Little Red Riding Hood
Adaptations for children
Disneyfication
Walt Disney's Animation
It was Walt Disney’s dream to make films that would tell stories and compete in the growing animation film industry (Solomon, 1991, p.9). However, as we are all probably aware, various folktales and fairy tales have been adapted by the famous, Walt Disney.
In 1922, Walt Disney produced an animation of Little Red Riding Hood, however, it did not reach the public eye.
In this adaptation, Little Red Riding Hood takes doughnuts to Grandmother’s house. Whereas, in Perrault’s version, she takes cake and a pot of butter. Similarly, in Grimm’s version she gathers a bottle of wine to take to her Grandmother’s. Furthermore, in The Story of Grandmother she takes a hot loaf of bread and a bottle of milk.
Walt Disney included the archetype of the cat, who appears in The Story of Grandmother.The cat resembles an anthropomorphic black cat from 1919, called Felix (Solomon, 1991, p.9).
A new character of the dog is introduced by Walt Disney, and just like the male hero in Grimm’s versions, saves her from the wolf.
This animation is aimed at the child audience. Unlike Perrault's horrifying ending, Disney, of course, has a hero to save the day. Similary, a male hero saves the protagonist in Grimm's Little Red Cap is saved by the male hero.
Reading for further research
Soloman, C. (1998, August, 3). Walt Disney’s Missing Link: Studio Preserves Animation’s Lost Treasure, 1922’s ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. The Washington Post, p.9.
Questions to consider:
1. Has Disney stolen the original folklore?
2. What archetypes does disney use? Consider men with the V shape and beautiful girls with thick hair.
3. What does this mean for scholars?
Click the play button to view Andrew Wilson's animation of Roald Dahl's poem
Roald Dahl's Poem
"She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature's head
And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead."
Roald Dahl adapted the tale of Little Red Riding Hood into a poem called Little Red Riding Hood and The Wolf. Unlike previous versions of the tale, Roald Dahl has left out two structural elements within the story. The beginning, where the protagonist takes necessities for her Grandmother and the middle, where she comes face to face with the wolf in the woods. In this poem, the viewer assumes that Little Red Riding Hood has walked to her Grandmother’s house.
The poem begins with the wolf knocking on Grandmother’s door, and then eats Grandmother. Little Red Riding Hood then knocks on Grandmother’s door and she is aware that the wolf is in Grandmother’s clothes. She then shoots the wolf.
The archetype of the male hero is absent, instead, the protagonist herself is the heroine as she shoots the wolf (Orenstein, 2002; Grimm’s, 2013). This poem potentially shows the shift and change of the role of the female in the twentieth century. By mid-nineteenth century, women throughout the Western World completely defined their rights (Orenstein, 2002).
Furthermore, this poem suggests that guns are used for protection against danger. However, children do need to be aware that there are other ways to protect themselves against danger, and that guns are a last resort.