Tex Avery: Classic Crewball Red Hot Riding Hood

Tex Avery’s insane animated classic Red Hot Riding Hood was originally released alongside Dr. Gillespie’s Criminal Case entry in the old Dr. Kildare series, which, let’s face it, is probably not making too many modern “greatest films ever” lists unless you were around when radios still ruled the living room. Meanwhile, more than 80 years later, Red Hot Riding Hood is still tearing the house down as one of the greatest cartoons of all time.

The cartoon completely shattered the sweet, safe fairy-tale formula audiences were used to. Instead of cute woodland innocence, Tex Avery delivered a wild, adult-oriented fever dream packed with nightclub singers, surreal gags, and one of animation’s most unhinged characters: the sex-crazed Wolf, often nicknamed Slick or Wolfie. His over-the-top reactions to Red became legendary. Hair flying out, eyes exploding, pounding tables, smashing himself with a mallet, and basically combusting every time she walked on screen. The censors at the Hays Office hated it so much that they demanded cuts to many of the Wolf’s reactions because they thought audiences might spontaneously burst into flames themselves.

Ironically, while the censors were panicking, army officers overseas reportedly asked for the uncut version to entertain servicemen during World War II, where it became a gigantic morale booster. That alone tells you how far ahead of its time this cartoon really was.

The original ending was even crazier. The Wolf marries Grandma, and later he and his wolf-sons are sitting in a nightclub cheering for Red while she performs onstage. Completely absurd. Completely Tex Avery.

One of the smartest things Avery did was to have the characters immediately break the fourth wall. Red, Grandma, and the Wolf openly mock the tired old fairy-tale version and demand a modern retelling before the story even really begins. It feels shockingly modern even today. Avery basically tossed Disney’s rulebook out the window and replaced realism with rapid-fire insanity, surreal timing, and jokes aimed squarely at adults.

Red herself became an animation icon. Her speaking voice was modeled after Katharine Hepburn, while her singing voice borrowed inspiration from Lena Horne. And if you are a fan of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, you already know that Jessica Rabbit owes a huge debt to Red’s design and attitude.

The success of the cartoon was so massive that Avery brought the characters back for the sequel, Swing Shift Cinderella in 1945. Oddly enough, in the original 1943 short, nobody actually calls Red “Red Hot Riding Hood” at all. The title existed, but the character herself was simply Red.