Red Hot Riding Hood

This is another fine animated short from Tex Avery. This time he uses the fairy tale of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. After the characters have complained they always have to play the same story over and over again the story is changed completely. The wolf is a rich character who falls in love with Red. She doesn't want him because she has to go to her grandma. The wolf makes sure he gets there before Red does. Instead of a sick old woman he finds a mature lady who is attracted to the wolf. Of course hilarious moments is what we get.

This short has a nice story and the usual Tex Avery humor, including written messages. The short is not really suitable for children, it has some sexual references, but adults will like this very much. A very nice animated short.

Actually, my comment for this should truly be a simple verbal genuflection, but that wouldn't be of acceptable minimum length here, so I'll actually say something.

This is Tex Avery's masterpiece in terms of the relation of his work to animation in general and the short form in specific. There are better cartoons (some even by Avery himself) and there are cartoons that I personally like better, but in terms of what Avery was attempting to do with the form, in terms of what animation was at the time and had been in the past and what its potential was for the future and the impact that Avery had and would have on his artform, this is the first truly successful Avery cartoon on all terms, both Avery's and animation. Avery blew out the valves, cranked up the engine and blew the doors off on this one for the first (but not last) time here. He turned everything up a few notches here, gang, and it works! It worked then, it works now and will work tomorrow, precisely because Avery had that most overworked and little understood word-genius. Remarkable cartoon and if you like animation and haven't seen this one, what are you reading me for? Go watch this. This is a great piece of work. Need I add, most highly recommended?

The inclusion of Red Hot Riding Hood in Tex Avery's animated short film, along with her earlier appearance in Little Rural Riding Hood, has truly impressed me with this bold and alluring cartoon character. One of Avery's finest creations and a significant breakthrough in animation, it is celebrated as his legendary masterpiece in the world of animation.

The story begins with a standard Little Red Riding Hood story, but the characters rebel against the standard staging and demand a fresh approach. Now set in a contemporary urban setting, Red is a sexy adult nightclub entertainer, while Wolf is a debonair skirt chaser in love with Red. Red escapes Wolf, but his oversexed grandmother locks him in her apartment, chasing after him at every door.

Unlike my beloved cartoon character, Betty Boop, who embodied a charmingly innocent demeanor, Red personified pure sensuality, primarily serving the purpose of arousing the wolf (symbolizing males in general) into an intense state of desire. Red briefly introduced herself as a seductive distraction for the Wolf character, who had already appeared in the WWII cartoon "Blitz Wolf" and was obsessed with getting some action. She drove the sex-crazed wolf to do all the things that were to become trademarks of Avery's cartoons: the eye-popping, the jaw-dropping, and the gravity-deifying pratfalls. She gained such widespread popularity that she appeared in three more animated series. Her cartoons were originally entertaining to American soldiers during wartime but remained off television for a long time due to their explicit nature.

Tex Avery's first excursion into animated sexual frenzy is his best, ranking as one of his three greatest cartoons (the other two, in case you're wondering, are "Who Killed Who?," also 1943, and "King-Size Canary," 1947). Although Avery would explore this theme in five more cartoons (or six or seven, depending on whether you want to count "Big Heel-Watha," 1944, and/or "Little 'Tinker," 1948; your call), none of them quite reach the heights of the original. (At least not in overall effect: Tex's single most outrageous gag of this sort is in the long legally undistributed "Uncle Tom's Cabana," 1947, and involves a cash register hidden under the aroused male's coat. Nuff said!) Some have suggested that having the Wolf's pursuit by Grandma follow the raging libido scene was a mistake in pacing, but it all works for me. It's too bad Avery didn't complete the opening misdirection by having the FIRST title card read "Little Red Riding Hood," but it goes by so quickly, and is drawn so conservatively that it doesn't really hurt. Besides, is there a context in which this film could be realistically expected to be shown where the audience would be truly surprised when it doesn't turn out to be a straight version of the fairy-tale?

Once upon a time, little red riding hood... The characters are fed up with the same old story. The narrator agrees to tell it in a new way. It's a Tex Avery animated short. It's good alternative fun with some adult leanings.