Rotkäppchen

Once upon a time there was an unpublished writer who saw five versions of the Brothers Grimm classic tale "Little Red Riding Hood". Here's his review of number three.

A curious young girl named Linet (Amelia Shankley) looks for elves in the woods, but only finds trouble. She lives with her mother (Isabella Rossellina) and a maid, as her father (Craig T. Nelson) is off fighting in a war. Her uncle and now king (also Nelson) wants to marry his sister-in-law (!), as seven years have passed since his brother left for the war. The evil king has used black magic to transform a wolf into a man to spy for him. The wolfman learns that Linet is not afraid of her cruel uncle, so uncle decides to do something about this.

It takes 57 minutes for the story of Red Riding Hood / Linet traveling to Grandma's through the woods to happen, and Grandma isn't even sick or frail! And like most children's movies made for American audiences, this is a musical. This means people burst into song every five minutes for no apparent reason. Since the music is all synthesizer music, it really clashes with the 18th Century setting. Still, some of the songs aren't bad, and who knew Nelson could sing? The bad news is MGM's DVD is fullscreen. A note about this takes up ten seconds of the running time. Something like this should be separated from the movie, which should begin at all zeros. It's unlikely a demand for a widescreen version will create a reissue. At least the transfer is good, and there's a trailer.

Shankley, by the way, debuted as young Alice Liddell in Dreamchild (1985), the quasi-biopic of the girl who inspired Rev. Charles Dodgson / Lewis Carroll to write "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland". Unfortunately, Red Riding Hood is not as good as that movie.

The film's copyright is 1987, MGM's box has 1988 on it and IMDb lists 1989. Just once, can't we all agree on something?

This is one great Cannon Movie Tale.I just recently saw it.The music is very professional sounding and doesent sound cheesy like some of the other Cannon Movie Tales do.

The plotline is a little screwed up.It does have an intriging backstory featuring the Lynette(Red Riding Hood) character's uncle(Craig T Nelson).

This film boasts a terrific music score by Stephen Lawrence.It elivates the film so much and makes it seem more like a real film than a children's movie.

The film has a nasty and frightening atmosphere that might scare the little ones.Children 6 and up will not find it scary. This film is a must see or buy.It is worth a blind buy.That's what I did just because I love the Cannon Movie Tales.It is worth it!Get It NOW!!!!

Brilliant acting, wonderful costumes, creepy atmosphere,tuneful songs! A true gem from the Cannon Movie Tales series. This film is the Red Riding Hood story, but it's slanted and broadened. There is a cool backstory about the wolf being the companion of an evil king, who's brother is Linet's(Red Riding Hood's) father. This king wants to marry Linet's mother(played wonderfully by the beautiful Isabella Rossolinni). To get rid of Linet, he makes his werewolf companion named Dagger kill her.

The atmosphere is bleak and dark, but it's a Grimm Fairy Tale so of course is should be. The atmosphere is lightened by the fun songs and sweet leading actress, Amelia Shankley as Linet.

This is a film that every family should own. So save a place for it between The Sound of Music and The Princess Bride!

The Cannon Movie Tales films are all worth watching at least once, though overall quality wise they are variable. None are perfect, though some have more and bigger flaws than others, but none are worth avoiding either, with the best three being Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast and Snow White and the worst being The Emperor's New Clothes, Puss in Boots and this (was mixed on Sleeping Beauty as well).

Red Riding Hood is nicely photographed, as is the case with all of Cannon's films, even when the low budget shows everywhere else in the visuals. It also contains one of Cannon's best songs in the cute, funny and menacing duet Never Talk With Strangers (which is the song that serves the most point to the story, and the only one to move it forward) and some witty scripting and entertaining chemistry with Ninet and Dagger. There are some decent ideas and one does have to credit the film for trying to bring in some life-like themes and situations, while the scenes telling the story that audiences are familiar with are executed quite well, with some nice humour and suspense. The acting is very much a mixed bag, with the best performances coming from a charming and sweet Amelia Shankley without being too sugary and a touching Isabella Rossellini.

Was mixed however on the songs and Rocco Sisto. There are some good songs here, Never Talk to Strangers is great and Good at Being Bad is sung and acted with relish by Sisto. Lost in the Woods however goes on for too long and suffers the worst of the problem of taking too long to explain things and then over-explaining it, and Man Without a Heart is just limp in every way imaginable, with uninspired choreography, forgettable at best melody, cringe-worthy and again over-explanatory lyrics and Craig T. Nelson's one-note and pretty tuneless singing. There is some lush and energetic scoring, but along with Puss in Boots there are some cheap synthesised sounds that give it a more 80s sound than the rest of the Cannon films. Sisto plays Dagger the Wolf with real playfulness and really entertains in his chemistry with Shankley, but he could have been much more menacing, there were times where it did seem like he was underplaying too much.

Craig T. Nelson is all over the place in his dual role of Godfrey and Percival, he looks zombified as Percival and then plays Godfrey with such a hammy over-theatricality that it jars with everything else. Apart from the photography, Red Riding Hood is one of the cheaper-looking Cannon films, with drab lighting, bargain-sale-fancy-dress-like costumes and incredibly unimaginative, minimally furnished and recycled sets, Godfrey's throne room is the sparsest and cheapest-looking throne room personally seen and the forest set is completely lacking atmosphere or character. While the dialogue and interplay between Ninet and Dagger was entertains, the rest was rambling and stilted and while Rossellini and Shankley are endearing together, any scenes shared with Nelson come over completely cold. The story is treated disappointingly here, appreciated the ideas and the life-like themes (plus reasons are given for Dagger's pursuit of Ninet and why Ninet appears unharmed after being saved) but more could have been done with them and they ended up convoluting and dulling the story rather than adding or expanding anything, with at least half an hour of pedestrian pacing and not much happening (somewhat aimless in fact). The actual story of Red Riding Hood that everybody is familiar with, while among the most successful parts of the film, arrives too late into the story and it felt like not enough time was dedicated in telling it.

Overall, not a bad film and has enough to make it worthwhile, but one of Cannon's lesser efforts. A good try but doesn't quite come off. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Finally, a movie that gives an explanation for the fact that when they cut open the wolf, Little Red Riding Hood is unharmed. True, the reason is an enchanted cloak, but it's better than nothing. I loved the songs "You Won't Be Here in the Morning" and "Never Talk to Strangers". The other thing that makes this version better then most Red Riding Hood stories is the supporting characters. They gave Red's parents and friends all lives that had nothing to do with her being eaten, yet kept to a basic plotline.