THE TALE OF LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

A thoroughly sanitized retelling (sandwiched between pop-up advertisements for another app) linked to stylized illustrations that are probably intended to be sweet but are actually strange and eerie.

This retelling finds Little Red fleeing from her granny’s cottage, pursued by the wolf—who, after being clubbed by the woodsman and having his jaws “prised open” so that Granny can dance out, slinks off “embarrassed and ashamed.” In sharp contrast to this gooey version of the familiar plot, the art veers off into disturbing territory. Sporting enormous, glassy eyes in an oversized rectangular face, Little Red Riding Hood skips through a retro pastel forest as the menacing wolf oozes like a shaggy snake up a twisty path to the cottage. He devours Granny in a sudden whirl and then springs open-mawed after his second intended victim. Aside from a few tap-activated sound effects and floaty animations keyed by flashing outlines, the only interactive feature is a tantalizingly large “X” in the corner of each screen. Touching this abruptly restarts the story, bringing up an introductory page on which, along with auto-advance and manual-viewing options, a “Learn” mode introduces occasional quizzes interjected by the British-accented narrator: “There is a clue to show that the wolf is in Granny’s cottage. Can you find it? That’s right, it’s his tail.”

The wolf isn’t the only one who should be embarrassed by this misguided, pedantic, poorly designed rendition.