Red Hot Riding Hood

Yes, I'm discussing the famed Tex Avery cartoon here. My schedule should be more back to normal in June: 

It was about time I discussed Tex Avery here. Now, it wasn’t the original idea to talk about a 7-minute-long cartoon today. However, my schedule has been all out of whack this week, and included unexpected tasks that I had to assist people with. Thankfully, I was struck with the realization that one of the film-related tasks I should do in June is to start making a dent in the various Blu discs I have of old cartoons. I purchased some at various times over the years yet have only watched a tiny fraction of those cartoons. 

Of course I won’t discuss here the various shorts I see either for the first time or for the first time in at least 30 years. However, this is arguably the most famous work from animation director Tex Avery and was watched by me as a child. He did Looney Tunes cartoons before leaving for MGM’s new animated division as he felt unappreciated at his old job.

“Reclaiming the narrative” is a modern phrase you sometimes come across. Well, this cartoon did just that. The beginning is a traditional telling of Little Red Riding Hood, before all the main characters reject this notion (the Wolf calls it “sissy stuff”… his term, not mine) and prefer a fresh version, which is what happened. Now, the setting is an early 1940’s nightclub, The Big Bad Wolf is a Hollywood swinger and Red is a sultry singer at a hip nightclub. Wolfie goes wild, literally wolf-whistling at her; the rest won’t be revealed but I will state that Jim Carrey’s The Mask famously paid homage to this cartoon, as did Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

It was amusing to see a hip version of the old fairy tale where both Red and her grandma are stronger characters who show more agency. Of course, this means that grandma is a horny old lady who starts chasing after Wolf… but it’s a cartoon so IMO it shouldn’t be taken so seriously. Between its influence, the animation, the narrative, the characters, the music—this is why it receives the highest rating from me.

I am happy that a few years ago I purchased the Tex Avery Screwball Classics Volume 1 Blu-ray as most of those MGM cartoons have never been seen by me before. As Avery had the freedom to create cartoons that tended to appeal to adults also, those should be delightful to view now.