Wednesday, February 17, 2010
This video is clearly a purposely ridiculous version of the tale, but still follows the main storyline of Little Red Riding Hood pretty closely. The video starts with an opening book and then focuses on the storyteller. This references that fairy tales are part of an oral tradition passed on by being told from generation to generation.
It makes fun of parts of the story - by trying to explain things like why she wore a red riding cloak so much, and adding observations such as the wolf had to have smelled bad.
LRRH takes control of the situation upon her first meeting with the wolf, ending the conversation and leaving. The wolf does eat the granny and wait for LRRH to show up, but from there the story takes a different path. Once he tries to eat her, she grabs him and takes him to be neutered! I thought this was funny because it was as if by taking away his genitals she was taking away his power - which is an interesting commentary on the male gender. The end of the video made mention to LRRH feeling bad about what she had done, but she just turned her music up on her iPod and forgot about it.
This version is clearly supposed to make you laugh - both at the strange things in the original tale and at the rediculous things they added in. But it was definitely still recognizable as a variant of the old fairy tale.
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I watched this one too when trying to decide which video to choose and talk about. It is funny that she takes him to the doctor/idiot, because like like you said, removing his gentials does seem to suggest that this is the source of his power. This then points to the male species as a whole, saying that not just wolfs are predators because not only wolves, but men (the evil creatures, lol) have these same male genitals. Also though, LRRH knew from the start this was not her granny, pointing at the numerous duplications of LRRH. She has moved away from the ignorance she once had and now has ageny.
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ReplyDeleteAgreed. This Red, while your typical teenage cynic, is no idiot. She can easily recognize the wolf as being a wolf and mocks the lengthy discovery of the tale when the wolf asks "Why don't you ask me how big my teeth are?" While comical, it still maintains the essence of the fairy tale, and even the removal of the wolf's masculinity as the elimination of his threat demonstrates this deeper understanding.
ReplyDeleteThe action of neutering the wolf is especially interesting because it places much more emphasis on the sexuality of the tale. This forces the danger of the wolf much more fully into the real of unrestrained sexuality, rather than incorporating aspects of the need for food and nourishment present in the more traditional versions of the tale.
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