Gang of Wolves and the Girl

I haven't seen it, but based on this particular trailer, this troupe's take on what is clearly the story of Little Red Riding Hood looks like quite a spectacle, with lots of great costume design, singing, dancing and circus arts on display. I may have to investigate these guys further.

The Girl & The Wolf

A fairly straightforward modern, animated take on LRRH from Button Films via James Thurber's amusing interpretation.

The Red Hat and the Wolf

I'll be honest, I'm not entirely certain what this is. It appears to be some sort of public service announcement to do with (online) sexual predators. This is actually a fairly common reading of some of the themes at work in the LRRH story. Still, I'll be honest, this isn't exactly the greatest vid I've ever posted on here.

Big Wolf and Little Girl

The animation may be crude (to be fair, it's all done in MSpaint!) but there's a few neat touches in this little animation from 'fherueda'.

Red Riding Hood and the Wolf

LRRH and the Wolf may compete, but they seem a lot happier when getting along in George Gendi's neat little animation.

I like that the traditional story is eschewed in favour of a simple noughts & crosses (tic tac toe) game. The roles of LRRH and the wolf are reduced to their basic functions of antagonists of one another, so the overall story of the piece still very much comes across (plus, I bet that tic tac toe game was much easier to animate than the alternative).

The Big Bad

Once again, the underlying themes of illicit sex and murder present in the classic fairytale are exploded, this time in The Big Bad, a short film from amateur film-maker "LimeAftertasteLLC," who gives the story a sapphic twist. If I'm being frank though, some of the acting on display is questionable at best.

(warning: mature content)

All Roads Lead From Home

It may not be strictly a LRRH game, but there's definitely some familiar themes going on in old favourite auntie pixelante's game All Roads Lead From Home. Just remember: it's dangerous to stray from the path, young child!

Fesign's Little Red Riding Hood

More Flickr now, this time with fesign's take on Little Red Riding Hood (warning: some more mature-themed photography in this photographer's stream).

Denise Alba's Fairytale Flickr

Denise Alba has a great fairytale-themed set up on Flickr, including images of LRRH as well as other fairytale-inspired creations, all of which have the same wonderful aesthetic on display.

A pair of The Company of Wolves fan videos

I've nothing really substantial to post right now, but the fact that I caught both Time Bandits and Legend on TV this weekend has really put me in the mood for some '80s fantasy films. In lieu of a more substantial post on the subject, here's a nice little erotic vignette featuring clips from The Company of Wolves and music from Meat Loaf.

...And yet another fan-made music video, using clips from same:

The Path

Far and away one of the most interesting LRRH-themed games I've heard about is Tale of Tales' The Path, due for release next year. From the official website:

The Path is a short horror game with a unique form of gameplay, designed to immerse you deeply into the dark themes of its story. Every interaction in the game expresses an aspect of the narrative.

There is one rule in the game. And it needs to be broken.
There is one goal. And when you attain it, you die.

Obviously I can't speak on the quality of the finished product, but based on the concept alone this seems like a fascinating game: a perfect example of form mirroring content. As the title illustrates, the game focuses primarily on what path you take through the forest and what choices you, as Little Red Riding Hood(s) make whilst inside. Video games have a complicated relationship with free will and determinism: the player has the illusion of choice, but is really very constricted by both the limiting path mapped out by the game and by the limited grammar of the game's construction, preventing one from truly doing whatever one wants.

The Path exploits this idea, relating it back to the way in which fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood operate. The game not only reflects events within the classic tale - Red's choice of the path of needles or the path of pins, the way her mother advised or the way the wolf dares her to travel - but also highlights the meta-narrative of the tale, the fact that the Little Red Riding Hood story itself is one that can go through countless differing iterations (multiple paths) but ultimately must follow the same basic structure and come to the same (in the game, fatal) conclusion.

The game further illustrates this theme of the similar-yet-different stories through the multiple takes on Little Red Riding Hood herself. The game does not limit itself by having one protagonist - just as there is not one Little Red Riding Hood - but instead features multiple lead characters who seem to be reflections on one another and also representative of the various different ways of presenting individual versions of the tale, from Robin, the kid-friendly one, to Ruby, the more American McGee-influenced one, to the adult Scarlet, no doubt representing versions of the tale that seem to explore a more adult sensibility.

Even the structure of the game seems based around the notion of retelling; a key feature of any notable fairy tale. The same story is told over and over again and yet never told twice.

What's also interesting is of course the way that this game focuses on the importance of audience interaction. Video games are naturally a medium entirely based around the concept of the player becoming an active participant in a story crafted by someone else, but the same can also be said of the way fairytales are told, either with young children becoming active participants in the storytelling (chiming along with repitions of "what big eyes you have," etc.) or with the fact that tale-hearers ultimately become tale-tellers, and interact with and construct variations on the story themselves. In the game, the player not only constructs their own version of the story (again, within set limits), but their actions also manipulate such things as the ambient music, "mixed in real time through in-game activity."

Really though, I could go on about this game for ages. At first glance you may just brush it off as some kind of Fable clone, but that would be doing this game a great disservice. The Path doesn't just feature differing paths towards the same end, but uses those paths and the nature of the game's own construction to make a point about the very essence of fairy tales and oral folk tales (and video games) and the way the same stories can repeat over and over again, throughout various stages in our lives (represented by the differing ages of the Red Riding Hood characters) without ever becoming truly tired or repetitive. And wow, do I love it when form is married together with content.

I will very much be anticipating this game's release, set for Spring 2009 for Windows. Look forward to an update some time after that.

Wizard of Oz: Kele-6

More Wizard of Oz stuff now, and yet another rap music video, too:

The rappers in question are Israeli group Kele-6.

The Oz purist in me is mildly annoyed that this video changes the order in which 'Dorothy' meets her three companions (it took me the longest time to realise that the second guy she meets was not just a really poor rendition of the Tin Man, so deeply was the idea of the narrative order ingrained in me). Also, is the Tin Man wearing a necklace made of spoons?

Voyager LRRH

Janeway is Red Riding Hood and Chakotay is the Wolf in yet another wonderfully geeky fan-made music video for that song.

Red Riding Hood Papercut

A rather impressive example of LRRH-themed papercraft from Elsita (via flickr).