Little Red Riding Rabbit is a 1943 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.
Plot[]
Little Red Riding Hood is a typical teenage girl from the 1940s, a "bobby soxer" with an extremely loud and grating voice. After she sings the first verse of "Five O'Clock Whistle", Bugs Bunny pops out of her basket to ask where she's going. She replies that she's going to "bring a little bunny rabbit to my Grandma's. Ta HAVE, see?"[3]
The wolf switches a "Shortcut to Grandma's" sign, so that Red has to go through a long mountain path, while the wolf uses the real shortcut, a few short steps to the house. He sees a note on the door that Grandma isn't home; she's a Rosie the Riveter type who's working the "swing shift" at Lockheed. The wolf sneaks inside and dresses like Grandma, only to find that a bunch of other wolves are similarly dressed and waiting in the bed for Red! The wolf growls for the others to "Come on! Come on! take a powder, this is MY racket!" and the other wolves leave muttering to themselves, and then a small wolf leaves from under the pillow.
Once in bed, the wolf waits for Red to come to the door. In a twist, the wolf isn't interested in eating Red, but rather the rabbit she brought with her.
The wolf quickly shuffles Red out the door and tries looking for Bugs. Bugs, however, gets the better of the wolf and runs around the house, being 'chased' by the wolf. 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 asking the questions from the story, such as "That's an awfully big nose for you – ta HAVE."
The wolf finally corners Bugs, but Bugs imitates the wolf's every action even when the wolf keeps telling Bugs to stop. After eluding the wolf by distracting him into singing "Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet (With the Blue Ribbons on It)", Bugs gets a glowing coal from the fireplace and sends the wolf to the ceiling by scorching his backside. When the wolf comes down, Bugs has a large shovelful of coals waiting to scorch the wolf.
However, the wolf catches his feet on the ends of two benches just in time, doing the "splits". Instead of simply kicking one of the benches away, Bugs dumps heavy weights into the wolf's arms. After clearing out just about everything in the house except the kitchen sink, Bugs is about to place an olive branch on top of the mass of junk the wolf is holding, when Red comes back in, bellowing "Hey, Grandma!"
By now, even Bugs has gotten sick of Red's interruptions, and says, "I'll do it, but I'll probably hate myself in the morning." He descends the ladder, there's a shuffling of the furniture... and now Red is the one desperately trying to avoid getting scorched, doing the "splits" in her dress, while Bugs and the wolf, arms around each other's shoulders, share a carrot and self-satisfied looks, and await the inevitable.
Caricatures[]
- Cass Daley - Red's voice
Legacy[]
This cartoon's incarnation of Red Riding Hood is perhaps the most well-known of all the other Red Riding Hoods that appear in the Looney Tunes franchise. This version of Red has made more appearances in later productions:
- Red returns as a guest character among the crowds cheering for the Looney Tunes' Toon Squad at the end of the basketball game in the 1996 movie Space Jam.
- In the The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "It's a Plaid, Plaid, Plaid, Plaid World", Red appears as a character called "Myopia". Her voice, performed by Tress MacNeille, is just as shrill as the original, but now with a distinct Scottish burr. Her name is an ironic misnomer, as she suffers not from nearsightedness, but colorblindness.
Availability[]
Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Bugs Bunny Cartoon Festival Featuring "Little Red Riding Rabbit"
Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs and Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons
Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs and Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons
The Very Best of Bugs
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 1, Side 6: Friz Freleng
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 6: Friz Freleng
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc One (Restored with DVNR)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc One (Restored without DVNR)
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc One (Restored without DVNR)
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 8 Disc 1
Thank Your Lucky Stars
Looney Tunes: Parodies Collection (Restored without DVNR)
Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection, Disc 2
Streaming[]
Notes[]
- This cartoon is a sendup of the "Little Red Riding Hood" story.
- The little wolf under the pillow gag would later be repeated in "Little Red Rodent Hood".
- In addition, the doors gag would be repeated in "Buccaneer Bunny" and "A Bird in a Guilty Cage".
- On the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 DVD, Bugs' secondary fur and glove color is its usual white; however, on the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3 DVD/Blu-ray, Bugs' secondary fur color is shown to have originally been a beige-yellow shade in contrast to its usual white.
- This is the first cartoon in which Mel Blanc received a voice credit.[4]
- This short is ranked #39 in The 50 Greatest Cartoons by members of the animation field.[5]
- While the USA Turner 1995 dubbed version print retains the original 1941–55 Merrie Melodies ending music cue, the EU Turner 1995 dubbed version print replaces the original 1941–55 ending music cue with the 1938–41 ending music cue.
- Billy Bletcher previously played the Big Bad Wolf in Disney's Silly Symphony short "Three Little Pigs".
- This is one of the few shorts where Bugs does not say his catchphrase "What's up, doc?", although he does say the variant "What's cookin', doc?" near the end.
Gallery[]
_-_Heavy_Situation.jpg "Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944) - Heavy Situation.jpg (806 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/catalogofc19713251213libr/page/63/mode/1up?view=theater
- ↑ http://likelylooneymostlymerrie.blogspot.com/2017/07/420-little-red-riding-rabbit-1943.html
- ↑ http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/f/fiveoclockwhistle.shtml
- ↑ Mel Blanc: From Anonymity To Offscreen Superstar (The advent of on-screen voice credits). Retrieved on 18 July 2017.
- ↑ Beck, Jerry (1994). The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. Turner Publishing, page 156–157. ISBN 978-1878685490.