Red Hot Riding Hood

Nope - they sure don't make'em like this any more. But modern-day animators working on pixillated mega-productions owe Tex Avery and his "Termite Terrace" co-workers a large debt. Rather than retell The Avery story (there are several books around that will do that), just look out for his classic MGM cartoons of the '40s and '50s, and marvel at the genius on show. "Red Hot Riding Hood" is one of his best and was the first in the "Red" series. It's an out-and-out classic, with a plot loosely based on the children's fairy tale playing second fiddle to beautifully drawn and animated scenes and some fantastic big-band music. The visual pacing in this toon is so fast that if you blink you'll miss another screwball gag. Look for it on TV (yes it does still get shown, in the UK at least) or even better, go see it at the movies. Great stuff and I never tire of it.

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?

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.

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?

I second the comments about this influential cartoon and its effect on the course of animation. But there's one question unanswered, and that's: Did this formula begun with this cartoon and continuing (with Avery, at least) to the end of the 1940's play a role, however indirectly, in the future development of Benny Hill's show after, say, 1980? If one sees the early Hill's Angels numbers, especially the juxtaposition of dancers gyrating and men's various reactions, one can see many similarities; alas, there was none of the relative subtlety and wit for which Avery was most famous. And interesting that both Avery and Hill have been targeted in later years for supposedly being "politically incorrect." Think about it . . .