Sague 1 Karen Rose Sague Folklore, Fairytales, and Children s Literature Professor Richard Moye 20 April 2011 The Adaption of Fairytales: Little Red Riding Hood If there is one thing at which our society excels, it is telling stories. If there is another thing at which our society excels, it is changing and adapting those stories. There are several reasons to change a story, especially a fairy tale: to adapt it for a different audience, to make it fit a new societal perspective, or simply to give it a new perspective. One method used to adapt fairy tales, especially now, is the use of visual media. It has become very popular in the digital age to adapt popular fairy tales for the screen; some examples of successful fairy tales turned cinematic are: Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella, The Emperor s New Clothes (known on the screen as The Emperor s New Groove), Rapunzel (known on the screen as Tangled), Into the Woods (by Stephan Sondheim), and most recently Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood is unique from the other examples, since in its most recent cinematic debut it was adapted into a bona- fide horror flick. However, there are some other cinematic examples of Little Red Riding Hood that are also perfect examples of how society adapts the same fairy tales to fit the social mores of the time. The earliest versions of Little Red Riding Hood are by no means suitable for children. In the early stories, Red Riding Hood is tricked by the wolf into eating the flesh and blood of her own grandmother in a twisted act of unknown cannibalism. The early stories also involve Red Riding Hood taking off and burning her clothes before climbing into bed with
Sague 2 the wolf. In some versions, the story ends with the wolf eating her. In other versions, she sees through the wolf s disguise and escapes by complaining about not wanting to soil the bedclothes and then running away once out of reach of the wolf. No matter the ending, however, the early versions of Little Red Riding Hood are intended for the ears of an adult audience. It is not until The Grimm Brothers published anthology of folk and fairy tales, that Little Red Riding Hood became a children s story. The Grimm Brother s version of Little Red Riding Hood is presented two different ways. In the brothers first rendition of the story, the little girl is tricked by the wolf into lingering on the path to grandmother s house, picking flowers, while the wolf steals away to grandmother s house to devour the grandmother and wait for Red Cap in the grandmother s clothes (as she is called in the first version). When Red Cap arrives at the house, we get the well- known dialogue: Oh! grandmother, she said, what big ears you have! The better to hear you with, my child, was the reply. But grandmother, what big eyes you have! she said. The better to see you with, my dear. But, grandmother, what large hands you have! The better to hug you with. Oh! But, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have! The better to eat you with! (Grimm 113-114) The wolf then eats Red Cap, and it is only after a passing hunter hears the wolf snoring, enters the house, and cuts the wolf open that Red Cap and her grandmother are rescued. The hunter then sews up heavy rocks into the wolf s belly and he collapses and dies in his attempt to run away from the hunter. The last paragraph in the story is a statement from
Sague 3 Red Cap herself about how she will never again stray from the path in the woods and how she will always listen to her mother. Though this story had been around for a while before the Grimm Brothers collected it, by the time they wrote down this version the story had evolved into this straightforward template about the importance of good little girls obeying their mothers. Other versions of Little Red Riding Hood continue the story past this point. In another Grimm Brothers story of Little Red Riding Hood, Red Cap is taking food to her grandmother again and is approached by another wolf. However, she is mindful of her mother s advice, and hurries on to grandmother s house. Once there, Red Cap and her grandmother lock the door. When the wolf waits on the roof for Red Cap to leave, the grandmother tells Red Cap to fill the trough outside the door with water, which had been used to boil sausages. The wolf is enticed by the smell of the sausages, and ends up drowning in the trough. This version of the story reinforces the idea of children being mindful of their parents instructions, as it sets the two endings of the story in contrast with each other: when the girl does not listen to her mother s instructions, both she and her grandmother get eaten by the wolf, when the girl does listen to her mother s instructions, she and her grandmother remain safe from harm. Thus, the Grimm Brother s story serves as a tool with which parents can instruct their children on the importance of being good and obedient children. When people like Walt Disney began to adapt fairytales for the screen, Little Red Riding Hood was not among the more popular ones to be chosen. But that does not mean that there aren t any film versions of the story out there. Quite the contrary, in fact. While it is only more recently that there have been any full- length versions made, there are several
Sague 4 animated short films that fantastically illustrate the idea of adapting fairy tales for a changing society. In 1943, Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer released a cartoon short entitled Red Hot Riding Hood. The cartoon begins with the standard story of Little Red Riding Hood; Red on her way to her grandmother s house, the wolf lying in wait to pounce upon her, and the grandmother lying her bed. However, none of the characters look at all happy and finally the wolf turns to the audience and exclaims AW, STOPPIT! Waiting in the woods, with the mean old wolf, waiting to pounce on poor Red Riding Hood. I m FED UP with that sissy stuff! It s the same old story, over and over! If you can t do this thing a new way, bub, I quit! This outburst leads to Red Riding Hood and the grandmother voicing their own complaints with the traditional fairy- tale, until the narrator gets annoyed with all the complaining and agrees to revamp the entire story. When the story restarts, it is now set in a Las Vegas style urban setting, and all of the characters have been rewritten. Red is a sexy nightclub singer (somewhat of a combination of Jessica Rabbit and Betty Boop; see pictures), Grandma is a brothel madam, and the Wolf is a suave and debonair skirt chaser. (The three stages of Red in Red Hot Riding Hood. Little Red, in- between, Red Hot.)
