Redux Riding Hood

Redux Riding Hood
Directed by Steve Moore
Produced by Steve Moore
Written by Dan O'Shannon[1]
Based on Little Red Riding Hood
Starring Michael Richards
Mia Farrow
Lacey Chabert
Narrated by Garrison Keillor
Music by Bennie Wallace
Edited by Colleen Halsey, Harry Hitner
Production
company
Walt Disney Television Animation
Toonz Animation Ltd New Zealand
Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures
Release dates
 1997
Running time
 14:55
Country United States
Language English

Redux Riding Hood is a 15-minute animated short film directed by Steve Moore[2] and produced by Disney in 1997[1] that received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film.[3]

The film was produced with cel animation and 2-D collage elements, a look developed by production designer John Kleber. From a set of four short/featurettes planned by Disney and MovieToons (to be titled "Totally Twisted Fairy Tales"), which was also to include "Jack in the Beanstalk," "The Three Little Pigs" and a fourth cartoon that was never finalized. The idea was to make a more adult short by combining Disney artists and high-quality writers and their takes on classic fairy tales; however, only Redux Riding Hood was released, in animation festival showings.

Cast

[1]

Actor Role
Garrison Keillor The Narrator
Michael Richards The Wolf
Mia Farrow Doris
Lacey Chabert Red Riding Hood
June Foray Grandma
Fabio The Woodsman
Don Rickles The Boss
Jim Cummings Thompkins
Adam West Leonard Fox

Plot

Redux Riding Hood, written by sitcom writer Dan O'Shannon,[1] tells the familiar story of Red Riding Hood from the point of view of the big, bad wolf. The wolf (voiced by then-beloved co-star of Seinfeld, Michael Richards) is haunted by the decision to eat Red Riding Hood after dressing up as her grandmother, not because he regrets the choice but because he’s convinced he can do it better now that he’s learned from his mistakes. But to do that, he has to build a time machine and avoid his poor wife (Mia Farrow). Can the wolf rewrite fairy-tale history or is he destined to never gobble down poor Red?

At his first attempt, the big bad wolf succeeded to return to the past where he finds his past self. He then advises him about what and what not to do and succeeds to knock out the Hunter, who was the reason of his failure, and capture Little Red Riding Hood with a double team. However, the two wolves never expected to lock the Grandma at the armory closet, so she shoots at them with a machine gun. The two wolves return to the present with new regrets and failures. His wife advised them that they are probably not meant to catch red riding hood, but they were too obsessed on their failures to listen. At his second attempt the two wolves now have a triple team and succeeded to dodge their failures but never expected red’s scream was loud enough to set off the fire alarm flooding the three wolves out of grandma’s house. After that the wolves made series of ridiculous failures and failures keep increasing until he had hundreds of himself that he keeps changing his fate and still search for solution with even more bizarre ending. His wife couldn't take it anymore and feel like she deserved better. Eventually, she decided to take his time machine for herself and correct her biggest regret; she decided to marry someone else.

A Rare Oscar Nomination

During the year 1996, Walt Disney Feature Animation was going through a renaissance, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Pocahontas were all hits. They were even getting new sites close to the main studio and out their location in Glendale. Walt Disney Television Animation was also reaching something of a peak in its production capabilities. Proof of that, was a 1997 short Redux Riding Hood that earned an Academy Award nomination.

It’s almost impossible to find a copy of that short animated movie until now. Director Steve Moore finally posted it over on his Flip Animation Blog with some back story and a plea for Disney to release it on DVD.

Production

Departing from Disney's storied tradition of family entertainment, Redux reinvents certain fairy tales with an offbeat, adult-oriented, comedic slant through the talents of veteran sitcom (Cheers, Newhart) writer Dan O'Shannon and animation producer/director Steve Moore. Voices are provided by luminaries like Seinfeld's Michael Richards, Don Rickles, Lacey Chabert (Party of Five) and Mia Farrow. The series was creative project that bring light back to animators that were down from a lack of non-adult projects. O'Shannon from the prospect of "Redux" opened up doors for out of the ordinary imaginative writers. The film turned out well, and scored an Oscar nomination, but then Disney put it on the shelf in 1998, and it has remained there ever since.

Music

The music was arranged by jazz great Bennie Wallace, his credibility in music reached great lengths especially in this production. The melody was inspired from Charles Mingus' album Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus. Bennie set to the task, casting his musicians to get the right sound - among them Robben Ford on guitar, Emil Richards on percussion instruments, Art Baron on trombone, Alex Acuna brought a Latin beat on drums, and Bennie himself on Sax. The music was recorded at Capitol Records in Hollywood, in Sinatra's old stage.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Beck, Jerry (21 May 2012). "Steve Moore’s "Redux Riding Hood," The Short That Disney Hid For 15 Years, Is Finally Online | Cartoon Brew". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  2. ↑ "Redux Riding Hood". www.bcdb.com, April 13, 2012
  3. ↑ IMDb entry

External links