Release date: November 6th, 1937
Series: Merrie Melodies
Director: Tex Avery
Starring: Elvia Allman (Little Red Walking Hood, Granny), Tedd Pierce (Wolf), Mel Blanc (Elmer)
Buckle up! This is a “lengthy prologue” piece!
Perhaps one of Tex Avery’s most formative cartoons in his career. Little Red Walking Hood serves as the first fairy tale spoof of his, a genre that would pop up time and time again in his Warner Bros. cartoons and even over at MGM (perhaps most famously the Red Hot Riding Hood series).
Not only that, but it’s the first cartoon to debut a purely comic villain—villains in previous pictures had comedic touches, of course, but the wolf (voiced by story man Tedd Pierce, whose vocals are quite underrated—you may recognize him as Tom Dover from The Dover Boys at Pimento University) is purely made out to be a rather pathetic, unscrupulous adversary from the very beginning.
Even more interesting is that the bulk of the cartoon’s backgrounds are done entirely in colored pencils, by Avery background artist Johnny Jonson, who moved with him to MGM when Tex left WB in 1941. The handling on the backgrounds are nothing short of stellar! They truly accentuate the “fairy tale” look and feel of the piece.
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| Model sheet. |
Maybe the most notable, however, is the debut of Tex’s third character of 1937: Elmer Fudd.
I covered this in my review of Egghead Rides Again, and you can read more into the differences between Egghead (another 1937 Avery character) and Elmer here, but the bulbous nosed, derby hat donning little man traipsing around with his guitar case is our favorite befuddled hunter.
Many have labeled this guy as Egghead, and understandably so—they’re eerily similar in more ways than one, and “prototype Elmer Fudd” is much more monotonous than “Egghead”, but this is indeed our favorite little hunter! Humble beginnings for sure.
The film burlesques the age—old story of Little Red Riding Hood, complete with Katherine Hepburn little red riding hoods, gin guzzling grannies, nonthreatening wolves, fourth wall breaks, and mysterious whistling men.
Already, the cartoon marks an intriguing open, with the title card playing into the action itself: the title card serves as the title of a book, opening to divulge the fractured fairy-tale before us. A cliche, sure, and it was one even by 1937, but with Tex Avery at the helm, audiences can be reassured that it’s all tongue in cheek. “The mean old wolf was lurking in a nearby pool hall” asserts as such.
Indeed, the mean old wolf was lurking in a nearby pool hall—or, rather, cheating. He pulls the lever of a pinball machine, lifting up the machine and tilting it so as to guide the ball in the right hole.
The animation of the wolf is spaced and timed nicely, with just enough urgency to convey his commitment to cheating. Sticking his tongue out in concentration is a nice plus as well. The drawings themselves aren’t the most pleasing, consisting primarily of mathematically proportioned circles and spheres, but such is life.
Close up on the pinball itself circling around the jackpot hole, teetering away to the “OUT” hole at the last second. A minute in, and we already see that this villain is far removed from the mustache twirling, cape-hugging villains that dominated earlier cartoons. Instead, we know that this wolf is a loser. Carl Stalling’s constipated rendition of “old king cole” adds a nice level of sardonic commentary to the wolf’s authority (or lack thereof).
Little Red Riding Hood strolling outside the pool hall easily distracts the wolf from his oncoming tantrum. Like Red Hot Riding Hood 6 years later, the wolf here is instantly charmed, catcalling and preparing to pounce.
Off-putting as this may seem at first glance, considering Little Red Riding Hood is, well, a child, the kicker is that here, she serves as an imitation of Katherine Hepburn, in both mannerisms and dialect. So, rather than dealing with a naïve, innocent girl on her way to grandma’s house, we’ve instead got a Hollywood star with her nose in the air, haughtily avoiding the wolf’s advances. (Of course, catcalling grown women isn’t any better, but just as a note to dispel any confusion.)
The wolf drives alongside snooty Red in his pompous jaundice-stricken limo, his advances getting nowhere. Time to pull out the big guns:
His license plate, reading 0-7734, flips upside down to spell “HELLO”, with the taillight opening and closing to simulate a wink. Clever indeed! It’s some interesting food for thought to imagine how much more exaggerated in speed and tone this gag would have been had this cartoon been made at MGM, though I suppose Red Hot Riding Hood answers that question.
Ignored once more, the wolf opts to halt the car and hassle Red himself. “Hello, pretty girl! Going my way, babe?” Irv Spence’s animation is the most appealing all throughout the picture, and his scenes of Red here are no exception.
