Little Red Rodent Hood

OK, so fairy tales and bedtime stories are some of the easiest to make fun of, and "Little Red Riding Hood" may be at the top of the list. Before "Little Red Rodent Hood", the Termite Terrace crowd had already made "Little Red Riding Rabbit", and they later made "Red Riding Hoodwinked". This one portrays a mouse's grandmother telling him the famous story, and the mouse imagines it with himself as Red and Sylvester as the wolf. You can probably guess what sorts of things he does to Sylvester; naturally one trick involves dynamite (they loved their TNT, didn't they?).

So, this is far from the best Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon; having seen "Duck Amuck" and "What's Opera, Doc?", I expect really clever, high quality from them. But it's OK in a pinch. Currently available on the Looney Tunes website.

Yeah, nobody whistles Dixie anymore.

Fun Sylvester short directed by Friz Freleng. A little grandma mouse is reading her granddaughter mouse, Teeny, the story of Little Red Riding Hood. But since this is the mouse version of that tale, naturally the wolf is replaced by Sylvester the cat. Sylvester gets more than he bargained for, not just from Teeny, but from bulldog Hector as well. Lots of funny gags in this one. As another reviewer mentioned, these old parodies of fairy tales were usually very good. Lively music from Carl Stalling. Great voice work from Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet. Blanc's voice for Teeny is pretty similar to his voice for Tweety. The animation is beautiful with rich colors and well-drawn characters and backgrounds. The light blue eyes on Teeny are a nice touch. I also love Teeny's bed being a matchbox. The little things like that are common in cartoons of the time involving mice (Tom & Jerry especially) but I never get tired of it. Anyway, it's not one of the best Sylvester cartoons but it is an enjoyable one.

I have to say: almost every cartoon I have seen which was a takeoff on the famous "Little Red Riding Hood" tale has been very clever and funny.....and this one is no exception.

Instead of the usual cast of characters, we have "Teeny," the little mouse playing "Red" and Sylvester The Cat playing the big, bad wolf. The action takes place inside house, not in a forest, but the artists make the interior almost look like a forest. So, not only is the story humorous and pretty smart, but so is the artwork which really looks gorgeous with this Golden Collection Volume 5 "restored" version.

As good as this looks, though, it's still the jokes that make this such a winner. A lot of kids wouldn't get some of wise-guy humor, which is definitely geared toward making adults laugh, and some of it is topical, too, for anyone familiar with the early '50s.

"Red" was a wise-guy little rodent and Sylvester, was...well, Sylvester, who usually is pretty entertaining. I think Looney Tunes hit its peak in this period (1948-1954) with incredibly good material, and this cartoon is a prime example of good they were at this time.

Perhaps not the best one, not being the funniest, sharpest or wittiest, but still very enjoyable and clever with a lot to like about it. Although it is not up there with the best of Looney Tunes, there is not much to complain about.

The best things about 'Little Red Rodent Hood' are the animation, music and voice acting. The animation is bright and colourful as well as beautifully and smoothly drawn with lots of meticulous detail.

Carl Stalling's music score is lushly orchestrated, bursting with energy and character and is not only dynamic with the action but enhances it. Also consistently superb is the voice acting from Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet, especially from the ever exuberant and versatile Blanc.

'Little Red Rodent Hood' is not the funniest or wittiest of the cartoons based on the 'Little Red Riding Hood' story, but it is very energetically paced and clever. The gags are still funny, if not exactly hilarious, and timed well, Sylvester bagging all the best moments. Love the little moments too.

Teeny is adorable, without being too cutesy and is never obnoxious. The funnier and more interesting character is Sylvester in the wolf role, and he is a suitable threat while bringing great humour but being written in a way that we feel sorry for him as well. The two have good chemistry together, important in this story.

In conclusion, very enjoyable if not among the best of Looney Tunes. 8/10 Bethany Cox