Main cast: Bobcat Goldthwait (Big Bad Wolf), Cam Clarke (Dudley, Bailiff Wolf), Charlie Adler (Smokey), Brad Garrett (Drinky), Cory Barton (Police Chief Wolf), Jim Cummings (Judge Wolf), and John Kassir (The Crypt Keeper)
Directors: Bill Kopp and Pat Ventura
Finally, we have come to the very final episode of Tales from the Crypt, and the show decides to end with a flashy gimmick: a fully animated and rude (of course) retelling of The Three Little Pigs. Of course, The Third Pig is not exactly safe for kids. It’s full of graphic violence and gore.
The three pigs are Smokey, Drinky, and Dudley. Dudley is the responsible and nice doormat pig, while Smokey and Drinky prefer to live a life of complete debauchery and make their brother clean up after them. For some reason, they live in a land populated by wolves, so when the Big Bad Wolf manages to devour the dim-witted Smokey and Drinky, poor Dudley can’t find any justice for his dead siblings in a kangaroo court populated by wolves. He decides to create a super zombie pig monster to take down the Big Bad Wolf, but things don’t always go the way they are supposed to on this show…
Every character speaks in rhyme here – well, at least the Big Bad Wolf tries; he keeps failing to find something that can rhyme with “third”, which is the running joke here – and they are drawn in a happy kiddie-style even as gore splatters all over the place. The end result is most amusing to watch, although Dudley soon wears out his welcome with his pathetic doormat nature and his constant whining. Thank god he gets eaten in the end – about time. The Big Bad Wolf certainly steals the show here, especially when he breaks the fourth wall to argue with the sarcastic narrator of the episode.
Still, at the end of the day, there is nothing really Tales from the Crypt-ish about The Third Pig. It’s just the people behind this show deciding to call it a day with a gimmicky send-off. It’s an entertaining send-off, but that’s all there is about it.
Oh well, good bye forever, Tales from the Crypt! The whole run has its ups and downs, but it had been fun especially in the earlier seasons. The rot is pretty evident in this season as well as the last one, although I’m in the minority who feels that this season is better than the really dire sixth one. At any rate, this show is done, I’m done, and it’s time to see what else is out there. I’d miss it, though. The horror, the gallows humor, the nudity, the vulgarity… good times.
