for newspapers that include the ''Wall Street Journal'', ''New York Times'', ''Village Voice'', ''Newsday'', ''New York Observer'', and ''New York Su ...

call this "the definitive Harman-Ising Warner film: the characters are cute, the humor is gross, the visuals are uninhibited, and the music is red hot." This was followed by '' Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land'', also in 1931. Here, Piggy plays a steamboat captain who must rescue a drowning

Uncle Tom Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''. The character was seen by many readers as a ground-breaking humanistic portrayal of a slave, one who uses nonresistance and gives his life to protect ...

. Due to its stereotypical portrayal of the Uncle Tom character, the cartoon is included among the so-called " Censored 11", ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' shorts that are withheld from circulation due to their heavy use of ethnic

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

s. Piggy never starred in another cartoon, although he continued to appear at the end of every short up to 1932's ''You're Too Careless with Your Kisses!'' In 1936,

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' ...

created another character named Piggy. This character was given lighter, more

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...

-like color with distinguishing birthmarks. The redesigned character appeared as a gluttonous child in a large family of pigs in ''

At Your Service Madame AT or at may refer to: Geography Austria * Austria (ISO 2-letter country code) * .at, Internet country code top-level domain United States * Atchison County, Kansas (county code) * The Appalachian Trail (A.T.), a 2,180+ mile long mountaino ...

'' (which gives his full name as ''Piggy Hamhock''), where he leads his fellow siblings in foiling a bum's attempt to rob their mother. A year later, the new Piggy starred in ''

Pigs Is Pigs "Pigs Is Pigs" is a story by American writer Ellis Parker Butler. First published as a short story in '' American Illustrated Magazine'' in September 1905, "Pigs Is Pigs" went on to dozens of printings as a book and in anthologies over the next ...

'' in which his gluttony takes center stage. This is his final appearance. After this, he is discarded, with his character traits transferred for a time to

Porky Pig Porky Pig is an animated character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, star power, and the animators created ma ...

References

{{Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies Film characters introduced in 1931 Film characters introduced in 1936 Fictional pigs Looney Tunes characters