Hoodwinked
[DVD]

Description

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION Animated feature re-imagines the classic Red Riding Hood tale to predictably hilarious results. Everyone who was ever a child knows the tale of Red Riding Hood but this picture starts in the immediate aftermath - detectives called to a disturbance at Granny's house. Riding Hood (Anne Hathaway) has not been so easy to molest, it appears - the matter of her black belt in at least one martial art is uncovered. Her granny (Glenn Close), a pensioner of rather dubious moral character, is complicit at the very least. The wolf (Patrick Warburton) is looking surprisingly put-upon here. Forest creatures gather and gossip about what possible set of circumstances could lead to this mysterious and sinister scene: axes, wolves, complicit purple-haired pensioners, girls in capes - what gives? A convoluted plot unfolds and the charges to be laid are miscellaneous: menacing wielding of forestry tools, unlawful entry with intent to snack and breach of the peace. A possible link to the case of the Goodie Bandit - the habitual thief of tasty treat recipes - draws forest detectives, led by chief Grizzly (Xzibit), deeper into the intrigue. AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW Hoodwinked fuses the classic fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood with the crisscrossing storylines of film noir--pretty ambitious stuff for a computer-animated cartoon. The police cordon off Grandma's cottage and an amphibious version of William Powell named Nicky Flippers (voiced by David Ogden Stiers, M*A*S*H) begins interrogating the suspects: A Little Red in bell-bottoms (Anne Hathaway, Ella Enchanted), a Wolf turned investigative journalist (Patrick Warburton, The Woman Chaser), a snow-boarding Granny (Glenn Close, 101 Dalmatians), and a dimwitted would-be Woodsman (Jim Belushi, Curly Sue), each of whom have very different reasons for ending up in that cottage living room. The visual style of Hoodwinked mixes a clunky, video-game look with an homage to the stop-motion puppetry of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and other Rankin-Bass holiday specials. While sometimes awkward, there are also moments of surreal beauty, such as when a depressed Red wanders through a field of blue and red flowers--and moments of lunatic comedy, such as the Schnitzel song, which is irresistibly bizarre. The Shrek-style pop-culture references grow annoying, but the left-field goofiness of a yodeling goat points toward a far more distinct and delightful comic world. Also featuring the voices of Anthony Anderson (Kangaroo Jack), rapper Xzibit, and an especially witty turn by Andy Dick (NewsRadio) as a deceptively cute bunny rabbit. --Bret Fetzer

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