Film / About the Little Red Riding Hood

About the Little Red Riding Hood, or, to use its full title, About the Little Red Riding Hood: Continuation of the Old Fairytale (Russian: Про Красную Шапочку. Продолжение старой сказки) is a 1977 Soviet children’s musical film directed by Leonid Nechayev.

It is, as the title implies, a Continuation Fic of "Little Red Riding Hood". A year has passed since the events of the fairytale, and the killed wolf’s mother the She-Wolf is nursing her increased hatred of humans. She asks (read: hires) the family’s friend the Thin Wolf to bring Little Red Riding Hood to her so that she could have her revenge. In addition, she wants him to take her remaining son, the Fat Wolf, along and train him, since the latter sympathises with humans way too much for her liking and has too much influence over his nephew the Wolf-Cub.

The Thin Wolf lures Red Riding Hood into the forest by sending her a message that her grandmother is sick again. The two wolves’ plan is simple: disguise themselves as humans and kidnap the girl by putting her into a sack, but said plan keeps going awry for all sorts of reasons – and in no small part because Red Riding Hood’s friendliness and kindness towards them in each of their disguises makes them less and less willing to hurt her.

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The film contains examples of:

• Advertised Extra: One of the covers shows Red Riding Hood, the Thin Wolf, and Red Riding Hood’s grandmother. While the first two really are main characters, the grandmother barely gets any non-singing lines and has no character arc.
• Armour-Piercing Question: Red Riding Hood asks the Thin Wolf: "You were a child once, weren’t you?" He stares back, astonished and with pain and sadness in his eyes, and is unable to answer. It’s the first time his Hidden Depths are clearly shown.
• Avenging the Villain: The She-Wolf longs to avenge her villainous son, The Big Bad Wolf of the original fairytale.
• Bad Habits: The wolves’ last disguise is that of two clergymen.
• Bait-and-Switch: In the very beginning, it looks like Red Riding Hood is going to figure out the wolves the same way she did in the original fairytale, only for it to turn out that no, she doesn't have the faintest suspicion. She asks the Fat Wolf why he has teeth like that and then clarifies that she means it's awful for a respectable man like a woodcutter to eat so many sweets and pastries and get a toothache as a result. Then she asks the Thin Wolf why he has eyes like that and then explains that his eyes look much too angry and he shouldn't spoil everyone's mood even if he's in a bad mood himself.
• Belated Child Discipline: The Spoiled Child thinks the world exists to do his bidding and is astonished and angry when Little Red Riding Hood scolds him for always relying on servants and refuses to be his friend even when threatened with lashes. Eventually, though, he listens to her, begins to do household chores (to his Idle Rich parents' horror) and ends up running alone through the woods to save Red Riding Hood's life.
• Bookends: The first and last scenes take place at the Stargazer’s house with him watching the stars.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • In the very beginning, we have light colour themes for the Stargazer’s house and the village and dark purple for the wolves’ lair. However, the appearance of two very Jerkass villagers in the very first scene shows that not everything is what it seems.
  • When the wolves get Disguised in Drag, the kinder Fat Wolf wears white and the crueler Thin Wolf wears black.
• Comically Missing the Point: When Red Riding Hood tries to sing some sense into the Spoiled Child, she starts by asking her: "What if tomorrow you end up on an island in the middle of an ocean?" The Child squees it would be simply great. She doesn't understand, until Red Riding Hood elaborates on it, that she will die of hunger and cold without her cooks and her nurses, as she has no idea how to survive on her own.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Thin Wolf takes out the three men sent by the Spoiled Child’s parents in less than a couple of minutes.
• Deadpan Snarker: The Thin Wolf often has such moments. For instance, when they get disguised as woodcutters and the Fat Wolf, trying to cut the tree, accidentally throws the axe high and far away instead, the Thin Wolf comments:
  Bravo. A new world record in hammer throwing.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: In one of the final scenes, the Thin Wolf angrily calls the Fat Wolf out for believing he genuinely was his brother’s friend.