The underrated Elvis Allman provides Red‘s Katherine Hepburn impression–Tex LOVED his Hepburn impressions, and they would bubble up in his cartoons time and time again. The gag itself would have been much more riotous 83+ years ago than it is now, but even then, the idea of Little Red Riding Hood speaking with such a sophisticated and haughty tone is enough to be funny.
The contrast between the wolf’s sneering vocals and Red’s lengthy speech couldn’t be better. Red instantly puts the wolf in his place:
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| Irv Spence's animation is packed with appeal. |
“Rea-lly, in this modern age of flaming youth, the girl has to put up with such embarrassing situations. Rea-lly, we do, don’t we, girls? Two thirds of you girls out there have gone through just what I’m going through now. You know how it is, don’t you, girls?”
Amen to that, sister! Bob Clampett would play off of this in his swan song, The Big Snooze, as an Elmer Fudd in drag asks the girls in the audience how they deal with such harassment. Spence’s animation here is visually appealing in design and also just plain funny.
Despite Red‘s blatant dismissal of his advances, the wolf continues to pursue her, tipping his hat as he approaches a stoplight. The stoplight opts to give him a good dose of karma as the light turns from green to red, the “STOP” flag popping out and giving the wolf a nice whack in the face.
However, the wolf has more important matters than glaring at a pesky stoplight—offscreen whistling catches his ears.
Irv Spence animates the stupendous, colossal, magnificent debut of Elmer Fudd as he struts across the street, blatantly interrupting the flow of the picture. His slow, carefree movements, the wolf’s visual contempt, and the exclusion of background music altogether accentuate Elmer’s interruption. Purposeful innocuousness and tastefully so!
Back to the wolf at the stoplight, the “GO” sign providing one more whack in the face for good measure. Wolf speeds off to hassle his victim even more.
As we’ve seen before, the song portion of Merrie Melodies has largely been dropped around this time, with little blurbs of songs serving as loose substitutes. Here, said substitute is “Gee, But You’re Swell,” sung in a talk-songy drawl by Tedd Pierce as he relentlessly struggles to charm Red.
Pierce’s vocals are hilarious, especially contrasted with the closeup of red blatantly ignoring his egotistical remarks. She gives him the cold shoulder, icicles logically forming to accentuate the metaphor. A standard gag, but it juxtaposes so well against the wolf’s inane dribble in the background that it’s hard to roll your eyes too strongly at it.
Our beloved hero, the whistling, intrusive Elmer Fudd conveniently pops out of the mailbox, toting a sign pointing directly to grandma’s house. The malice from before at Fudd’s presence is gone, replaced by gratitude from the wolf. He peels off down the alley, his limo snaking around every curve. Both this and the random appearance of Elmer are precursors to Tex Avery staple gags, especially his time at MGM. Amazing how formative a single cartoon can be!
At the beginning, I said that “the bulk of” the cartoon’s backgrounds are done in colored pencil. The pan of backgrounds while the wolf is driving to grandma’s house, whizzing past a hitchhiker Elmer in the process, are done in paint. The backgrounds are still just as gorgeous! Yet the change does serve as a little food for thought.
Like always in a Tex Avery cartoon, his comedic timing is succinct: wolf finally pulls up to grandma’s house, Elmer nonchalantly chilling on the back tire—despite the wolf’s purposeful disregard for him on the street, making a point to gun the car past him. The matter of factness of the gag is solid. The cartoon’s main priority is breaking the fourth wall rather than telling a story, yet in this case, that’s a good thing. It’s done well and with awareness.
Mr. Wolf approaches the doorstep of grandma’s abode, knocking on the door many more times than necessary with a hilariously inflated level of sophistication. He breaks his smooth, cool façade to guffaw a radio catchphrase (this time from The Al Pearce Show): “I hope ol’ grandma’s home, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope…”
This catchphrase would be found in more short than one, bubbling up in a number of cartoons. Coincidentally, an entire short would be dedicated to this skit—Friz Freleng’s less than savory Jungle Jitters.
An elderly “Who’s there?” answers the wolf’s knocks from behind the door. The wolf puts on his best falsetto, cooing “It’s me! Little red riding habit!”
We get a glimpse of granny from behind the door, who opens the little door window to see her guest. Realizing that she’s met face to face with the wolf, who jabs his mug through the window, granny is quick to slam the door shut, bursting out into an impromptu rendition of “River, Stay ‘way From the Door” (sung as “Wolf, Stay ‘way From My Door”.)
The random song intervention clues us in that granny is in on the fourth wall-breaking as well—the delivery of the gag is quite similar to the mama parrot from I Wanna Be a Sailor bursting into a rendition of “Old Black Joe”.
