Though the story was probably intended as a warning for children to follow directions, the rebellious character of Little Red Riding Hood is the most modern of the fairy tale heroines we’ve met so far. Red sets off alone to visit her grandmother with instructions not to step off the forest path—advice she promptly disregards, attracting the attention of a talking wolf who sets out to eat and impersonate Grandma.
What happens next depends on what you read. In the 17th-century French version recorded by Charles Perrault, Red gets gobbled up by the wolf. The End. In other tellings, across Europe, North America, China, Japan, and Ghana, she’s saved at the last minute by a guy with an axe, or the wolf chokes on her hood, or he eats both Grandma and Red but is forced to vomit them up unharmed.
Naturally, bold, independent Red has continued to attract fans: The 19th-century English novelist Charles Dickens called her his ‘first love,’ saying of his childhood, ‘I felt if I could have married Little Red Riding-Hood, I should have known perfect bliss.’ Of the many recent retellings on page and screen, our favorite is the animated film Hoodwinked! with Anne Hathaway voicing a wonderfully sassy, attitudinal Red.
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