• Dirty Coward: The hunter is so frightened of wolves he almost runs away at the very mention of them, and then he is ready to kill them in their sleep.
• Disappeared Dad: Nothing is even known of Red Riding Hood’s father. The spiteful old women, as they are discussing the girl’s family, only mention her mother and grandmother.
• Disguised in Drag: One of the wolves’ disguises is that of two ladies, "friends of Red Riding Hood’s grandmother".
• Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: Even though Red Riding Hood is on her way to help her sick (she thinks) grandmother, she is always ready to stop on her way and help anyone else who needs it. However, such a mindset has her grandmother's full support:
  Red Riding Hood: If Granny finds out I left you here with your injured foot, her sickness will only get worse!
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Thin Wolf never attacks from behind and never interrupts anyone who’s talking. According to him, that’s the reason he can’t find a moment to attack Red Riding Hood, who is always twirling around and talks all the time.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The hunter thinks that Red Riding Hood prevents him from killing the wolves in their sleep because she wants to have all the glory for the wolves’ capture for herself. He can’t understand it that she wants to give them a chance to repent and honestly doesn’t want them dead.
• Evil Matriarch: The She-Wolf is the hateful murderous matriarch of the wolf family.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The entire movie takes place over the course of a single day.
• Face Death with Dignity: The Thin Wolf says that "one must live one’s last minutes with style". However, Red Riding Hood lets the wolves go.
• Fat and Skinny: The dumber and kinder Fat Wolf and the smarter and more cynical Thin Wolf spend most of the movie serving as Foil to each other.
• Fearless Fool: The Spoiled Child’s reaction to news of the wolves is "That’s all right, we have a whip!" – even though she is four and has had all the experience of a hothouse flower.
• Fractured Fairytale: Deconstructs quite a lot from the original – the wolves are better than many of the people, the hunter is a Miles Gloriosus, and Red Riding Hood forgives the wolves and lets them leave unharmed.
• Granny Classic: Red Riding Hood’s grandmother is a kind, good-humoured old lady who adores her granddaughter and makes whistles for children.
• Gruesome Grandparent: The She-Wolf is disdainful and abusive towards her little grandson for his friendly feelings towards humans. It culminates in her burning his favourite and only book, after which he snaps and switches from simply arguing with her to actively helping Red Riding Hood.
• Heel–Face Turn: The Spoiled Child starts as an Enfant Terrible who wants the world to wait on her hand and foot but becomes a much better person and ends up racing across the forest on her own to save Red Riding Hood’s life.
• "The Hero Sucks" Song: Three old women from the village sing a spiteful little song about Red Riding Hood’s stupidity where in the end they accuse her of being a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: The conceited, selfish hunter is the main antagonist in the final confrontation, and the Thin Wolf brings the point up even earlier when he hatefully says "There they are – people!" at the sight of the Spoiled Child and her retinue.
• Informed Species: Due to the severe budget and technical limitations of the time, it is one of Leonid Nechayev’s favourite tropes, and this film is no exception. The wolves are completely human-looking and we only know they are wolves because they say so in an As You Know introductory scene.
• Innocent Soprano: Red Riding Hood, an innocent and trusting All-Loving Heroine, has a very high singing voice.
• Intergenerational Friendship:
  • Red Riding Hood is a good friend of the elderly Stargazer.
  • She gets on very well with the Fat Wolf as well.
• Ironic Echo: The She-Wolf blames Red Riding Hood for getting herself eaten, claiming that if she hadn’t been stupid enough to tell the wolf the truth about where her grandmother lived, nothing would have happened. Later, she wants to confiscate her grandson’s book and demands he tells her the truth about where it is – and the Wolf-Cub replies that since truth, according to her, gets people eaten, he won’t tell her any truth now.