Irv Spence takes over as the wolf struggles to pry the door open. Suddenly, he freezes in his tracks at the sound of the telltale, offscreen whistling—Elmer has arrived. The befuddled stare from the wolf as he watches Elmer nonchalantly strut into granny’s house, opening the door without any hint of struggle, is priceless, as is his face-gripping agony. Irv Spence is Tex’s best animator for a reason!
As a last resort, the wolf body slams himself into the door. Little Red Riding Hood has now turned into a tale of The Three Little Pigs. He overestimates his own strength, and ends up darting inside, yet he stumbles backwards from the impact and trips backwards throughout the entire layout of the house.
The gag is reminiscent of a similar gag from I Only Have Eyes for You, an early 1937 Avery entry—another Elvia Allman voiced elderly woman chases a hapless victim through the house, both of them gliding along a vertical pan set up exactly like this one. This is funny already here, but imagine the speed and lengths this gag would have been inflated to had Tex completed this cartoon at MGM!
Granny is on the offense. The wolf barrels through the kitchen, where she’s standing on guard with the kitchen door. She opens the door, allows the wolf to barrel on out, and locks it shut. Granny: 1, wolf: 0.
Cue a tired gag that’s been around since the Bosko days (and beyond): wolf rams into a tree, shrinking up into his bowler hat. Bowler hat runs around aimlessly with big ol’ shoes sticking out until he finally manages to free himself.
The animation of the wolf being freed from the bowler hat IS rather nice–the accordion style wrinkles and folds serve as a precursor to some wild animation later on.
On the topic of gags old and new, the wolf engages in a gag that would be reused in a number of cartoons, including Avery’s Thugs with Dirty Mugs just two years later. The wolf grabs the doorknob, physically pulling it back and letting it shoot up against the door. The window panes thusly light up in a flurry of changing, rapid light squares: four yellow diagonal squares align, and the wolf is granted entrance into the house, triumphant fanfare and all. Seems the wolf doesn’t need to cheat to win at pinball (doorknob-ball?) after all! If you look closely, you’ll see that the double exposures still linger as the wolf darts past the door and into the house.
Cue the great fight: Wolf v. Granny. Wolf aimlessly chases granny through the kitchen, both of them climbing on the furniture, granny whooping and hollering all the way.
The phone rings, delaying their chase—granny hops on the chair to answer the phone, taunting the wolf: “Ah-ah,” she chides, displaying her crossed fingers of immunity, “King’s X!”
The deliberate time-out and show-stopping is great. This cartoon is filled to the brim with interruptions and halts, yet they don’t at all feel overused or banal. Tex was a master of his craft.
Granny takes the call while the wolf glowers on impatiently. More fourth-wall breaking as granny begs the audience for forgiveness: “Will you people pardon me just a minute? Let me see now, one dozen eggs… it’s the grocer, folks…”
Elvia Allman’s vocals are excellent, conveying that comedic awkwardness with a great balance of authenticity and cheekiness. The head tilt indicating the phone as she talks to the audience is another plus.
Tedd Pierce’s vocals aren’t to be overlooked, either. His “AW, C’MON, GRANDMA!!!” is the perfect topper as granny rambles on the phone. She ends her call by sneering “and a case of gin!” to the grocer before hanging up and telling the audience the chase is back on (”Heeeeeere we go again!”)
Granny seeks refuge in the closet, the wolf greeted by Elmer again as he opens the door. Instead of fighting it, the wolf just heaves a dubious shrug towards the audience. Irv Spence animation once again–he draws the wolf’s eyes in a comparatively distinct manner. The irises are much smaller than the work of the other animators.
The wolf darts inside the closet, where he finds a conveniently placed nightgown hanging near the door. He looks under the skirt, prompting a disembodied hand to smack him in the face for such uncouth behavior. Now confused, the wolf opts to peer into one of the sleeves, where granny’s hand pops out to squeeze and honk his nose Daffy Duck style.
Their game of cat and mouse (or is it wolf and granny?) is interrupted by knocking on the front door, and the telltale, floaty voice of “It is I, Red Riding Hood , grandmother!”
Cue panic mode. The wolf hurriedly asks granny to give him “the stuff”, and she offers her bonnet, glasses, and shawl with a sense of camaraderie. This is entirely a performance, not a retelling of a story. These characters are hyper-aware actors who are not what they portray.
Tex’s speed, from the wolf finding granny to her offering her clothes to him diving in granny’s bed, flows incredibly well. Everything happens all at once! There’s hardly any time to breathe. The urgency of the situation is very much alive and real, but also playfully so. The whole cartoon feels like a game of hide and seek in a way.
