048 Red Hot Riding Hood

1943 Number: 048
Title: Red Hot Riding Hood
Studio: MGM
Date: 05/08/43
Credits:
Directed by Tex Avery
Series: -
Running time (of viewed version): 7:14
Commercial DVD Availability: Inexplicably not in the US, but available on the French Tex Avery set

Synopsis: In updating the fairy tale, the wolf is looking for sex, not food, from Red Riding Hood.






































Comments: The initial Red reminds me of Screwy Squirrel in design. Self referentiality on the overuse of the fairy tale. Double presentation of title, the second after the self referentiality. Gramma seems to be readin a girlie mag. Text gag: "The Sunset Strip - 30 Gorgeous Girls - No Cover". It was a big couple of weeks in cartoons for stripping gags (tho there's no stripping in this cartoon the way there was in Wise Quacking Duck). Very long car for the wolf. Scantily clad ladies selling cigarettes; imagine if they allowed that in cartoons now... Tall glass for the wolf. Lots of elongated things to go along with his snout. This cartoon benefits from the rigid base forms the takes deviate from, and that the sexy girls in the cartoon are human women, not male ducks... Hepburn impression. Was it a good thing to fly to the Riviera in '43? White sidewall tires were quite the inducement in '43 cartoons. Red looks very odd getting into the cab. Gramma parallels the wolf's desire. Apparent edit on the viewed print of gramma getting a pin in the butt; discontinuous audio. Double pistol to the head suicide. The red riding hood story doesn't exactly get updated; the cast is just put into a new story. The Hollywood nightclub is at 5910 something. The head hammering has no impact. The pull out on the spotlight shot is striking. Nightclub = limited number of backgrounds. Like Wise Quacking Duck, this has characters hitting walls with their faces. Many sign gags. Suprising, Red Hot only shows up in about a third (the middle third, other than for one short shot) of this cartoon. The (or a) wolf is consistently in the whole cartoon.

Note the story is that the cartoon was supposed to end with the wolf and gramma getting married, but this was deemed unacceptable.

Ses John Canewaker's Tex Avery book for production art (which is a good general piece of advice for all of the Tex Avery MGM cartoons).

Western Family magazine cover: