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Hoodwinked!
Directed by: Cory Edwards
Starring: Anne Hathaway
Genre:
Animated
Run Time: 80
min.
Release Date:
January 2006
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Byron Merritt |
We all know the story of
Little Red Riding Hood, right? But with director Cory Edwards at the
helm of this fairy tale, things get changed …just a wee bit.
Little Red (voiced by Anne Hathaway,
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) wants out of
the forest. She's not happy living in such a constrained society. She
dreams of flying over the mountains and seeing what lay beyond. But bad
things are afoot in the forest. Food establishments are closing due to a
rash of recipe thefts. Little Red has to protect her and Granny's recipe
book before it disappears as well. But who's behind these thefts? And
for what reason? When Little Red arrives at Granny's house, the typical
meeting with The Wolf occurs …sort of. Granny (voiced by Glen Close,
FATAL ATTRACTION) is tied up in the closet (or is she?) The Wolf asks
Little Red lots of probing questions about her basket. And as Little Red
discovers that The Wolf is not Granny, The Woodsman comes bashing
through a window wielding his axe and acting murderous. But is he? The
police are called in to investigate this "domestic disturbance" and as
Detective Nicky Flippers (voiced by David Ogden Stiers, M*A*S*H) soon
discovers, many more strange things are happening than meets the eye.
Granny has a triple-G tattoo on her neck and loves extreme sports
(paying homage to xXx with Vin Diesel). The Wolf (voiced by Patrick
Warburton, SKY HIGH) is actually a reporter researching the recent
recipe thefts and feels that Granny and Little Red are at the center of
it. The Woodsman (voiced by James Belushi, K-9) is just a
Schnitzel-On-A-Stick salesman turned actor trying to find his inner
Woodsman. And Little Red is simply a delivery girl who's disenchanted
with the world around her.
Borrowing from just about every action film out there, HOODWINKED really
works. Everything from THE MATRIX to CITY SLICKERS is referenced …and
it's done very well. The animation seems nearly old-fashioned and
out-of-date, which actually adds a quaint quality to the film; it's not
trying too hard to be something it isn't. It isn't FINDING NEMO or
SHREK.
It couldn't be with a budget only a fraction of what those two animation
goliaths cost. This is an independent film (gotta love 'em!), so money
is stretched thin. Which leads me to my next point … When the film was
put out at theaters (in limited release), it didn't have the marketing
budget that Pixar and Disney had for theirs. Professional reviews were
cool (to say the least), which leads me to wonder if this movie had been
put out by Disney or Pixar what the reviews might have been like. With
action figures at Toys-R-Us, computer games, posters, and God
only knows what else, the financial ability of the production company
might have weighed heavy on the minds of reviewers and how children (and
adults) viewed it. Trust me, this is an issue. Independent films struggle under
the shadow of these huge film companies.
And here's the thing: this movie is good. It's not perfect by any means,
but it's fun, light, engaging, voiced well, animated fine, and
uproariously entertaining. I especially enjoyed Twitchy the
speed-talking squirrel whose brush with caffeine addiction makes for
some of the funnier moments. I also liked Japeth the singing Goat, who
takes a ride with Little Red through a mine that looks suspiciously like
the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction at Disneyland. A little
needling at the Disney corporation maybe? Loved it!
And who is the recipe thief, you may be asking. Well that's something
you'll have to find out for yourself …and it's worth it.
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Image from Hoodwinked!
DVD cost: $15.99
Purchase:
BestPrices.com
Film Review Stew
Favorite?
Yes.
Stew Poo-Poo? No.
Newsworthy:
In the scene where Nicky
Flippers, played by David Ogden Stiers, needs to understand what Twitchy
the squirrel is saying, he uses a tape recorder to slow down Twitchy's
speech so that he can find out what Twitchy is saying and save the day.
This is a reference to A Circle of Children (TV, 1977). In that movie, a
teacher named, Dan Franklin, also played by Stiers, needs to understand
what a young boy is saying and uses a tape recorder to slow down the
boys speech so that he can find out what the boy is saying and save the
day.
Movie Quote: "Are
we just gonna sit around here and talk about how big I'm getting?!"
Other Actors/Actresses
from Hoodwinked!
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