The Many Faces of Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood is an interesting person to get to know. She and the other characters in the traditional Disney story have so many sides and faces. Each one is intriguing in their own unique way. I think that the Wolfland characters have the most grace and "character" to them.
Lady Anna~ She is not only the grandmother for the traditional aspect of the story but she is also the Big Bad Wolf. This is very creative to me because Lee twists the aspect of the poor defensless grandmother being eaten by the wolf into the poor defenseless grandmother who is being beaten by her husband. He then uses the wolf character as a defense mechanism against the grandmother's abuse making the grandmother and the wolf one character. The wolf becomes the grandmother's escape route from her abusive husband. However she is not the sick and weak character that is portrayed in most Little Red Riding Hood Stories. Lady Anna is a strong-willed, independant woman. The irony of this is that she gets her powerful inner strength from the wolf that dwells inside of her.

Lisel~ She is traditional Little Red Riding Hood in the sense that she is dearly loved not by her mother, however, but by her father. She is spoiled and doted upon by both her father and grandmother. But instead of being a sweet and caring granddaughter to her grandmother she is very self-centered and greedy. She onl'y wants a relationship from her grandmother so that she can inherit her wealth when she dies. Lisel, like Little Red Riding Hood is strangely not afraid of the wolves, as she thinks she should be. She is curiously drawn to them. Just as Little Red Riding Hood expresses her amazement for the wolves massive features, Lisel would watch and listen in awe and amazement at the way the wolves loped across the yard at the chateau and howled into the night.

The Wolf~ The wolf is not the Big Bad Wolf that has taken over most versions of the Little Red Riding Hood stories. The wolf in Wolfland is a much more intimate part of the story. The wolf is not a hungary killer looking for a meal, it is a creature who has a much deeper connection to the characters. He is a very intimate part of their lives and is the platform for which they base their lives upon.

Looking at these characters in this new light has really opened my eyes to the many different ways that a story can be told. I have recently found myself inspecting stories and movies to see if they are retellings of other fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood.