Tuning in to the TCM film festival over the weekend I happened on to two documentaries about the cartoonist Tex Avery. I hadn’t heard his name before, but we are all familiar one way or another with some of his classic work. He had a hand in the development of characters including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd and others. I take it he was some kind of a genius humorist.
The first of the two documentaries about Avery concluded with Red Hot Riding Hood. Turning to Wikipedia, I learn:
Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released with the movie Dr. Gillespie’s Criminal Case on May 8, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994, it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked MGM cartoon on the list. It is one of Avery’s most popular cartoons, inspiring several of his own “sequel” shorts as well as influencing other cartoons and feature films for years afterward.
As I watched Red Hot Riding Hood the humor caught me by surprise. I realized I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.
I tracked down a two-minute excerpt on YouTube posted by a French fan with French subtitles. Now the humor has caught me by surprise a few times over. I thought some readers might appreciate this in a “thanks, I needed that” sort of way. That’s how I felt about it.
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