Underground filmmaker David Kaplan met 16-year old star Christina Ricci at the Sundance Institute's Directors Workshop in 1996. The pair hit it off and Kaplan enlisted the actress to star in this short. He said she was absolutely perfect for the part because she has a sparkling intelligence in her eyes, and she has an uncanny resemblance to the famous Gustave Dor illustration of the Red Riding Hood character.
The film debuted at the Sundance Film festival in January 1997 before completing a hugely successful festival run.
The film has turned into a cult classic, even being used as part of the curriculum at Harvard, Oxford, and Columbia.
David Kaplan said his all-time favorite version of Little Red Riding Hood is Tex Avery's 1943 cartoon, "Red Hot Riding Hood."
Inspired by two books on the subject, Jack Zipes' "The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood" and Robert Darnton's "The Great Cat Massacre," the film takes its story from the original folklore and not directly from what most would consider the definitive version of the fairy tale, Charles Perrault's 1697 tale "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge."