A funny animated movie with a banjo playing goat. They ought to give him his own movie or a TV show.
"Hoodwinked!" Review
Anne Hathaway- Red
Patrick Warburton- The Wolf
James Belushi- The Woodsman
Glenn Close- Granny
Xzibit- Chief Grizzly
David Ogden Stiers- Nicky Flippers
Andy Dick- Boingo
Cory Edwards- Twitchy
Benjy Gaither- Japeth the Goat
Chazz Palminteri- Woolworth the Sheep
Directed by Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech
Screenplay by Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech
Distributed by The Weinstein Company LLC
Rated PG for some mild action and thematic elements
Runtime- 80 minutes
Website: http://www.hoodwinkedthemovie.com/
When most people think of animated movies, the first word that likely comes to mind id "Disney." And then there are those among an ever growing subset that thinks "Pixar." Since animated movies are now big moneymakers (especially computer animated movies. Apparently, hand drawn cell animation isn't hip enough anymore) other entities are trying to grab a piece of the action. "Hoodwinked!," a great eighty minute yuckfest brought to us by Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech via the new fangled Weinstein Company (Bob and Harvey, of Miramax and Dimension fame or infamy, depending on how you feel), is one such movie. Is it going to be a huge hit? Probably not. It doesn't have the massive media machine that a Disney or even a Time Warner behind it (this reviewer still hasn't seen a TV commercial for it, nor did he ever see a preview trailer for it. At least the ad in "The New York Times" is nice and big) and it doesn't have a McDonald's or plush toy deal to get its name out there to the movie going public. Does it deserve to be a huge hit? Most definitely. It's very, very funny.
"Hoodwinked!" tells the classic story of "Little Red Riding Hood" as a kind of police procedural inside a vast forest populated by humans, talking animals, and whatever else one might find in a fanciful tale. Oh, and the forest in the midst of a huge crime spree (more on that in a second). The movie starts out with "Red" (voice of Anne Hathaway) going to Granny's house to drop some stuff off. Instead of meeting Granny, Red meets the Wolf (voice of Patrick Warburton). As per the story, Red notices that Granny isn't Granny, the Wolf gets all uppity and violent, some stuff happens, and then an axe wielding woodsman (voice of Jim Belushi) breaks through the window to presumably save Red. While all of this is going on, poor old Granny (voice of Glen Close) stumbles out of the closet, bound and gagged, to the surprise of everyone. What the heck is going on here? In comes the forest police force. Led by the crotchety bear Chief Grizzly (voice of Xzibit) and a long legged frog detective named Nicky Flippers (voice of David Ogden Stiers, but to this reviewer it sounds more like Mandy Patinkin doing the voice of his character "Hugh St. John Alastair Parkfield" from that "Simpson's" future episode where he was going to marry Lisa), the police ask each individual involved how everything happened. The police are also interested in how this event may tie into a massive crime wave engulfing the forest. Apparently, someone is stealing the secret "goodies" recipes of every goodies shop in the forest, forcing them all to close down.
