Studio: Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Produced by: Leon Schlesinger
Short Synopsis
The Three Bears find their porridge too hot. Papa Bear burns his tongue sip after sip, and the family goes for a bicycle ride while it cools, Junior pedalling furiously while his parents put their feet up. Meanwhile Goldilocks, lost in the woods, wanders into the wrong fairy tale: she ends up at Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother's house, where the Big Bad Wolf, having eaten Grandma, is lying in bed in disguise. Disappointed that she isn't Red, the Wolf reads ahead in Goldilocks's story, sends her off to the Bears' house, then takes a taxi there himself to get there first and hides in Junior's bed. Red Riding Hood reaches Grandma's, finds a note from the Wolf explaining everything, and telephones the Bears' house; Goldilocks, who has just eaten all the porridge, answers, gets the warning, and leaves, stopping only to check the phone for spare change. The Bears come home to find their porridge gone and something in Junior's bed. Papa Bear expects Goldilocks and finds the Wolf, and the whole family flees in terror, Junior losing his trousers on the way out.
Why It Matters
- Avery's joke is to let two fairy tales collide and have the characters notice. The Wolf literally consults the book to find out where Goldilocks is going next, and Red and Goldilocks solve their problems by phone, deflating the stories from the inside. It is the self-aware storybook parody he would perfect in Red Hot Riding Hood (1943).
- It shows Avery at Warner Bros. in 1940, the year he directed the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon, steadily replacing sentimental fairy-tale cartoons with fast, knowing satire, and it helped set the tone of the studio's comedy for the next two decades.
Notes and Trivia
- The opening credits announce that Goldilocks "appears through the courtesy of The Mervin LeBoy Productions", a joke on the producer Mervyn LeRoy.
- See also: Red Hot Riding Hood (1943), A Wild Hare (1940).