Excited City Wolf

There’s great animation from start to finish in “Little Rural Riding Hood,” Tex Avery’s last attempt to put his sexual desire spin on the old tale. It starts out with a rubbery Red loping down the path, twisting her feet in the air as she talks to the audience. And it ends with yet another one of those great sequences where Avery tries to keep topping himself.

After the country wolf (Pinto Colvig) goes through typical Avery takes watching a city Red Riding Hood in a nightclub, ending with him being pushed like a wheelbarrow by his icy city cousin (Daws Butler), who takes him back to the country in his limo.



Then we get a look at the country Red Riding Hood (Colleen Collins).



Now it’s the city wolf’s turn to get turned on. His top hat grows, his head bursts through it and the top hat goes up and down his elongated neck.



Time for a typical Avery wide-eyed take. Two drawings alternate to give a throbbing effect for a few frames, then Avery widens the eyes some more.



Next the eyes are round and extend out. When they contract back into the head, ghosts of the whites and pupils are left behind.



The body flies apart. There are two drawings alternated of the body, but the top hat turns clockwise in mid-air.



The wolf jumps out of the car (note the speed lines).



He rips off his jacket and throws it away.



More rubber legs as the city wolf starts to run (in place). The casual country cousin (I love the bent fingers) reaches to hold the city wolf’s suspenders and put a huge mallet in them.



The mallet goes flying in the air, leaving ghost mallets behind.



The mallet bops the city wolf on the head, unconscious and cross-eyed.



The country cousin wheels him away, just like the city wolf did to him in the previous scene. The roles are reversed and the excited country wolf drives his cousin back to the city, presumably to begin the second cycle of a never-ending chain of sexual desire of Riding Hoods and interfering denial. Truly a great cartoon, one of Avery’s best.

The credited animators are Grant Simmons, Walt Clinton, Mike Lah and Bobe Cannon.