"Little Red Riding Hood" for Babies & Toddlers

While searching for a suitable “Little Red Riding Hood” video on YouTube, I happened to stumble upon one by Oxbridge Baby, written “specifically for babies and toddlers.” I thought this was a particularly interesting selection, and so I watched the short animated video to see what their version of the classic tale would be. The tale turns out to be an even more “cleaned up” version of the tale told by the Brothers Grimm.



In this version, Little Red Riding Hood wears a red cloak with a hood and, as a result, is called by how she dresses. (There is no explanation of why nor how she got her hood.) One day, Mother decides to send Little Red Riding Hood to Grandmother’s to take her some cakes. She gives her specific, moralistic instructions (like in the Bros. Grimm’s tale) before Little Red Riding Hood departs. Although the young girl was told not to stray and pick flowers, she does anyway, and a Wolf suddenly appears beside her. She tells him of her plans to see her Grandmother in the forest, and he dupes her into a deliberate race to Grandmother's house. The Wolf arrives first and gobbles up Grandmother in one swallow. He puts on Grandmother’s nightgown, her cap, and some of her perfume (“for good measure”), and then takes her place in bed. When Little Red Riding Hood arrives, she asks the Wolf the usual questions, and then she realizes he is not actually Grandmother and dashes away (without stripping, getting into bed, nor further interrogation). A Woodsman comes along, saves Little Red Riding Hood, and turns the Wolf upside down until he releases Grandmother. Afterward, the Woodsman takes the Wolf into the woods so he cannot harm anyone else ever again. At the end, Grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood have their overdue picnic with the cakes. The end.

Departures:
• No wine nor milk taken to Grandmother
• No specified paths of pins nor needles; instead, a deliberate race
• Little Red Riding Hood has to tell the wolf where Grandmother lives
• Little Red Riding Hood never gets into bed with the Wolf
• The hunter is now a woodsman
• No one dies – not even Grandmother!

This version of the tale actually blames no one but the Wolf for the narrative conflict. Little Red is (somehow) absolved of all blame usually placed on her in "moral" versions of the tale, even though she does not obey her Mother’s orders to the letter. The tale also reinforces the sense of patriarchal order established in the Bros. Grimm tale by permitting the woodsman to save the day (again). Also, both Little Red Riding Hood and Grandmother survive in the end (true in the Bros. Grimm tale, but nowhere else).

In the end, this particular video follows the Bros. Grimm tale, but “cleans it up” even more so than the Grimms did. In addition, although this particular video emphasizes the moral side of educating the young child, it never persists in teaching the child a lesson from her mistakes; instead, it places all blame on the insidious Wolf.