Red tells her story first, then the Wolf, then the Woodsman, and then Granny. We find out that Red works for her Granny, transporting goodies orders throughout the forest. She's not happy with her lot in life, feels as though her Granny is holding her back and making it impossible for her to experience life outside the forest. One day, while transporting Granny's book of secret recipes, she comes in contact with the Wolf. When the Wolf tells his side of the story, we find out he's actually an investigative reporter for the forest newspaper, looking into the crime wave. He suspects Red's Granny is involved somehow. He doggedly follows Red to her Granny's house, hoping to get answers. Wolf is helped along the way by a hyper active squirrel staff photographer named Twitchy (voice of co-director Cory Edwards doing a hysterical motor mouth thing). The Woodsman is actually an aspiring actor and mobile schnitzel truck driver (you WILL laugh at the schnitzel song) who is off in the forest doing research for an upcoming commercial and ends up cutting the wrong tree down (it's huge, it rolls down the hill after him, he tries to escape, etc. You'll see. You WILL laugh at it, too). And then there's Granny. When not running her goodies empire she's off being "Triple G," an extreme sports star. She's quite keen on snowboarding. While in the midst of a competition with some scary Germans (well, at least they seemed like Germans. You know, the square jawed movie kind), she ends up causing a mountain snow avalanche and has to parachute out of it. She shoots down from the sky and ends up back at her home, the parachute tangling itself in her ceiling fan and in the process bounding and gagging her and throwing her into the closet. The neat thing about all of these stories is how they overlap (naturally, since that's why the story is being told in this way in the first place). It's obvious during Wolf's story what's really going on, but who is watching this movie for the mystery? It's just great to see how, after watching Red's story, we get to see why everything that happened to her happened at all. And, again, it's all very funny. Also watch for Boingo the bunny (voice of Andy Dick) and the absolutely terrific Japeth the Goat (voice of Benjy Gaither), a goat wearing sunglasses who is cursed to sing everything he says and who has an endless supply of horns (he's always prepared). Japeth's twangy banjo country ditty is also quite funny (the other songs are fairly okay. They're not as memorable as schnitzel and Japeth, but they do help move the story on, which is why they're there). Just good stuff.
The animation work is quite different from what we've all seen from the Disney and Pixar (and Fox and whoever else) people. The critters are not photo realistic, nor do they have that slick and shiny round look that something like "Shrek" has. The colors are duller and there are more angles and sort of stiff movements from the characters. It kind of looks like a much more fluid and faster version of the cinematics from the Playstation game "Resident Evil 3: Nemesis." When you see it for the first time it looks like it's not finished (because we're all used to the much brighter Pixar movies). After a minute or so you get used to the movements and get caught up in the lunacy. This reviewer likes this kind of computer animation and feels as though it works well for this story. Red just wouldn't be the same character if it had a rounder face or "looked more realistic." Sadly, this is probably going to be one of the things that hurts it in the long run. It doesn't look "new." People are going to want to know why they didn't copy exactly the style of Pixar and "Shrek." Hopefully, this reviewer is wrong on this because the movie doesn't deserve this kind of criticism.
The voice work is all good and great. It's never dull. Anne Hathaway provides the right kind of spunk for the lead "Red." Patrick Warburton does his usual excellent job (when doesn't he do an excellent job as a cartoon voice? The guy's voice is just made for this kind of thing). James Belushi's Woodsman is goofy enough to work (who knew Nick Pirandello could do this kind of voice? And sing like this?). Xzibit's Grizzly is gruff and funny (his voice and character probably go together the best. Take one look at the eggplant like Grizzly and the bear's nasty sneer and you'll see how great it works). Andy Dick is just weird. Glenn Close is also goofy enough for her Granny character (according to imdb.com Sally Struthers was the original voice of Granny. You'll notice that she gets a special thank you at the end of the credits. How much of her performance ended up in the finished movie, if at all? Maybe Glen Close is doing Sally Struthers here). All good stuff.
The only problem this reviewer has with the movie is the opening, or really the lack of one. There should be a bigger and more expansive montage of the forest so the audience can gain at least a modicum of familiarity with the world they're about to enter. What we do get, a voice over while an invisible hand flips through the pages of a pop up book, just isn't enough. Everything else, though, is dang near perfect for what the movie tries to do throughout. The movie wants to make the audience laugh. "Hoodwinked!" does it. And this reviewer would love to have someone from the MPAA or anyone else who can explain why this movie is rated PG? Is it because of the dynamite? Does that mean Bugs Bunny today would be given a PG-13 for tying Elmer Fudd's shotgun barrel off so it will blow up in his face? What "thematic elements" are they talking about? Huh?
Go see it, people.
The 411: “Hoodwinked!” is a hysterical animated movie is an updated “Little Red Riding Hood” tale in the context of a much larger magical fairy tale world where there is a nefarious plot afoot. It’s got great voice talent, decent songs, and a different style of animation that’s off putting at first but never annoying. It probably will not break any box office records or set the world on fire, but it doesn’t have to, and it doesn’t really want to. All it wants to do is make you laugh, and that’s exactly what it does.
