- Once upon a time, there was a wolf
And he had a lovely wife, and a nice house, and a good job.
He should have been very happy, but he wasn’t.
Redux Riding Hood is an animated short film released in 1997 produced by Disney Television Animation and Toonz Animation Ltd New Zealand.
It takes place five years after the story of Little Red Riding Hood and follows The Big Bad Wolf who, despite being married and having a job as a car mechanic, sees himself as an utter failure for not being able to eat Red Riding Hood. Not wanting to be seen as a disgrace, The Wolf builds a time machine to help his past self catch Red. Things don’t go the way that The Wolf hoped for.
The film was made with a hybrid of cel animation and collage elements in a visual style distinct from other animated Disney productions at the time and featured Michael Richards, Mia Farrow, Lacey Chabert, Fabio, and Adam West in voice roles, with Garrison Keillor narrating. It was also part of an intended series known as Totally Twisted Fairy Tales, which was meant to present unorthodox takes on fairy tales.
Tropes:
- Aside Glance: Doris gives one to the audience while the Wolf tries and fails to go to the past before he realizes that the time machine’s emergency brake was on.
- The Big Bad Wolf: Despite also being produced by Disney, the recurring Big Bad Wolf character that debuted in the classic Silly Symphonies short isn’t the star here. This Wolf is depicted as being married to a sheep named Doris, having a job at a car repair shop, and being deeply troubled over his past failure.
- Daydream Surprise: The Wolf imagines himself succeeding at eating Red, only to get a rude awakening from his boss (voiced by Don Rickles) telling him to get back to work.
- Failure Montage: The first two attempts at changing the past are shown in full. Subsequent attempts after those are condensed into a montage where the outcomes of trying to change the past gets more and more crazy.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: The aftermath of Little Red Riding Hood with a self-loathing wolf and time travel.
- Ink-Suit Actor: The Woodsman as depicted here is basically an animated version of his voice actor Fabio.
- Interspecies Romance: The Wolf is initially married to Doris, a sheep. By the time the short ends, she uses his time machine to marry Leonard Fox instead.
- Loser Protagonist: The Big Bad Wolf, who is mocked by his co-workers and society for failing to catch Red and is called a "failure" by his wife, who eventually leaves him after he makes one too many mistakes while going back to the past.
- My Greatest Failure:
- Not being able to eat Red is this for the Wolf. He desires to overcome this by building a time machine to help his past self eat her.
- As the short progresses, Doris comes to the realization that being married to the Wolf instead of Leonard Fox is her biggest failure. Once the house ends up crowded with numerous Wolves arguing with each other over their failures, she steals his time machine and uses it to marry Leonard.
- Never Mess with Granny: The first attempt to fix the Wolf’s past mistake ends with the two Wolves learning the hard way that Granny was locked in the ammo closet and that she has no problem gunning them down. A later attempt ends with numerous Wolves getting chased out by Granny commandeering a tank.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: The Wolf’s co-workers at his job and other people outside of it spare no expense at mocking him for his failure to eat Red. This only adds to his present-day frustrations.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Following the first attempt to revisit the past, The Wolf and his past self argue over their failure. Subsequent attempts bring more and more Wolves to the present and it gets to a point where the other Wolves are doing nothing but arguing with each other.
- P.O.V. Sequel: It is set after Little Red Riding Hood and focuses on The Big Bad Wolf who is unable to cope with failing to eat Red.
- Plagued by Nightmares: Ever since failing to eat Red, The Wolf has had frequent nightmares reliving that encounter with her.
- Room Full of Crazy: The Wolf's attempt to do a Crossword Puzzle ends with him not only filling it with "Red", but also writing "Red" all over his bedroom as a result of him obsessing over his failure. Doris is not happy when she discovers the writing on the wall.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The final attempt by the Wolves to eat Red ends with Grandma’s house randomly exploding.
- Temporal Duplication: Each subsequent failure The Wolf suffers from going after Red results in him bringing more and more copies of his past self to his house. The short ends with The Wolf’s house being inhabited by nothing but copies of himself.
- Villain Protagonist: Comes with the territory of making a Little Red Riding Hood sequel story centered on its main villain.
- You Can't Fight Fate: No matter how many times the Wolf visits the past or how many Wolves there are with him, he is always doomed to fail in increasingly ridiculous ways.Doris: Did it ever occur to you that maybe you’re not meant to catch Little Red Riding Hood? That’s just not how the story goes.