• Jerkass Has a Point: The old women of the village forbid one of Red Riding Hood’s friends to go with her to the forest mainly because they are bad-tempered, bitter and envious. However, the reasons they give her are perfectly valid – it is dangerous for two little girls to go alone into the woods, and the women rightly suspect that the wolves are still out for revenge and Red Riding Hood will probably be a danger magnet.
• Laziness Callout: Red Riding Hood has an entire song where she calls out the Spoiled Child for never doing anything by himself and points out he won't survive without his servants.
• Light Is Not Good: The Spoiled Child and her servants all wear white and are pretty awful to deal with.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: The Wolf-Cub is the son of The Big Bad Wolf but doesn’t share his man-eating tendencies and is genuinely friendly towards humans.
• Lying Finger Cross: When the Thin Wolf tries to use a "Not So Different" Remark and reminds Red Riding Hood she used a disguise to trick them as well, she replies that she kept her fingers crossed all the time. He doesn’t get the meaning and is completely baffled as to why it makes any difference.
• Minion with an F in Evil: The Fat Wolf is a nice if slightly dim Big Fun guy with a Sweet Tooth, and only very reluctantly goes against Red Riding Hood after being bullied into it by his mother. Afterwards, he is constantly bullied yet more by the Thin Wolf who alternates between mocking his incompetence and accusing him of growing too fond of the girl (conveniently neglecting to mention he has grown fond of her himself). The one time the Fat Wolf does show some backbone is in the final confrontation with the hunter.
• Missing Mom:
  • Downplayed with Red Riding Hood’s mother who appears for a few seconds in the beginning of the movie and leaves the village for work, thereby completely missing the events of the plot.
  • The Wolf-Cub's mother and the reasons for her absence are never mentioned. The Wolf-Cub is clearly shown as raised by his uncle and grandmother.
• Mugged for Disguise: The wolves usually disguise themselves using clothes stolen from whoever/whatever house is nearby.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If the She-Wolf hadn’t gone completely over the edge with her Excessive Mourning for her son and her hatred of humans, her surviving son and especially her grandson would have stayed loyal to her and her plan of revenge on Red Riding Hood would quite probably have succeeded.
• Noble Wolf:
  • The Fat Wolf and the Wolf-Cub are friendly and helpful towards humans. The Wolf-Cub, in particular, has read about noble wolves in other forests and wants to be like them.
  • The Thin Wolf is gradually revealed to be a darker example — it's an orphan with noble intentions and a good heart who went through Corrupt the Cutie.
• Only in It for the Money: The Thin Wolf only helps the She-Wolf because she pays him.
• Papa Wolf: Brought up by Red Riding Hood in her argument with the hunter:
  If you had children, you wouldn't be a coward!
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The wolves simply wear different clothes for each of their disguises (except when in their old ladies' disguise they try to change their voices — a little), and Red Riding Hood falls for it every time. She even notices that she keeps meeting similar-looking Fat and Skinny pairs of strangers all day long, and becomes vaguely suspicious when the Fat Wolf says a phrase that’s similar to what he said during one of their previous encounters, but she still doesn’t realise the truth until it’s spelled out for her.
• Parental Favouritism: The She-Wolf idolises her deceased son and despises the living one.
• Revenge Myopia: The She-Wolf, in her wish to achieve vengeance for her son, refuses to acknowledge the fact that he brought his own doom upon him by trying to eat two innocent people.
• Samus Is a Girl: In what’s probably one of the least plot-relevant examples ever, the Spoiled Child, dressed in boy’s clothes throughout the movie, reveals she is a girl in basically the last scene.
• Save the Villain: Red Riding Hood goes as far as to try and physically restrain the hunter who wants to kill the wolves in their sleep. The wolves, who at that point have woken up, have to intervene before the hunter can hurt her.
