One of the many highlights of the disc, “Red Hot Riding Hood”, leads off the Classics section. If you’ve seen 1994’s “The Mask” movie, you’d be familiar with Jim Carrey’s title character reacting like Avery’s cartoon Wolf, with exaggerated lust, when watching Tina Carlyle (Cameron Diaz) singing at The Coco Bongo. In fact, The Mask’s head turns into the Wolf’s noggin via special effects. Early in the film, too, The Mask’s alter ego, Stanley Ipkiss, is shown in his apartment watching “Red Hot Riding Hood” via a VHS tape.

The cartoon’s premise is that Red, The Wolf, and Grandma want the “Little Red Riding Hood” story told in a different way. They get their wish as “something new is added”. Red is now all grown up and sexy looking, performing Bobby Troup’s song “Daddy” in a Hollywood nightclub. The mustachioed Wolf is dressed in a tuxedo, and has “the hots” for the singer. Even Grandma is wearing an evening gown, and romantically chases after the Wolf.

"Boxoffice" magazine reported in 1945 that two years after its release, "Red Hot Riding Hood" had the greatest number of bookings, over 15,000, of any MGM short subject in the studio's history. It also was quite popular with American GIs stationed overseas during World War II.











