Release Date:

May 3, 1952

Main Character(s):

Sylvester

Summary:

A grandma mouse tells “Little Red Riding Hood” as a bedtime story to her grandson, Teeny. Teeny imagines himself in Red’s role and Sylvester as the Big Bad Wolf (even though he’s still a cat).

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1208 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

Bea Benaderet reuses her Granny voice for the grandma mouse.

This is the first of four Sylvester cartoons to spoof a fairy tale (all directed by Freleng). The others include “Red Riding Hoodwinked” (1955), “Tweety and the Beanstalk” (1957), and “Goldimouse and the Three Cats” (1960). Coincidentally, all of these cartoons are available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5 DVD set (on the second disc, to be exact, as that disc’s theme is fairy tale parodies).

The three Big Bad Wolf wannabes already in bed and small one under a pillow gag is reused from “Little Red Riding Rabbit”.

A brief scene from this cartoon was used in the 1981 compilation movie, “The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie”.

Although Sylvester claims, “I don’t smoke!” at one point, he WOULD smoke in 1961’s “The Last Hungry Cat”.

During the scene where he’s disguised as Teeny’s “fairy godmother”, his “magic words” are “R-A-G-G-M-O-P-P”. This is a reference to the 1950 hit song, “Rag Mop” (even though Sylvester spells it with an extra G and an extra P).

I love the rendition of “Hickory Dickory Dock” over the opening credits.

Favorite Scene:

The scene where Sylvester disguises as the Fairy Godmother, intending to fry Teeny using an electrifying wand. Thanks to the interference of the bulldog, Sylvester gets tricked into using it on himself.

What Happens in This One:

At night on the farm, where the granny mouse resides in a hole in one of the barns, she informs, “It’s bedtime, Teeny. Let’s put on your sleepers”, giving Teeny a small “Bull Tobacco” bag as pajamas. “Will you tell me a bedtime story, Granny?”, Teeny asks, “Will ya, huh, Granny? Tell me a real scary one, will ya, Granny? Will ya, huh?” She agrees, “Alright. Alright. Off to bed”. As Teeny is in his bed (made from an empty matchbox), the granny mouse begins to think of a story before Teeny requests, “Tell me a real long one, huh, Granny? A real long one”. “Alright, alright, don’t interrupt”, the granny mouse tells him while tucking him in (animated by Virgil Ross).

The granny mouse begins the story of Little Red Riding Hood as the cartoon is now shown from Teeny’s imagination with himself as Little Red Riding Hood (even though Red is female). Inventively, the “wildflowers” that Teeny walks through are the wildflower patterns on the carpet of a house while the “forest” consists of table legs and chairs. “And as she approached the deep, dark forest, she did not know that lurking in its shadows was the Big Bad Wolf”. After that, the narration ends as the “Big Bad Wolf” is revealed to be a delighted Sylvester: “Well! Sufferin’ succotash! A tasty little morsel!” Sylvester watches Teeny go to “Grandma’s House” and decides to get there first by taking the “shortcut” which is a staircase up to “Grandma’s House”, which is a random bedroom (animated by Ross).

Once Sylvester enters, he puts on a nightgown and prepares to get into the bed only to find three other cats dressed in identical nightgowns already under the covers. Sylvester tells them to go away, “Aw, come on, you guys! Scram! Go find your own fairy story!” They all leave in a disgruntled manner as one mutters, “I told ya this wouldn’t work!” Sylvester gets into the bed and says to himself, “Everybody wants to get into the act!”, only to feel the pillow behind him move. A much smaller cat, also wearing a nightgown, is revealed to be under it as he giggles and offers, “Cigarette?”, to which Sylvester balks, “I don’t smoke! Beat it!” The small cat then leaves (animated by Arthur Davis).

Shortly, a knock on the door is heard (animated by Davis) and upon seeing Teeny come in, Sylvester begins to speak in his normal voice before correcting himself to a feminine voice, “Come in, Little Re- Come in, Little Red Riding Hood! If I’d a-knowed you were comin’, I’d have baked a ch-ch-cheesecake!” Teeny observes, “My, Granny! What big bags you have under your big bloodshot eyes!”, which seemingly offends Sylvester, judging by his silent reaction. “And Granny, what a big red nose you got!” Sylvester replies, “The better to sniff you with!”, and sniffs in so deeply that the air causes Teeny to be propelled up to Sylvester’s nose. “And my! What big teeth you’ve got!” Delighted upon hearing this, Sylvester whispers to us in his normal voice, “That’s the line I’ve been waiting for! That’s my cue line!” He then reveals himself by yelling, “THE BETTER TO EAT YOU WITH!”, only for Teeny to end up avoiding his jaws (animated by Ken Champin).

