| Red | |
| First Major: | Red Hot Riding Hood |
| First Date: | May 8, 1943 |
| Creator: | Tex Avery |
| Designer: | Claude Smith |
| Voice: | Sara Berner (1943–1945) Connie Russell (1943; singing) Imogene Lynn (1945–1947; singing) Ann Pickard (1945; singing) Teresa Ganzel (1990–1993) Grey Griffin (1996, 2010–2013) |
| Species: | Human |
| Gender: | Female |
Red Hot Riding Hood, also known as Red and Miss Vavoom in the 1990s, is an American animated character, created by Tex Avery, who appears in several MGM short films and Tom and Jerry films. She is a fictional nightclub singer and dancer who usually makes all men in the room crazy, especially a Wolf character who—in vain—tries to seduce and chase her. Red debuted in MGM's Red Hot Riding Hood (May 8, 1943), a modern-day variant of the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood".[1]
She appeared in seven animated shorts in the Golden age of American animation, and was revived to appear in many Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon series from the 1990s until 2013.
According to Avery, the character originated in the army, where he helped the sergeant plan training films for the animators at MGM. When the film was finished, Avery got down to the projection room, where he always "ran the picture for the producer and the whole group". When the sergeant spotted the picture, much like the wolf, he roared. Word soon spread about the picture among the army. The version he showed was the uncensored version, which had a scene where the grandma marries the wolf and has children with him, and the Hays Office found that the scene strongly suggested bestiality. The scene was ultimately cut for the theatrical release.[2] [3]
The character was designed by Claude Smith and animated by Preston Blair, who said that the picture originally was just planned around the wolf and the grandmother (her design was inspired by the caricatures of Peter Arno), but they soon focused mainly on Red. In fact, the character was not rotoscoped, but was drawn from his imagination.[4] [5] The first cartoon, garnering 15,000 bookings, was so successful that it garnered various sequels, the first being The Shooting of Dan McGoo.[6]
Jessica Rabbit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit was inspired by Red.[7]
| Title | Release Date | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Hot Riding Hood | May 8, 1943 | Red's debut. | |
| 2 | Who Killed Who? | June 19, 1943 | Cameo, seen on the picture. | |
| 3 | Big Heel-Watha | October 21, 1944 | In a Screwy Squirrel cartoon; as Minnie Hot-Cha in unmasked native american indian form. | |
| 4 | The Shooting of Dan McGoo | March 3, 1945 | In a Droopy cartoon | |
| 5 | Swing Shift Cinderella | August 25, 1945 | As Cinderella | |
| 6 | Wild and Woolfy | November 3, 1945 | In a Droopy cartoon | |
| 7 | The Hick Chick | June 15, 1946 | Cameo, as a nurse in hen form. | |
| 8 | Uncle Tom's Cabaña | July 19, 1947 | As Little Eva | |
| 9 | Little Rural Riding Hood | September 17, 1949 | The final Red's Theatrical cartoon, Reused footage from Swing Shift Cinderella | |
| 10 | Thanks a Latte | 1999 | Cameo, In production with Cartoon Network |
Red is voiced by the following characters