And then granma eloped with the wolf

I give you this rendition to view. It's worth the 7 minutes, promise:


I'm more or less positive that I saw this growing up. It looks somewhat like your classic Looney Tunes animation, with the exaggeration in the characters and the ways their bodies can stretch and move. It deviates quite a bit from the Grimms' "Little Red Riding Hood" and the "Story of Grandmother," but there is something in common with the video we watched in class today, and that is the addition of what I think is some female agency into the plot.

Our story begins with LRRH trotting along toward "granma" (a nice childish spelling), who is being taken care of by a doctor (new character). This is where most of the magic comes into play. The doctor gives granma a special medicine that makes her heart feel lots better. She accidentally spills a drop onto her slipper, which turns into a high heel. At this moment, granma realizes the powers of this drug and pours the whole bottle on her, turning herself into a Minnie Mouse-looking woman.

The wolf meets LRRH in the forest, beats her to granma's (LRRH gets sidetracked picking flowers, similar to the path of needles in the "Story of Grandmother") but, in a twist, falls in love with granma instead. They dance together and have a grand old time until LRRH shows up. In a panic (like two teenagers about to be caught by their mother), granma jumps into the closet and the wolf jumps into bed (similarity - the wolf has to get in bed with granma's clothes somehow). Then he tosses the sheet onto LRRH, and he and granma escape in his wolf car to go to a church to get married. LRRH runs home to her mother, who, with a herd of children, goes to the church to stop granma from marrying the wolf. They're too late (blah blah blah, "I do," blah blah blah, "I do"), but the mother chases the wolf out the door and pounds him with her rolling pin until he runs away. Granma cries, LRRH suddenly SOBS, along with the minister, but then they all smile and say, "And that's the story of LRRH!!"

I'm left in some confusion at this point.

I have found several similarities with other renditions we've looked at. As I said, the female agency in this video is similar to what we saw in class today. LRRH took the agency in that strip tease, and granma does a similar thing here. The wolf is bewitched by female beauty and loses sight of his goal of devouring humans where there is a pretty young girl in the room. I'm not sure that's a very affirming message to women: it's not your brains that will get you out of the situation, it's your good looks that will captivate your attacker.

When the wolf walks in the room, he tells granma, "What beautiful eyes you have!" This is a reference, I think, to the traditional, "Grandma, what big eyes you have!"

The dancing I can't really explain, other than the story ends badly for the dancers. I can't explain the ending much at all. I guess granma runs away with the wolf because she's all alone and she feels empowered by her new health and good looks. She's sad because she doesn't get to marry anyone (her daughter plays the role of the mother - I think that's key), but I'm not sure why LRRH cries so much more than granma at the end. I'm not really sure why anyone is crying, frankly, but LRRH has literally oceans of water pouring out of her eyes. Maybe she's scared? Maybe she's sad because she wanted her granma to be happy and her granma is crying? I can't make much sense of the ending, or why it's a LRRH story. Other than the basic characters (wolf, sick grandmother, LRRH) and the initial plot line of LRRH going to visit her sick grandma, the story isn't similar at all.