User reviews

Friz Freleng's 'Little Red Riding Rabbit' is a much admired gem of a cartoon and another strong retort to those who accuse Freleng of being a dull director. Taking liberties with the original Red Riding Hood story, 'Little Red Riding Rabbit' deletes Grandma from the story entirely and features a wolf who is actually more interested in the contents of Red's picnic basket than the girl herself. These contents turn out to be Bugs Bunny, who sets about having enormous fun with the dumb wolf in a series of beautifully orchestrated routines including a truly inspired vocal sparring match in which Bugs repeats everything the wolf says and slyly switches places so that he controls the dialogue. As great as the battle between Bugs and the wolf is, however, the cartoon is completely stolen by the loud-mouthed Red who persistently bursts in on the action to try and get the traditional version of the story back on track. By the end even Bugs has had enough of her and teams up with the wolf to deal with the little annoyance. In 'Little Red Riding Rabbit', Bugs is neither the good-hearted moral crusader or the aggressively anarchic lunatic, he's simply a mischievous manipulator having a great time with the latest dupes he's been presented with. This lends 'Little Red Riding Rabbit' an enjoyable sense of ethical ambiguity which makes the cruel finale seem entirely appropriate. It's a perfectly paced, beautifully written and hilariously executed classic.

Warner Brothers' made some of the greatest cartoons of all time and this is one of them. Absolutely hilarious and the quotes are classic like "HEY GRANDMA!..." or "...I'll do it. But I'll probably hate myself in the morning." Or the scene where Bugs gets the wolf singing "Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet". God, it's great stuff!!! Anyone who knows this cartoon doesn't need any explanation of the above. Another great one from this era is "Hold The Lion".

I wish I could say how much I loved this cartoon, as others seem to here. Overall, except for the last minute - which I loved - it wasn't entertaining, just grating. Of course, that "grating" was on purpose and led the final scene which was a pleasant surprise.

Until, then, the first thing that hits you is, "This isn't the 'Little Red Riding Hood' I know! It's some bobby-soxer Judy Garland-with glasses and-an-attitude .....and a voice that makes you wince more than hearing nails on a blackboard. Anyway, with Bugs along for the ride in her lunch basket, the two travel on their way to Granny's. The big bad wolf beats them here, thanks to a false "short cut" signs he plants to fool Red.

The wild stuff starts at Grandma's. beginning with the note Granny leaves on the door. Bugs and the wolf get into a long and silly chase that isn't really funny.

Now that last part, beginning with the wolf trying save his.....umm....well....valuable parts, shall we say, from being burned off is hilarious. The last scene was almost too good to be true, but I loved it. Now there is some JUSTICE!

I thought this was hilarious. It is tongue in cheek, so clever, that it works all the way. It begins with a truly obnoxious Little Red Riding Hood whose voice has the same quality as Elmer Fudd. She has Bugs Bunny in her basket and she is taking him to Grandma's house as a food offering. Bugs is along for the ride but isn't going to go quietly. Meanwhile, the obligatory wolf gets into the act. Of course, he heads for Grannie's house. When he gets there, he puts on her nightgown, but when he pulls back the covers, there are already four wolves in the bed. Bugs then goes to work on the wolf, leading to a great conclusion. This is one of the most satisfying of all the Warner Brothers cartoons.

In 'Little Red Riding Rabbit' we follow Little Red Riding Hood on her way to grandma. She brings him a bunny rabbit, Bugs Bunny of course. This time the wolf, hiding in grandmas bed, is not interested in the little girl (presented slightly more mature than you might expect), but in the rabbit. While the wolf is chasing Bugs, the girl interrupts them from time to time.

This cartoon, the first to credit Mel Blanc for his voice work, has a great start and ending, both good for some great laughs. The middle part is pretty standard with the chasing moments, although I liked it when they were interrupted by a very annoying Little Red Riding Hood. Maybe this cartoon does not belong to the greatest, it is entertaining nonetheless.

My favorite cartoon of all time, Bugs Bunny or otherwise. An absolutely hilarious spin on Little Red Riding Hood, during the war years, and with Bugs Bunny to put the exclamation point on it. I've actually had friends call me up to tell me, "Turn your TV to channel 'x'", because this cartoon was on, and I was known for it. While there's lots of Bugs cartoons that have me in stitches, this one hit me so hard, I know it verbatim. Before that was known to my friends, most of whom are also Bugs junkies, while playing poker 1 night I said to the guy w/ the winning hand, "That's a pretty good hand for you...TO HAVE!" And the table busted out laughing knowingly, leading to talk of our fave Bugs episodes. Actually, my fave cartoon character ever is Foghorn Leghorn. Everything about that character and his episodes is timeless and hilarious. But this Bugs cartoon has everything that could possibly make you laugh. It was years before I realized Red's voice was that of Bea Benaderet of Petticoat Junction fame. Though once I learned that, the cartoon is even funnier in what all it includes- the little twists played on the classic "Red Riding Hood" story line during the war years. To this day, I still use the line, "....TO HAVE!" when complimenting someone for whatever reason, and am not at all surprised to hear reactions in the unlikeliest of places, including when ordering a beer at a Cubs game- "That's a pretty big case of beer for you... TO HAVE!" Instant chuckles. I'm not at all surprised this ranked 39th in cartoon fame as voted by animators and such. But it does make me wonder how much funnier the first 38 are.

