This is the second installment of the series Behind the Scenes. In each installment, the author will explore the production history of a single animated short or feature film produced by The Walt Disney Company or an earlier version of Walt’s company.
Produced in Walt Disney’s second year as a short film cartoon artist, “Little Red Riding Hood” (1922) is a very *unique* take on the classic tale. Situating itself in the before and after context of the tale, the silent cartoon attempts to orient itself around a comedic element but it is unclear if this worked. Perhaps it did work back in the 1920s but when viewed through the modern eye, it appears more disturbing than comedic.
A restored version of Walt's "Little Red Riding Hood"
Source: YouTube.com
The cartoon follows the same format as the classic tale that we all know and love. Under the orders of her mother, Little Red Riding Hood travels to her Grandmother’s house to deliver goods. Accompanied by her trusted furry dog companion, she runs into a rather creepy man who suddenly becomes interested in her. This man, our Big Bad Wolf of the short, eventually figures out that she is visiting her grandma, who is out seeing a movie. He breaks into the grandmother’s house and the rest of the short plays out in a similar fashion to the tale. Little Red Riding Hood discovers the man’s deceit and is rescued by another man (some versions of the tale include this) as they flee from the Big Bad Wolf.
“Little Red Riding Hood” was produced by the short-lived Laugh-O-Gram Studio as one of Walt’s first ever fictional cartoons (previously he had only done realist cartoons) as well as the first produced by the studio. Drawing on his childhood–his mother would read the classic fable tale to him often–as well as the popularity of fable tales at the time, Walt animated the majority of the cartoon on his own; instead of using animation cels, it was produced by photographing inked lines on paper. While the cartoon was never released to the public, it was screened to a ‘fly-by’ distribution company and was thought to have remained a lost myth before a print was discovered in London in 1998.
This cartoon marks the first appearance of Julius the Cat, who would go on to be Walt's first recurring animated character before Mickey and Oswald.
Source: disney.fandom.com
Although Walt’s attempt at this cartoon did not have the result it wanted (both financially and artistically speaking), it remains a treasure amongst Disney fans. To this day, very little exists from Walt’s early days as an animator so this short piece of footage is deemed nearly priceless. Even though the storytelling is questionable at best, it is amazing to think how far Walt has come from that. You know, maybe it was best to get out the bad ideas first.
Author Bio
Felicity Girty is an English major with a minor in Film, Television, and Digital Media and is the club’s Head Blog Writer. She is addicted to all things Disney and has an enormous passion for literature and entertainment. If not reading or immersed in pop culture, you can find her listening to literally any kind of music. Felicity hopes to work her way into the entertainment industry as a producer/showrunner, starting out in development. She is also involved in UCLA Project SPELL.
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