DVD Review: Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories

Christina Ricci stars in David Kaplan's captivating (and slightly disturbing) short film Little Red Riding Hood which arrives on DVD TODAY, June 16.

This collection of shorts is better than most feature films coming out lately. Little Red Riding Hood has earned a bit of a cult following that is rightly deserved. It's a perfect little tale shot absolutely beautifully and brilliantly acted by Christina Ricci and Timour Bourtasenkov (who plays the wolf).

The film is rich and creepy and almost disturbingly sensual. It should be required watching of anyone who is planning to go into directing. It is just a perfectly made short.

The disc also contains two other shorts: Little Suck-A-Thumb and The Frog King. Little Suck-A-Thumb freaked me out a little bit. A man sneaking into bedrooms and cutting of the thumbs of those who suck on them isn't the half of it. For me it was the reaction to having it done that creeped me out the most.

The Frog King is my least favorite of the bunch. It's about a girl who meets a frog who turns out to be a king. She treats him like crap but for some reason he wants to be with her. It features what is probably the single ugliest frog puppet in recent memory.

I'd label this a must own collection for any film fan, especially one with the desire to create short films. This set contains three perfectly crafted shorts that could very well be called masterpieces.

David Kaplan is a fantastic filmmaker, at least based on what I have seen on this disc. I'm going to have to seek out his other stuff. I'd love to see what he does with features.

Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories is available now.