I cannot tell you how much I loved "Little Red Riding Rabbit". It is absolutely great; the animation is wonderful and the music is great. There are many priceless bits, the dialogue was mighty fine especially the repeated "Hey granma", "come on, come on! Take a powder. This is my racket" and "Put on your ol' gray favourite and a blue..." And the ending was hilarious. The voice characterisations are excellent, Mel Blanc as always is brilliant as Bugs, Bea Beanderet is deliberately annoying as the obnoxious Red and Billy Bletcher(who voiced Pete in the early Silly Symphony cartoons) is raspacious enough as the wolf. All in all, this cartoon is a great favourite of mine. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Little red riding hood is on her to her grandma's house with a little rabbit for her to stew. When she gets there she finds a wolf in her grandma's bed but one who is unwilling to play the usual game and is only interested in getting a bit of rabbit. Bugs is trapped in the house and has to try and outsmart the wolf.

All the Warner Brother cartoon characters have gone through changes throughout the years and Bugs is no different. Here his smart mouthed persona has an element of the sheer wacky about it, in fact all the characters do. This attitude that the characters have feeds through the whole cartoon and infects the humour to good effect. The gags are very knowing - eg the wolf gets into bed as grandma to find that four other wolves have already stolen his racket! This type of mocking humour is really good and it makes the cartoon funny in a wacky way.

It is the characters where it shows through most noticeably. Bugs is as close to a wise-ass New Yorker here as he ever is and it works well for me as I like that side of him. Riding Hood herself is nice and annoying with good voice work for her! The wolf is really funny and he suits the style of humour of the cartoon.

Overall this is a very funny Bugs cartoon if you like him in smartass mode! The humour, animation and characters all feel rough and ready and all totally suit each other and it is very easy to spend the whole short laughing, right up till the typically Bugs ending.

The 'big, bad wolf' (apparently on sabbatical from Disney Studios) plans trick innocent Red Riding Hood into surrendering her basket, which is full of delicious rabbit. Mayhem ensues. The cartoon opens with Red belting out an obnoxiously loud rendition of 'Five O'clock Whistle' as she bops her way over to Grandma's (who's off Rosie-riveting at Lockheed). The wolf, now in old-lady drag, tricks the credulous bobby-soxer into leaving the basket only to end up the target of Bugs' usual semi-sadistic shenanigans. Despite being dismissed from the tale early, Red feels obligated to carry out her usual role of questioning Grandma's big eyes, big ears, big teeth etc., much to the irritation of the wolf, and eventually, the rabbit. Bea Benedict (of Petticoat Junction (1963) fame) is fabulous voicing the irritatingly loud and brassy granddaughter. A funny cartoon war-time cartoon with a great score from a time when the wabbit was as much a bastawd as he was a wascal. (#41 in the '50 Greatest Cartoons'),

Everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but Bugs Bunny has his own version, natch. This one is mostly more of Bugs's irreverence, but I liked how they gave the wolf a slightly different role than we usually know. A previous reviewer noted how they used sounds created by Bob Clampett (although Clampett didn't direct this one). Whether or not you notice that, this is still a great cartoon. It just goes to show why the Looney Tunes were truly the gold standard of their day (I can't say the same for their more recent cartoons). You're sure to like "Little Red Riding Rabbit". And that's certainly not all, folks.

Might I hate myself for this review?

Bugs Bunny is in Little Reds wicker picnic basket as a present for her Grandma. But when they get there a wolf is in the house and no grandma in sight. Bugs and the wolf naturally go at it, but are constantly interrupted by an obnoxious Little Red who really wants to get her lines in. This is one of my all time favorite Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny shorts and the scene where the wolf is singing and dancing only to be interrupted by Little Red which he just casually slams the door in her face and goes right back to singing and dancing. That gets me laughing every single time I see it. GREAT stuff. This animated short can be seen on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.

My Grade: A+

This cartoon is one of my favorites for a lot of reasons, one of them being that it's a showcase for the sound F/X that were created by Robert Clampett and used throughout in the WB cartoons, even the ones that he didn't direct, such as this one. There is the "bee-whup," the singular "boit," and the most famous one, the "yada-yada-yada." There may even be a couple more I can't think of, but those three are instantly recognizable to long-time Bugs Watchers as Clampett's own.

Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Classic Merrie Melodies short is a retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood story except here we have Bugs Bunny being what the wolf is wanting. A lot of people seem to be rather hit and miss on this short but I've always found it to be quite funny from start to finish. Some put down the granddaughter as being too annoying but I think that's the entire point and it does pay off well in the ending where things get mixed up a little. The action between the wolf and Bugs is pure classic with a number of great scenes including the wonderful one where Bugs puts a hot coal inside the wolf's pants. The animation is extremely well done and there's enough action for two movies.

Of all the Little Red Riding Hood spoofs, this has to be my favorite. The sight gags from this short are cliche now, but they were new back then...the chase up and down the stairs and through the doors, etc.

The best part about this one was the totally obnoxious Red Riding Hood, the bobby-socked, puberty-challenged brat singing "Five O'clock Whistle". I'm sure she was modeled after someone's kid..I just wish I knew who!