Teeny runs out of the bedroom and slides down the staircase’s banister with Sylvester sliding down after him. Teeny places a stick of butter on the banister, causing Sylvester to fly out the door. Sylvester’s attempt to run back in is thwarted by Teeny shutting the door on him (animated by Davis), causing Sylvester to tumble backwards. Running back up towards the house (animated by Manuel Perez), Sylvester bangs on the door, demanding, “Open the door! Open it up, I say! Or I’ll huff! And I’ll p-p-puff! And I’ll blow your house down!” Due to not actually being a wolf, Sylvester’s attempts prove futile, so he decides an alternative. “Okay. So I won’t blow your house down! I’ll do better than that!” He runs off and returns with a dynamite stick that he places in the mail slot. “I’ll blow it up!” After lighting the fuse, he runs to get out of the way and await the explosion. To his misfortune, the door opens to reveal that he accidentally stuffed the dynamite stick in a bulldog’s mouth. The bulldog walks up to Sylvester, and puts the dynamite stick in Sylvester’s mouth before holding it shut with his hands. The explosion seemingly does nothing to Sylvester, but the bulldog easily blows his fur off, leaving him wearing only a pair of polka-dotted underwear (animated by Davis).

Back in the house, Sylvester is disguised as a fairy godmother, using an electric wand that instantly fries anything it touches. After plugging it in, he tests it on a chair, which causes it to disintegrate. Sylvester knocks on Teeny’s “house” (mouse hole), and Teeny asks, “Yes? Who is it?” In a feminine voice, Sylvester answers, “I’m your fairy godmother. I’ve come to grant you a wish”. Seemingly falling for it, Teeny steps out and takes him deciding on what he wishes for. Impatient, Sylvester demands in his normal voice, “Come on! Step on it! I got a lot of other fairy godmotherin’ to do!”, oblivious to the eavesdropping bulldog removing the plug. Conveniently, Teeny now decides his wish: “Okay. I got a wish. Tap me”. Sylvester switches back to the feminine voice while he says the magic words, “R-A-G-G-M-O-P-P”. Unaware it’s not plugged in, Sylvester becomes annoyed when the wand doesn’t do anything upon touching Teeny as he goes back to his normal voice, “What’s this!? Must have blown a fuse or somethin’!” The bulldog now puts the plug back in. Teeny figures, “It’s a fake! Nothin’ happens!”, so Sylvester uses the wand on himself, which leaves him completely charred. “What do ya mean ‘nothin’ happens’”!?” He then attempts to strike Teeny with the wand, to no avail. After Teeny runs back into his hole, Sylvester throws down the wand in frustration (animated by Champin).

Later, Teeny looks out of his hole from both directions. Seeing apparently no one on either side, Teeny begins to sneak out, only for Sylvester to immediately trap him under a cup he holds with both hands. “Aha! Now I got ya!” Teeny instead starts getting out some tools, to which a confused Sylvester starts to watch. Clearly wanting privacy, Teeny pulls a curtain around the cup, so he can work without being watched. Once he’s finished, Sylvester takes the cup off of his hands, and finds that Teeny has built a tank, “Stick ‘em up!” Thinking this tank is too small to possibly harm him, Sylvester chuckles at this, only for it to blast him in the face. He then chases Teeny to a mouse hole in a closet and waits for him to come back out (animated by Perez).

Back in the present, Teeny listens to the granny mouse, “And there was poor Little Red Riding Hood trapped in her own house! Because waiting outside her door was the Big Bad Wolf, ready to pounce on her if she ever came out!” Teeny asks, “What happened, Granny? What did she do?” The granny mouse continues, “Luckily, Little Red Riding Hood found a large firecracker. Left over from the Fourth of July. So she lit it (animated by Ross) and tossed it out right where he was”. The granny mouse imitates this and throws it out of the hole where it explodes (animated by Davis). Teeny responds, “Gee, Granny. I bet that blew him all up!” (animated by Ross) It turns out Sylvester ending up taking the brunt of this explosion as he peeks his beat-up and charred head into the hole and replies, “You’re not just whistlin’ Dixie, brother!” (animated by Davis)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½