Little Red Riding Bore

I don’t think anyone will argue with the statement that society seems to be losing its creativity. Hollywood is awash with remakes and adaptions, the literary world is stuffed with paranormal teen romances, and even advertising is splitting into two distinct worlds, one dominated by sex, and the other dominated by quirky non-jokes. An interesting look into declining creativity is adaptions and the “twists” they try to create in established stories. One of the clearest examples of this is Little Red Riding Hood.

Little Red Riding Hood has been adapted several times, and while it is one of my personal favorite fairy tales, its re-imaginings have been lackluster to say the least. The only word I have to say in order to explain most adaptions of this tale is, “werewolves.” While it makes sense in certain circumstances, there are also many other ways to create an interesting take on the tale. Werewolves can be used very cleverly, like in the game The Wolf Among Us, or it can be used as cheap plot device, like in the 2011 film, Red Riding Hood. Nevertheless, the constant werewolf barrage is no longer interesting to a general audience since we are oversaturated.

So this is my plea to any creative types out there, if you have the want to create a new version of Little Red Riding Hood, please avoid the werewolves and help to return some creativity to us. Take a look at 2006’s Hoodwinked!, it turns Little Red Riding Hood into a comedy murder mystery that surprisingly works really well. Take the path less traveled and find a new way to twist the tale; link it to Greek mythology and turn Little Red into Persephone and the Big Bad Wolf becomes Cereberus, or, alternatively, make Little Red some form of beast tamer who learns to control the Big Bad Wolf. Possibilities are endless for tales like this. Don’t be afraid of flop because it’s not what people are used to. Without innovation, red wouldn’t even be a color we could see on our screens.