Little Red Riding Rabbit is a 1944 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Bugs Bunny. It is a sendup of the Little Red Riding Hood story, and is the first time in which Mel Blanc receives a voice credit. In 1994, Little Red Riding Rabbit was voted #39 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.
Plot
Little Red Riding Hood is depicted as a typical 1940s teen-aged girl, a "bobby soxer" with an extremely loud and grating voice. After she sings the first verse of "" in the opening to establish this fact, Bugs pops out of her basket to ask where she's going. She replies that she's going to "bring a little bunny rabbit to grandma ta HAVE." With this part of the story set up, the wolf is now introduced. The wolf switches a "Shortcut to Grandma's" sign, so that Red has to take an unnecessarily long mountain path, while the wolf uses the genuine shortcut – literally a few short steps to the house. Seeing a note pinned on the door that Grandma isn't home, the wolf sneaks inside and dresses like Grandma, only to find that three other wolves are similarly dressed and all waiting in the bed for Red! The wolf growls for the others to "COME ON! COME ON! Take a powder – this is MY racket!" The other wolves leave, grumbling to themselves, and a small wolf who was hiding under the pillow, sheepishly follows suit, too. Once in bed, the wolf waits for Red to arrive. But in a twist, the wolf isn't interested in eating Red, but rather the rabbit she is bringing to Grandma. Red arrives and begins her "Grandma, what big eyes you have" spiel, but is impatiently interrupted by the wolf who quickly shuffles her out the door and tries looking for Bugs in the basket. Bugs, of course, quickly gets the better of the wolf and runs around the house, with the wolf in hot pursuit. Along the way, Bugs subjects the wolf to the famous lots-of-doors in-and-out routine. The wolf, however, is constantly interrupted by Red, who continues her lines from the actual story. The wolf begins to flirt with her in a faux French accent, then suddenly yells at her to get out. When cornered by the wolf, Bugs mimics the wolf's speech and gestures, irritating him and eventually distracting the wolf into singing Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet. Bugs manages to get a glowing coal from the fireplace and sends the wolf screaming in pain to the ceiling by scorching his backside. When the wolf comes down, Bugs has a large shovelful of hot coals waiting for him. However, the wolf manages to catch his feet on the ends of two benches just in time, doing the "splits". Instead of simply kicking one of the benches away, Bugs proceeds to dump heavy weights into the wolf's arms. After clearing out just about everything in the house, Bugs is about to apply the coup de grace on the wolf – by placing the last strawon top of the mass of junk and furniture the wolf is holding – when Red reappears, bellowing "Hey, GRANDMA!" By this time, even Bugs has had enough of Red's interruptions, prompting him to say, "I'll do it, but I'll probably hate myself in the morning." He descends the ladder, and out of frame, there's a shuffling noise... and now RED is the one trying to avoid getting her bottom scorched, holding the weights and assorted junk, while Bugs and the wolf, arms around each other's shoulders, share a carrot and self-satisfied looks, and await the inevitable.
This cartoon is found on the 1989 MGM Home Video release "", the and
Analysis
Little Red Riding Hood is depicted as a spindly-legged, obnoxious and loud-mouthed teenage bobby-soxer. Granny is working the swing shift at the factory, and the Wolf is more interested in eating Bugs rather than eating Red. The Wolf in fact kicks Red out of Grandma's house. He and Bugs are engaged in games of chasing and toying with each other. Their games are constantly interrupted by Red who knocks on the door to ask the wolf the appropriate questions of the standard storyline. The Wolf and eventually Bugs are sufficiently irritated to keep her suspended over burning hot coals. She is punished for her "crime" of being obnoxious and exasperating. Warner Brothers often parodied Disney cartoons. Billy Bletcher parodied his own Disney performance in this cartoon, voicing Big Bad Wolf, just as he did in Walt Disney's Academy Award-winning classic, Three Little Pigs and its later spinoff, The Big Bad Wolf, the latter of which also incorporated the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Like other Bugs Bunny shorts released during World War II, this film features "a more violent rabbit with a more sadistic and mocking agenda".
Connections
This was not the only depiction of Little Red Riding Hood in an animated short. Others include Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf by Walt Disney, and Little Red Walking Hood, Red Hot Riding Hood, and Little Rural Riding Hood by Tex Avery. Friz Freleng had already directed four fairy-tale films: Beauty and the Beast, The Miller's Daughter, The Trial of Mister Wolf, and Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk. He would go on to direct Red Riding Hoodwinked.
