Walt Disney Presents … Little Red Riding Hood

It’s been a few weeks, and, yes, we are still on the story of little red riding hood. Sadly, we are approaching the end. On a positive note, just one more week and you will finally get to see the actual tales and their meanings!

What would the fairy tales be without their Disney rendition! That is correct, Walt Disney has interpretations of Little Red Riding Hood! Exciting news: if you love old time, classic short movies you will be very excited to view this week's post!

1922- Little Red Riding Hood

Directed by: Walt Disney

Produced by: Walt Disney

Written by: Charles Perrault (Story) and Walt Phieffer

Animation by: Rudolph Ising

Studio: Laugh-O-Gram Studio

Type of film: short cartoon

Background: This is the first film of the Fairy tale-based Laugh-O-Grams series. The bases of the film is from Charles Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood, which was originally published 1697. The film was released to theaters on July 29, 1922 in the United States.

The quality of this film obviously is not the best, but I still recommend watching until the end. The film is only 6 minutes long, so when they say “short film” they really do mean that it is a short film. Besides from the quality, however, I love the changes that were made to the story. For instance, I love that they used a man to play the wolf. It is amazing that Disney would do this because they are not sanitizing the story at all. There is no guessing- the message is clear and the man’s sexual intentions are clear as well.

1934- The Big Bad Wolf

Directed by: Burt Gillett

Produced by: Walt Disney

Voices by: Pinto Colvig, Billy Bletcher, Mary Moder, and Dorothy Compton

Music by: Frank Churchill

Animation by: Art Babbitt

Studio: Walt Disney Studios

Type of film: short film

Background: The Big Bad Wolf is a Silly Symphony that was released on April 13, 1934. This version of Little Red Riding Hood, contrasts with Walt Disney’s 1922 short film in many ways. The more apparent contrasts is the addition of color to the 1934 film as well as the use of vocalization. The Big Bad Wolf tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood with the addition of the three little pigs to the story.

The quality of this film is quite better than the quality of the previous film, which in my opinion makes the film a bit more enjoyable to watch. I think this is a lovely presentation of Little Red Riding Hood because it is geared more towards children. If I was a parent of a young child, and I had to choose a film to show my child, I would definitely have to go with this one. For starters Walt Disney greatly sanitizes the Little Red Riding Hood story, which is perfectly fine. He changes the man from his 1922 version back into a wolf, and he even adds three little pigs (well known cartoon characters of the time) to be Little Red’s savior instead of a manly huntsman or pilot in the 1922 version. This version is kid friendly and enjoyable, while still conveying a message for the children to beware of wolf-like creatures and men.

I hope you enjoyed this week's blog post and the contrasting films of the 1920s and 1930s! If would like to check out more films, there are many similar pieces produced by several different artists. I would definitely suggest taking a look to see what you can find!

Enjoy your films! “That’s all folks!”

#Disney