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Marilyn Valdivia
Professor Lewis
English 114 B
6 March 2014
Modern Day Adaptations to Fairy Tale Classics
In todays modern society, the entertainment industry change or interpret old classics,
from films, literature and music. The industry constantly want to revamp these classics many of
us know, but unfortunately fail by changing the whole moral and meaning thus becoming
worthless. Interpretations of legendary classic literature to action/animated films have become
popular among todays generation. Many movie viewers believe that these modern day
interpretations of classic stories are refreshing to watch. However, because there are so many
changes to the storyline, plot and characters it looses its meaning and value; never again will
these classic stories gain its significance or value due to all these modifications. Hoodwinked!, an
animated film directed by Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech, is modern day
adaptation of the Grimm Brothers most classic tale Little Red Cap. This child film makes a
mockery of what is known as one of the tales most read to children. The adjustments to the film
makes the story plot confusing and difficult to understand the general moral of the film. After
watching and analyzing the film, I became aware that this film is actually pointless and idiotic to
watch. It just goes to show there is no need to make any changes to stories even though it was
written at an older time period.
The Grimms most famous fairy tale, Little Red Cap, has to be one of many fairy tale
stories that were told to children to teach them important morals. Although Little Red Cap,
and in general the Grimm brothers stories are gruesome, these legendary stories laid a
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foundation for childrens minds to follow simple ideologies, such as teaching them to listen to
their elders or not to lie. The story of Little Red Cap begins in a forest where a young girl is
given a basket full of treats from her mother to give to her sick grandmother. The mother warned
Little Red Cap not to jump off the path or else she will get lost. As the story goes on, Little Red
Cap disobeyed her mother, thus endangering Little Red Cap by meeting an evil wolf. Children,
who are told this tale, are now open to the ideology to listen to their parents or else youll end up
getting into danger. Legendary tales like Little Red Cap were the kind of tales that would
actually have a meaning behind the text to let children have a glimpse of the real world.
Todays modern day adaptations to historic tales have been made without a purpose
nonetheless without any meaning or morals that can change a childs mind. Many writers and
directors that try to interpret classic fairy tale stories to child audiences have disgraced the
legends of the past and their imagination. Hoodwinked!, for example, has a twist to the storyline
as well as the characters personalities; although it is refreshing to watch from a childs
perspective, it does not portray any morals or have any significance like the old classic tale.
Because of these changes, children do not become of aware of the importance of learning morals
or life lessons they could have discovered through Little Red Cap. Instead these animated
films show an unrealistic side of reality.
As mentioned, Hoodwinked!, with all its characters, has a modern day change to attract
the younger audience. For example, the main character in the film is Red, which is an
interpretation of Grimms Little Red Cap. She is shown as a young, sweet, innocent looking girl
who travels through the forest to deliver baked goods to her grandmas home. Throughout the
film, however, Red shows the complete opposite of her original persona. She reveals that she
could defend herself because she is an expert in karate. Through out the movie she fights and
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goes on adventures that in reality no little girl would be able to survive or even capable to fight
stronger, dominant figures or fall fifty feet to the ground from a moving vehicle. On the other
hand, in the Grimms version, Little Red Cap is shown as a child whom is weak and frightened
by the forest and its creatures. The complete opposite of what is shown in Hoodwinked!. In a
way, the directors of Hoodwinked! did an excellent job in changing Reds personality to fit in in
todays era, such as making Little Reds character an independent girl who can take care of her
self and also making the film have a sense of violence, which is constantly promoted as
entertainment. However, it was not realistic enough where a child could relate to Red and her
karate experience or relate to the sense of violence being acceptable in the real world.
Another character that drastically changed is sweet old Grandma. In the Grimms version,
Grandma is weak, nearly unable to get out of bed because she is so fragile and sick. However, in
Hoodwnked!, Granny is upbeat, energetic and loves extreme sports. In fact, in the film Granny
shows that she has a closet full of trophies of extreme snowboarding competitions. She also ends
up defeating the Goody Bandit and saves Reds life. Now, realistically no child has a
grandparent that can actually perform the tasks Grandma does in the film. The drastic change of
the characters, especially in Grandma, makes the film exciting for the audience. On the other
hand, it makes the film seem completely fictional and impossible for children to relate to such an
unrealistic animation. Frankly it is not educational to present films like Hoodwinked! to children
because it leads to false expectations of reality.
Although there are many characters that changed in Hoodwinked!, the main character I
want to focus on is the sneaky wolf. The wolf in Hoodwinked!, ironically ends up playing an
undercover press reporter. In the film, the wolf investigates who is the Goody Bandit. And when
all characters where telling their side of the story, automatically everyone suspects that the wolf
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is the Goody Bandit and that he was trying to hurt Red and Grandma. Turns out that the wolf was
not the Goody Bandit and that he was only investigating the crimes the Goody Bandit caused.
The directors of Hoodwinked! did not change the wolfs personality purposely to keep the
essence of the original tale and of course to make the plot more interesting by adding a twist that
the audience would not expect. The Grimms version of the wolf was the whole purpose of the
moral (not to trust strangers and to listen to parents). Hoodwinked! changed the entire ideology
and meaning behind the tale of Little Red Cap by making these changes to the film.
The Grimms tale of Little Red Cap has been known throughout many years and many
generations. It is a classic story that many parents tell their children in order for them to realize
the vulnerability they could be in like Little Red Cap if they do not listen to their parents. By
watching films like Hoodwinked!, children do not become of aware of important morals they
could learn through the original tales. Watching animated adaptations of fairy tales truly loses its
value of the original tale. Audiences worldwide, should stop the process of these adaptations,
not only in Hoodwinked!, but also in different versions of different fairy tales. There is no
purpose for children to watch these films if there are no valuable morals for them to learn let
alone follow. As stated before, it leads children have unrealistic perceptions of relationships they
establish with their family and the real world.






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Works Cited
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Little Red Cap. SurLaLune. Ed. Heidi Anne Heiner. 2007.
Web. 26 Jan 2014.
Hoodwinked! Dir. Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech. Perf. Anne Hathaway, Glenn
Close, and James Belushi. Weinstein Company, 2005. DVD.