Hoodwinked! -Fun and Innovative-No I am Serious
Hoodwinked! is a very smart film. At first glance hoodwinked! doesn’t seem like it is anything special. The animation is not that mind-blowing, especially Little Red Riding Hood aka “Red,” but Hoodwinked! is a sharply written film full of biting jokes that catches even battle weary movie reviewers like myself off-guard.
The story of Hoodwinked! is, at its core, sort of familiar and centers on Red, her Granny and a big, bad wolf. Someone in this fairy tale universe is stealing on the best recipes-a goody bandit if you will, and everyone is a suspect. The movie unfolds via the telling of the story from the perspective of Red Puckett (Little Red Ridding Hood), the Wolf’s Story, Granny’s Story and The Woodsman’s Story, which is very fun. These four interwoven stories are tied together nicely by a police detective frog, Flippers and each of the four core stories are innovative and quite entertaining.
Hoodwinked! has three elements often lacking in recent Hollowood (mandatory disclaimer due to a few idiots out there on the “Internets”-I know how to spell it correctly I just refuse) offerings. Foremost is the witty and innovative script by Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards and Tony Leech. Normally, this type of familiar corruption and nepotism repulses me, but there is no doubt that Hoodwinked! is a strong script and well-constructed.
Second, Hoodwinked! has great voice acting by a wide array of famous names. Anne Hathaway does a good job as Red, Patrick Warburton is great as The Wolf as are Glenn Close as Granny and David Odgen Stiers as Flippers. Other noteworthy performances from Jim Belushi as The Woodsman to Anthony Anderson as Detective Stork and Xzibit as Chief Grizzly all help give the film a feeling of depth that partially offsets the periodically lackluster animation. As shocking as it may be, even Andy Dick, yes the ridiculous, annoying human parody that is Andy Dick, manages to turn in a decent performance, namely as himself-a fast taking rodent who discovers a drug of sort during the story.
Where Hoodwinked! stands head and shoulders above many recent animated films is the budget. Hoodwinked! at times, doesn’t look great, such as Red’s facial animation. Overall, Hoodwinked! looks a little subpar, but this film was completed on a fantastically low budget for this day and age. Supposedly, Hoodwinked!’s budget was around the $15-$20 million range. How did they manage to pull that off with names like Hathaway, Close and all the rest attached? I don’t know, but they did. Worldwide Hoodwinked! quietly brought in over a $100 million, making it one of the biggest sleeper hits in a very long time. Now we are not talking Jaws rate of return, but it is still a respectable rate and it is no surprise that we will be seeing a sequel sometime in the next couple of years. I will definitely be looking forward to the sequel for Hoodwinked!, hopefully Edwards can pull another, well, rabbit out of his hat.
Story A- (The story is well crafted, well paced and cleverly done.)
Acting B (Hoodwinked! has an abundance of good voice performances, even with the smaller roles. It is a real treat.)
Visuals B- (The animation is not the best that you will see, but taking the budget into consideration, I have to bump the visuals grade up a little bit. Plus, there are many visually innovative scenes that help to make up for the often retro looking animation.)
Originality/Innovation A- (This is one of the more innovative animations I have seen in a long time.)
Enjoyability Grade A
Home Theater/HD Factor B
Overall Grade B+ (There is no way to score Hoodwinked! an “A” as the animation is just not on the “A” level, but there is no doubt Hoodwinked! is a very fun time and a great film to watch if you have kids.)
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