The Story of Little Red Riding Hood
About The Story of Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood lives with her mother in a stone cottage at the edge of a forest. Her mother sends her with a basket of cookies to grandmother's yellow house with a red roof, and tells her not to leave the path or speak to anyone. She stops to pick flowers. A wolf on a rock, which she takes for a big brown dog, learns the address and runs ahead. A gruff voice tells her to lift the latch. In the dark room she asks about his long ears, long nose, large eyes, and sharp teeth. A huntsman shoots the wolf. Grandmother and the girl thank him, and she walks home.
Cast & crew
More about The Story of Little Red Riding Hood
Bailey Films of Hollywood presented the short and distributed it. Charlotte Knight wrote the narrative, and James Matthews narrates. The copyright line reads 1949, Ray Harryhausen. Fred Blasauf is associate animator and associate producer.
Themes
Making
Martha Reske made the costumes. Sound was recorded by Cinesound. Harryhausen put his own photography credit under the name Jerome Wray.
Look
The titles say 'Photographed in Three Dimensional Animation.' The picture is color, about 1.37:1, and the camera credit is Jerome Wray.
Music
James Matthews narrates. Cinesound recorded the track. No composer is named.
Preservation
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences restored the picture used on the 2005 Sparkhill disc. A Prelinger Archives copy is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- The basket is cookies, not cake and wine. Grandmother's house is yellow with a red roof.
- She thinks the wolf is the biggest brown dog she has ever seen.
- A huntsman kills the wolf with a gun. The short does not have him cut the girl and her grandmother out of the wolf.
- The end card names Bailey Films, Inc., Hollywood 28, California.
- West German prints were titled Rotkäppchen und der Wolf. Venezuelan prints used La historia de Caperucita roja.
- Extracts appear in The Harryhausen Chronicles (1998).
Scenes
- She picks flowers sweeter than peppermint and meets the wolf on a rock.
- The wolf asks where grandmother lives, then vanishes into the bushes.
- In the dark bedroom she asks about his ears, nose, eyes, and teeth.
- The huntsman shoulders his gun and walks back into the forest.
Influenced by
- The storybook tale of Little Red Riding Hood
Also available
- Internet Archive (0475LittleRedRidingHood)
- Sparkhill DVD Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection (2005)
Quotes
Lift the latch and come in.
All the better to eat you with, my dear.
