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Little Red Riding Hood and the Monsters
Good Horror Kids Blend, 26 February 2008
Author: MichaelElliott1 from Louisville, KY
Caperucita y Pulgarcito contra los monstruos (1962)
Mexican kids film mixed with the horror genre. Little Red Riding Hood, along with her pet dog and a huge skunk, are traveling through the woods when The Wicked Witch of Mexico sends various monsters out to scare them. The monsters include Dracula, The Wolf Man, the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk, Frankenstein's monster and various others. This is a kids movie so it's certainly not meant to be scary and for the most part I found myself entertained. I had to view the film in Spanish without any subs so I'm not sure if the dialogue or musical numbers would have added anything else. The scenery is very good and the colors used in the film are a real treat for the eyes. The monsters look very stupid but again, this is a kids movie so there wasn't any need for them to look scary. The dumbest looking one has to go to the rip of the robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still. Hopefully someone will release a subtitled version at some point. AKA: Little Red Riding Hood Meets the Monsters.
Author: Son of Cathode from New England
For me, this is the holy grail of weirdo kiddie movies, the ultimate wicked fairy tale, a morbid, bizarre case of Grand Guignol for kiddies in the most odd permutation of genres ever concocted. This rarely-seen feature lies truly beyond description. Those zany folks at Churubusco-Azteca took two of their favorite cinema categories, the wacky fairy tale and the gothic horror movie, and spliced them together willy-nilly to make a ludicrous, entirely diabolical thrill-ride for youngsters. The film starts off menacingly, as a clearly nervous narrator speaks of the evil forces that rule the world. In case that doesn't sufficiently spook the wee ones, we are then subjected to a compendium of monsters (my favorite is Carrot-Head, the monster carrot) including ogres, vampires, robots, witches, skeletons, dragons and Siamese beasts, as well as a catalog of atrocities too numerous and unbelievable too mention, until Little Red Riding Hood and her soul-mate, Tom Thumb, with the aid of fairy tale perennials Stinky the Skunk and the Ferocious Wolf, conquer the evil witch and her band of grotesque ghouls. After this traumatizing descent into hell, the film ends on a high note as our heroes waltz through the wicked forest warbling the excruciating tune, "Just Give a Little Whistle." Imagine seeing this as a kid in 1965 shopping mall America; expecting an innocuous fairy tale, you witnessed instead a disabling nightmare fable! As if the original Mexican film wasn't dark and wacky enough, K Gordon Murray's consciously creepy dubbing must have made the US version downright hair-raising to the malleable young mind. To me, this film is as excessive and unique an experience as BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS or the SOUTH PARK movie. And here's the beauty part; you can still get the original Spanish-language video of this rare gem, under the title CAPERUCITA Y PULGARCITO, from Amazon.com! Now that's a happy ending!
Author: billdancourtney
Keywords: horror gordon murray
Added: June 16, 2008
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