• Ship Tease: There are hints of a December–December Romance between Red Riding Hood’s grandmother and the Stargazer. They sing all their musical numbers together, are very tender towards each other in the final scene, and early in the film Red Riding Hood teases the Stargazer about him wanting to impress her Granny.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: The Fat Wolf, a good-natured Sweet Tooth, is nothing like his deceased man-eater of a brother.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Discussed by several characters, even sympathetic ones like the Wolf-Cub. Nobody is Always Lawful Good or Always Chaotic Evil, and Red Riding Hood has to learn a Hard Truth Aesop that sometimes you need to defeat the antagonists via lying and trickery. Subverted after all, because the main point of the story is that nobody is beyond redemption. Moreover, it's Red Riding Hood's friendliness and gentle heart that wins over the wolves, and she in the end forgives them and lets them go.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, despite being the one the girl is going to visit, barely has any non-singing lines.
• "Somewhere" Song: Red Riding Hood’s Character Signature Song is about the wonders of Africa.
• Spoiled Brat: The Spoiled Child is terribly selfish to the point she thinks her servants can buy Red Riding Hood and make her the child’s friend. However, she gets better.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Red Riding Hood disguises herself as the shepherd boy to give the sleeping draught to the wolves.
• Threat Backfire: When the Spoiled Child sees Red Riding Hood is about to escape, she threatens her she'll yell for help. Red Riding Hood calmly shrugs: "Yell. I'm so tired of you that I don't care anymore." The Child, after deliberating a while, concludes she won't yell in that case.
• Took a Level in Badass: The Spoiled Child becomes much more self-sufficient thanks to Red Riding Hood’s influence, and ends up racing across the forest all on her own to call the latter’s grandmother for help.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Red Riding Hood starts out as an idealistic girl who would never tell a lie but in the end she steals the shepherd’s clothes for her disguise, and tricks and drugs the wolves.
• Unexpected Kindness: In the final scene, the wolves fully expect Red Riding Hood to let them get killed or at least captured by the villagers, and she also says that she doesn't want to protect them after they deceived her so much. Then she changes her mind and lets both of them leave unharmed. They are so shocked that they are left speechless and can only look at her questioningly to make sure she does mean it.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The Thin Wolf reminisces he used to be a nice Cheerful Child before gradually becoming the hardened cynic he is now.
• Villain Song: The Thin Wolf sings a gloating upbeat song about how it’s the life of wolves to grab and eat their enemies… and proceeds to subvert the trope mere minutes later, confessing that actually Being Evil Sucks and singing another, completely different song, recalling his happy childhood times before he knew what it even meant to have fangs. In the soundtrack release, the first song was given to the much more unambiguously villainous She-Wolf.
• Villainous Rescue:
  • The wolves help Red Riding Hood escape when she is held captive in the Spoiled Child’s house. They intend to put her into the sack immediately afterwards, but that part is foiled by the Wolf-Cub who starts a commotion that scares them off.
  • Then it happens again when the Spoiled Child’s parents send their servants, armed with whips, to capture Red Riding Hood. Said servants have the misfortune to run into the wolves, and the Thin Wolf beats them up and takes their whips.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The ultimate fate of the She-Wolf, who, it’s implied, is left alone in the forest abandoned by her family and with her desire for revenge unsatisfied, is unknown.
• Wilderness Survival Plot: Discussed by Red Riding Hood in her song for the Spoiled Child. She sings about the hardships of surviving alone in the wild and assures the Child that, spoiled like that, she wouldn’t manage it.
• Yandere: A platonic version with the Spoiled Child, who threatens to keep Red Riding Hood under lock and key or to have her whipped until she agrees to be her friend. Red Riding Hood manages to talk her out of it.
• You Killed My Father: Defied by the Wolf-Cub. The She-Wolf constantly reminds him he was orphaned because of Red Riding Hood, but he refuses to have any revenge on the latter.
• You Should Have Died Instead: The She-Wolf implies it very heavily with the Fat Wolf, at one point throwing a noose over his head and suggesting he hangs himself.