Red Hot Riding Hood
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Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released on May 8, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994 it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. It is one of Avery's most popular cartoons, inspiring several of his own "sequel" shorts as well as influencing other cartoons and feature films for years afterward. Some consider the cartoon to be Avery's magnum opus[who?].
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[edit] Plot
The story begins with the standard version of Red Riding Hood until the characters suddenly rebel at this clichéd staging and demand a fresh approach.
The annoyed narrator accedes to their demands and starts the story again in a dramatically different arrangement. Now, the story is set in a contemporary urban setting where Red is a sexy adult nightclub entertainer, the Wolf is a debonair skirt chaser, and Grandma is an oversexed man-chaser.
[edit] Censorship
The most famous element is the musical scene where Red performs and "Wolfie", as she calls him, reacts in highly lustful wild takes. Those reactions were considered so energetic that the censors at the time demanded cuts in this scene and others. The film's original conclusion, deleted for reasons of implied bestiality, had Grandma marrying the wolf at a shotgun wedding (with a caricature of Tex Avery as the Justice of the Peace who marries them), and having the unhappy couple and their half-human half-wolf children attend Red's show. However, a military officer arranged for an uncut version for military audiences overseas.
The actual released ending is almost as scandalous by today's standards, and is usually edited on television rebroadcasts today. It features Wolfie getting away from Grandma and returning to the nightclub. There, disgusted with women because of the experience he had with Grandma, he proclaims that if he sees another woman, he'll kill himself. When Red comes back out, the wolf, true to his word, blows his brains out. His ghost then gets back up and continues with the same catcalling as he did when he first saw Red.
[edit] Trivia
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The character of Red Hot Riding Hood closely resembled one of the top pin-up girls at the time, Betty Grable. She is considered an amalgamation of the then popular Hollywood stars. Her singing voice in this particular short was reminiscent of Judy Garland's, while her speaking voice emulated that of Katharine Hepburn. This would change from short to short that Red would appear in, with her speaking voice flip flopping between Katharine Hepburn, Mae West, and Bette Davis, and also showed to be somewhat of a successor to early 1930's cartoon sex symbol Betty Boop as well.
The song Red Hot sings in the club is "Daddy," written in 1941 and performed by Ginny Maxey and the Bobby Troup Trio. Troup's wife, the famed Julie London, later sang a sultry version of the song reminiscent of Red Hot's version but at a slower tempo.
[edit] Follow-ups
Avery made several non-sequels to the film, including Swing Shift Cinderella (1945), The Shooting of Dan McGoo and Wild & Woolfy (both 1945 and both featuring Droopy), Uncle Tom's Cabaña (1947), and Little Rural Riding Hood (1949).
"Red" would make a comeback in the hit Saturday morning cartoon series Tom and Jerry Kids, appearing in the Droopy & Dripple and Calaboose Cat cartoon shorts, including the spin-off series Droopy, Master Detective. She was given the name "Miss Vavoom" for the Droopy & Dripple shorts, and, in the Calaboose Cat shorts, "Mystery Lady". As with the MGM cartoon shorts she plays the "damsel in distress" while McWolf & Droopy compete for her affection.
[edit] Parodies
- The scene where Grandma chases The Wolf was the inspiration for the scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Lena Hyena chases Eddie Valiant.
- The famous scene of The Wolf reacting lustfully in the club was directly referenced in The Mask where Stanley Ipkiss goes to the Coco Bongo club as the Mask. Seated at a similar table, he reacts to his first sight of Cameron Diaz's torch-singer character Tina Carlyle by mimicking many of the same cartoonish "wild takes" (achieved through the use of CGI), and his head even morphs into that of a cartoon wolf when he wolf-whistles and howls. There is also an early scene where The Mask's wimpy alter ego, Stanley Ipkiss (played by Jim Carrey) pops in a cartoon video, which shows this cartoon (on the part where the Wolf is lustfully reacting to Red singing "Daddy") and is yelled at by his landlord, Mrs. Peenman, after laughing at it.
Of note is that both Jessica (Mrs. Roger) Rabbit and Tina Carlyle look and act like Red Riding Hood from this cartoon, and they are both vaudeville performers.
