Hoodwinked

What really happened to Little Red Riding Hood when she went up to her grandma’s house? Sure, we all know the story behind the classic fairy tale, but was that what really happened? This film takes a cold hard look at that particular day when Red walked into Granny’s house and was surprised by the Wolf, while at the same time, getting to the bottom of a recipe caper in the forest. Yeah, it’s that kind of movie, babe.

For some reason, I always have problems reviewing animated movies because I always feel like there’s not as much to say about them as say…“regular movies”. Things like acting, cinematography, stylishness and directing don’t really come into all that much play when you’re watching “cartoons” on the big screen, so you’re basically left critiquing the animation itself (even then, for movies like SOUTH PARK, that’s irrelevant), the voice-work (sometimes), the characters and the story, which doesn’t amount to all that much to criticize – with humor/music falling under the story category. Characterizations are also interesting to experience in animated movies, but unlike their real-life counterparts, you rarely expect deep, dramatic connections to the characters…you just hope that most of them will be cute and entertaining to watch. In the case of HOODWINKED, much like one of the film’s opening lines (“You can’t always judge a book by its cover”), I was surprised to find myself enjoying the picture more as it went along. From what I had seen/heard about the film beforehand, I wasn’t impressed with its packaging or expecting much, and as things started rather slowly (a lame sing-a-song featuring Little Red Riding Hood didn’t help matters) and quickly downshifted into a Rashomon style story production, I was poised to be bored out of my head, and to regret ever taking a shot at the film in the first place.

But that just goes to show that you should never judge a book by its cover, as the Rashomon style of storytelling actually worked, as the film managed to stick many different fun characters into the forefront for a number of minutes at a time, so that I was never bored with just the one, or a handful. The story – the one other thing that you can really critique in animated flicks – was also original enough to keep me into it, with a slight mystery at its core, and a number of twists and different perspectives, keeping things entertaining. Finally, and most importantly to my overall enjoyment of the picture, were the many different characters that stood out including the funny little pigs, the over-caffeinated squirrel, the laid-back wolf, the hilarious bunny (Go Andy Dick!), the mob sheep, the inquisitive frog and yeah…especially the super-granny (and I thought she was going to be the most boring). Granted, the film’s animation was far from par, the handful of musical tunes spliced throughout weren’t particularly impressive and the film barely lasted 75 minutes, but it had something a lot of other lame animated flicks haven’t had over the past year and that was spunk, sarcastic humor and a quirky-enough story to keep my aging ass interested most of the way. Overall, it’s a fair flick that will surely play even better on DVD, but that has set the groundwork for possible sequels with a host of fun and unique characters presented right here.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian