The Trial of Mr. Wolf (1941)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Excellent, a Must See

Boring, long, and too preachy.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

OK, so a number of cartoons have used fairy tales as their basis, and Little Red Riding Hood is one of the prime examples. In the early '40s, Warner Bros. alone released several cartoons featuring renditions of the story. One example is Friz Freleng's "The Trial of Mr. Wolf", in which the story's lupine co-star tells his version of the events: Little Red and grandmother are a pair of homicidal maniacs bent on turning him into a fur coat. Of course, we the audience doubt Mr. Wolf's credibility the whole time.I suspect that this cartoon was a place holder in between the really great cartoons of that year (1941 saw Bugs Bunny's ascendancy to cartoon superstar in shorts such as "Elmer's Pet Rabbit", "Tortoise Beats Hare" and "Wabbit Twouble"). So we can forgive it if it doesn't quite reach the hilarity level achieved by Warner's more famous cartoons. Worth seeing for what it is. Available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5 Disc 2.

Here is yet another take on "Little Red Riding Hood," this one from the wolf's side! By the way, I have yet to see a bad spoof of that famous fairy tale as that story seems to bring out the best in Looney Tunes writers.This also is hilarious right from the beginning at the court room. Check out the wolf's attire and his shills in the jury, or the Katharine Hepburn imitation by "Red." Even in 1941, some of these cartoons seemed geared more for adults to laugh than kids.This cartoon really gives a unique on the story as we see a not-so-innocent Little Red Riding Hood, portrayed as a brutal, ruthless accomplice to the furrier "Grandma," who wants to skin the poor old wolf for his hide! This is unbelievable! Read the quotes under "Fun Stuff" on the title page here and you get idea of what you'll see and hear in this wild cartoon, which I found hilarious - especially the bloodthirsty Granny near the end - with spectacular artwork.Whoever did the Hepburn imitation should be given credit, too, but it's not listed here. The voices, the artwork and the comedy all make this a huge winner, one of the best of the early Looney Tunes cartoons.

This short takes the Little Red Riding Hood tale and flips it around, with an amusing (if improbable) version being told by the Wolf on the witness stand. As I want to discuss some of the details, this is a spoiler warning: The short opens with the introduction of the case of the Big Bad Wolf versus Little Red Riding Hood, in a bit of a role reversal, with the Wolf bringing charges against Little Red Riding Hood, with his attorney making an opening statement to a jury comprised of a majority of wolves (and one very lonely skunk at the FAR end of the jury box. The Wolf is on the witness stand. Given the story he's relating, if he's under oath, he may well be up on perjury charges before the day is out! He portrays himself in such sweetly decorous behavior that he makes Buster Brown look like one of the Dead End Kids. He's so infantile that a bird yells at him, telling him harshly to act his own age. The Wolf then paints a picture of Little Red Riding Hood (with a voice styled after Katharine Hepburn) out to be a conniving trader in fur coats. He winds up at Grandma's house, where Red disappears from the short after pushing him inside and locking a whole flock of doors. Grandma is in bed and you hear a variation on the exchange between Red and the Wolf, only with the Wolf delivering Red's standard lines and Grandma doing the Wolf's. Grandma then spends most of the rest of the short trying to separate the Wolf from his hide (strangely enough, Grandma isn't in the dock with Red, though she supposedly tries to kill him and skin him repeatedly.We finally return to the Wolf rather energetically trying to testify, only to find that even a packed jury doesn't believe his baloney. The ending is cute and I won't spoil it here. This one is well worth watching, if you get the opportunity. Recommended.

Everyone can think of a certain cartoon rendition of Little Red Riding Hood, and this is definitely that one for me. It's one of the firsts, and it's brilliant in the way that it does something none of the others have done, tell the story from a different point of view. No one's ever thought of how the Wolf feels about the whole situation, and this short gives a very humorous way of showing how he did (or how he tried to make people believe he did anyway). After all is said and done, this is one of Friz's best.