Sague 5 Rather than wanting to devour Red in the traditional sense, the Wolf is an audience member in her nightclub where he appreciates her performance with howls, shrieks, and whistles (wolf whistles, to be precise). He attempts to get Red to run away with him, but she escapes his advances by saying she is going to her grandmother s house where she s burning a little light in the window for me, Granny she is. The wolf follows her to Grandma s, but Red is not there. Rather, we meet Grandma a sex crazed man chaser who is all over the wolf like honey on Velcro: At LAST, a wolf! What s your hurry, hairy? After a flee- and- pursue scene worthy of a Looney Tunes cartoon, the wolf makes his way back to the nightclub where he declares I m fed up with women. They re nothing but trouble. If I catch myself looking at another babe, I ll kill myself. This statement is followed, of course, by the curtains on the stage opening and the beginning of Red s next performance. Wolf takes out two guns and shoots himself in the head, but his ghost rises up and begins to howl, shriek, and whistle like he did during the first performance, as the screen fades out. This rendition of Little Red Riding Hood adapts a children s fairy tale back into a story intended for an adult audience. The cartoon is full of subtle (and not so subtle) jokes that would fly right over children s heads. Even the inspiration for character of Red Hot Riding Hood herself is based on Hollywood stars that children would not have been familiar with Betty Grable, Lena Horne, and Katharine Hepburne. While it may seem somewhat shocking that the censors allowed this cartoon to be released, it should be noted that the original print of the cartoon was even racier. The original print ended in a shotgun wedding between Wolf and Grandma, while their half- wolf, half- human offspring attend Red s show. This version was abandoned after it was determined that the implication of bestiality was more offensive than an abrupt suicide.
Sague 6 In 1959, The Rocky and Bullwinkle show aired its first series of episodes under the name of The Jet Fuel Formula. Aside from the main storyline, this show had several parallel stories, including Dudley Do-Right of the Royal Canadian Mounties, Aesop and Son, Peabody s Improbable History, and of course the ever popular Fractured Fairy Tales. This was a cartoon short that took the traditional fairy tales and adapted them into humorous stories that had little relevance other than to make the viewer laugh. One of the first Fractured Fairy Tales in season one was titled Riding Hoods Anonymous. In this episode, we are introduced to the Wolf who is standing behind a tree reading from a book by the name of Words of Courage and Hope to Riding Hood Eaters as he is trying to kick the Riding Hood habit. In this version of Little Red Riding Hood, it is assumed that Riding Hoods refers to a large group of little girls in the forest, not just one, and that those who eat Riding Hoods can join an Alcoholic s Anonymous- type group called Riding Hoods Anonymous. The Wolf tries in vain to convince Red that he is a changed wolf, but when he tries to help her with her basket of goodies, it explodes in his face. It should be noted that this is the ultimate running gag through the entire episode; every time he picks up a basket, it explodes. Once he convinces Red that he will deliver her basket for her as well as buy a dozen memberships to the PTA, he sets off to Grandma s house. On the way, he has a revelation and he reads in his book: Though Riding Hoods you may not munch, there s nothing wrong with a Grandma lunch and he runs off through the woods with the intention of eating Grandma. However, the wolf is not very bright and Grandma convinces him that she is actually a Riding Hood and that Red is in fact the grandma. When he confronts Red, she points out that his own book identifies which is a Riding Hood and which is a grandma (picture).
Sague 7 (The wolf s book clears things up.) This goes on for several minutes until the wolf gets so fed up that he abandons Riding Hoods Anonymous and eats both Red and Grandma. We are left with this final exchange between the narrator and the wolf: Narrator: Well, it looks as if no body lives happily ever after! Wolf: Heh heh heh! I did! Narrator: You did? Wolf: Sure! I got to be a member of the PTA and a member of the DAR and besides; I got these two hundred baskets full of *Gigantic explosion, cut to bedraggled wolf with angel wings floating upwards* Narrator: Yeah goodies. Well, I was right. No one lived happily ever after! In the Fractured Fairy Tales version of Little Red Riding Hood, the story is adapted so that it is accessible to both adults and to children. The jokes are easy to grasp for children, and adults can easily find humor in the way that the story is almost overly simplified. What Fractured Fairy Tales does is similar to what Red Hot Riding Hood did: it took the over- done
Sague 8 story of Little Red Riding Hood and gave it a swift kick to shake it up and make it new and entertaining, while still telling the same basic story. One of the more twisted versions of Little Red Riding Hood, however, is the most recent rendition: the 2011 horror film Red Riding Hood. In this version of the story, the character of Red Riding Hood (called Valerie) is stuck in a love triangle between her real love, the woodcutter, and the son of the blacksmith. All the while, the village is being terrorized by a werewolf. Through the events of the movie, it is revealed the werewolf in question is actually Valerie s own father and that anyone bitten by the wolf during the blood moon will receive the same curse. While intending to pass the curse onto Valerie, the woodcutter intercepts the wolf and it is he who is bitten by the wolf instead of Valerie. The two of them then kill her father together. Valerie moves into her grandmother s house and waits as the woodcutter learns to control the curse and his new werewolf powers. The movie ends with Valerie and her wolf lover being reunited. While this version of the story is twisted and adapted for the appreciation of an adult crowd, the parallels to the original story are still very evident. It is more like the early versions of the story, rather than the Grimm Brothers version. This is in part due to the undertones of bestiality and the vast amounts of violence that run through the movie. While each of these versions of Little Red Riding Hood is different, each one can be distinctly traced back to the original story. Each folktale and fairy tale we tell can be traced back to one from the previous decade (or century). As our society evolves, so do the stories we tell. It is only natural that the medium through which we tell them would change as well. From the spoken word, to the written word, now to the cinematic screen, the fairy tales we know continue to adapt.
Sague 9 Works Cited Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Little Red Riding Hood. Joanna Cole. New York: Random House, Inc. 1982. 112-114. Red Hot Riding Hood. Tex Avery. Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer, 1943. Film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qas6wmqoink Riding Hood s Anonymous. Fractured Fairy Tales. ABC. Fall, 1959. Television. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c4xh216ibo