Thus, we’re treated to the old routine that everyone knows, with Red inquiring about the wolf’s “large optics” and “large schnozzola”. Even she understands the overplayed nature of her performance, halting midsentence to quip at the audience “Rather childish and a bit silly, don’t you think?”
While the scene does drag, it’s purposeful and successful at doing so. There’s a noticeable contrast between the pacing of this scene and the scenes prior.
Yet, in no-time, we’re back to the adrenaline rush, with the wolf lunging out of the bed and chasing a shrieking Red. Tedd pierce’s vocal talents are not to go undermined—he’s genuinely fun to listen to. Interestingly, he didn’t write this cartoon–Cal Howard did.
Irv Spence takes over for the remainder of the cartoon, and his animation is gorgeous all the way. The wolf corners Red, who swings haymakers at him, stopping only to gloat towards the audience “Silly way to make a living, don’t you think?”
Such a stark contrast at the drop of a hat! Predictable, perhaps, but who can be mad at it? This is a very likable cartoon. While all of the Warner Bros. directors of this period are quite talented, it most certainly belongs under Tex Avery’s name—think of how different in demeanor and timing this would be as a Frank Tashlin cartoon (who DID rival Tex in terms of speed), a Friz Freleng cartoon, and a Bob Clampett cartoon. With Tex, it’s in good hands.
The brawl continues, only to be halted by another interruption. No, it’s not because of offscreen whistling! Signaling for Red to stop, the wolf casts a steely glower at the figure of two silhouettes moving across the screen, sneering snide remarks—late moviegoers who interrupt the flow of the cartoon.
Provided my memory serves me correctly, this is the first WB cartoon to integrate rotoscoped silhouettes. Rotoscoping was a technique invented by Max Fleischer in 1915, where animators would trace over live action footage, frame by frame.
Tex would use this countless times, both at WB and MGM. His efforts pay off even now, watching this on a laptop screen, but just IMAGINE the impact this would have in a packed, dark theater, where even the CARTOON CHARACTERS stop to ridicule the audience! Imagine just how revolutionary that was the first time this was showed! What an absolute riot! Tex was a genius. The characters truly feel alive and with us.
After the wolf is done guilt-tripping his latecomers, the fight continues for a few seconds more, halted once again by the Fudd himself, strolling across the screen.
Mr. Fudd guffaws his first words in a stereotypical dopey drawl: “Who, me?” Note how his eyes open for a change! He opens his guitar case, where a mallet is carefully stored inside. Not a beat is wasted as he knocks the wolf over the head with the mallet, Elmer remarking in his hayseed voice “Huh huh huh huh, I’m the HERO in this picture!”
Iris out…
or so we think.
What a game changing piece of animation. This isn’t the Tex Avery cartoon to beat all cartoons by any means, but it packs a lot of weight. It’s extremely formative in Tex’s career. Numerous gags–such as the rotoscoped silhouettes, the stretching limo hugging the curves on the street, the constant wall-breaking and interruptions–and even story structures (think of all of the countless fairy tale parodies that came after this!) would be used not just by Tex, but by his friends and colleagues, whether at WB or elsewhere.
In the grand scheme of things, the plot is barebones. The wolf goes to grandma’s house. The wolf chases Red. That’s really all it is. Yet it’s the details what give it substance, and the purposeful delivery of such. This isn’t a faithful retelling of a beloved story, that’s out the window. These characters are hyper-aware characters essentially massacring an old fairy tale.
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| A gorgeous Irv Spence animation drawing. |
Yet its the conviction of such that makes it so strong. It’s not really a “Haha, look, I broke the fourth wall, I’m instantly funny! Show’s over” deal—it’s just riding that momentum and expanding the picture on it. “Oh, the story keeps getting interrupted. Okay. Let’s continue to interrupt it and make the characters increasingly aware of such, with the reasons for interruption growing more and more bizarre.”
While this isn’t nearly as bizarre as Tex’s later pieces at MGM, it’s a great start. WB wasn’t completely free of its Disney influence. Pieces like these further remove the Disney influence for sure, but 1937 is still very early on. This is such a game-changer in comparison to previous cartoons.
Tex’s dry-spell is over, and cartoons are on the upswing from here. Things are going to get real funny and real loony. I definitely urge you to go watch this cartoon–it’s not the most revolutionary piece of animation on the planet, but it’s a wonderfully funny cartoon that still holds up today, and it serves as an interesting comparison point for future cartoons.
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