Red Riding Hood (1931)
Article 5616 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-30-2018
Directed by Harry Bailey and John Foster
Voice cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Van Beuren cartoon

Red Riding Hood’s grandmother is prescribed to take jazz tonic by her doctor, and the tonic rejuvenates her and returns her to youth. This makes her a very different target for the Big Bad Wolf.

Two factors played into my choosing to review this one; it’s an adaptation (albeit a very loose one) of a famous fairy tale, and the rejuvenating jazz tonic adds a bit more fantastic content to the mix. It’s also very much a product of its time; like other early thirties cartoons, it’s full of extreme animated exaggeration, sometimes surreal visuals, lots of music and dancing, and characters that look like Mickey Mouse but aren’t. Van Bueren also put out the human Tom and Jerry cartoons, and the quality of this one is about on par with one of those; it has a few moments, but over all, it’s only so-so. It’s also a little on the adult side; the plot, such as it is, involves bigamy.