"Little Red Riding Rabbit" is a 1944 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Bugs Bunny. This is the first time Mel Blanc receives a credit for a cartoon.
It is a parody of "Little Red Riding Hood", in which Red, a typical 1940s teenage bobbysoxer with a very loud, grating voice, is bringing a rabbit [Bugs] to her grandma "to have". Of course, a big bad wolf is waiting for them.
"Little Red Riding Rabbit" provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: A slight variation of the Big Bad Wolf, as while normally wanting to devour Red and/or her grandma, here he's more interested in eating a more appropriate prey animal (i.e. Bugs); even after revealing that he's a wolf to Red, he refuses to eat her and instead throws her out of the house.
- Asshole Victim: While Red's not a bad person per se, she's incredibly annoying (and that's putting it mildly).
- The Bad Guy Wins: Bugs, annoyed by Red's interruptions (and her overall obnoxious behavior), climbs down the pile of stuff he's making the Wolf hold over a shovelful of coals and shuffles it around so it's now with Red split over the coals holding everything. The two then watch Red about to get 'redder', Bugs happily sharing bites of a carrot with the Wolf.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Red, owing to her bobby-soxer personality, bad singing, and No Indoor Voice.
- The Ditz: Red attempts to show Bugs to himself and has some trouble remembering her lines to the Wolf.
- Enemy Mine: Bugs and the Wolf team up against Red at the very end.
- Get Out!: After the Wolf chases Bugs around the house, Red comes back. The Wolf shouts this before forcing her back out the door, though Bugs takes advantage to shove him out, as well.
- Getting the Boot: The bum's rush variant. When Red tries to stick to the story by asking the Wolf about his big eyes and nose, he grabs her and rushes her out the door so he can get to eating Bugs.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The Big Bad Wolf, as he usually is in Looney Tunes shorts.
- The Last Straw: There's a literal one and metaphorical one—Bugs is about to add the literal last straw on the pile the wolf is holding while perched over a fire when obnoxious Red interrupts to ask Grandma just one more thing...which to Bugs is the metaphorical last straw.Bugs: I'll do it...but I'll probably hate myself in the morning.
- Never Mess with Granny: Though unseen, Red's grandmother is implied to be a Rosie the Riveter type who was out working a "swing" shift at Lockheed (an aircraft manufacturing company, now merged with rival Martin Marietta to create Lockheed Martin).
- Never Trust a Title: Bugs isn't in the Little Red Riding Hood role as the title (and title card) would imply.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed
- Red's voice is inspired by Cass Daley, a comedic actress from screen and radio.
- At one point, the wolf does an impression of French actor Charles Boyer to get rid of Red.
- No Indoor Voice: Red. No matter what she says, it's loud and obnoxious. "HEEEEY GRANDMA!!! I BROTCHA A LIL' BUNNY RABBIT! TA HAVE!!"''
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bugs was still in his more heckler-like persona at this point in his filmography, but to switch the Wolf with Red, an annoying but innocent character who never directly threatened or disrespected him—just got in the way of his gag—is extremely rare for him to do (Buckaroo Bugs being a similar example), and would be downright unthinkable in his later characterizations.
- Road-Sign Reversal: The wolf sends Red on the long way to Grandma's house, which weaves around an entire mountain. Funny enough this only gives him enough time to read the note Grandma left on the door, change clothes, and kick some other wolves out of the bed.
- Rump Roast: Bugs pokes the Wolf in the butt with a hot coal from the fireplace, and as he jumps up in pain, Bugs lays down a whole shovelful of them underneath him. The Wolf manages to do a split between two chairs to avoid the coals, so Bugs starts piling up stuff on top of him to weigh him down. When Red interrupts the gag, Bugs—saying he'll hate himself in the morning for it but doing it anyways—decides to make her switch places with the Wolf, putting her over the coals holding everything.
- Running Gag: Red interrupting Bugs and the wolf's shenanigans by trying to say her lines about Grandma.
- The Runt at the End: The wolf finds a bunch of other wolves in Grandma's bed and tells them to beat it. After he lies down he feels something stirring behind the pillow,—and a small wolf left behind comes out and leaves.
- Scooby-Dooby Doors: The Wolf and Bugs wind up chasing each other through several doors in Grandma's surprisingly roomy house.
- Stop Copying Me: Bugs mimics the Wolf to annoy him, only to trick the Wolf into mimicking himself, and eventually lead into a rousing rip-roaring rendition of "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet" complete with dancing—letting Bugs hold up a sign saying "Silly, isn't he?" (A gag reused from "Heckling Hare", and later repeated in "Stage Door Cartoon" and "Hare-Way to the Stars").
- Sure, Let's Go with That:Red: HEY GRANDMA, WHAT BIG EYES/EARS YOU GOT?
Wolf: [sending Red out] Yeah yeah, big eyes/ears, big eyes/ears! *bum rush out the door* - The Unreveal: Red has already questioned the wolf on his big eyes, big nose, big ears and sharp teeth, and one wonders what she was planning to ask Grandma next when she interrupted for the last time.
- Verbal Tic: Red ends a lot of her lines with the exclamation "Ta' Have!", just another thing that makes her so very irritating.
- Wartime Cartoon: Red's grandmother is apparently working the swing shift at a Lockheed aircraft factory.
