Hoodwinked
Reviewed by Eric Renderking Fisk
There’s a curse upon my house… but since it
comes with part of the territory of raising kids, I can’t complain
too much. When ever there’s a movie that’s for kids and there’s a
rumor that it’s “smart” for adults, my wife and I find ourselves
watching it.
There are some truly genuine and entertaining gems – anything by
Pixar such as “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles,” movies that
defy your expectations and turn out to be different then your
preconceived notions (I wanted to hate "Madagascar" and "Shrek..."
but they accidentally became my favorites) as well as some incredibly bad
movies that insult your intelligence while wasting your time and
money ("Baby Looney Tunes: Eggs-traordinary Adventure…" sadly comes
to mind…) "Hoodwinked" falls somewhere next to "Madagascar" and "Shrek…"
but leans dangerously close to "Baby Looney Tunes” territory and
could have gone even further towards the infamous “Barney The Purple
Dinosaur” danger zone if it became preachy.
"Hoodwinked" is a bit more then the retelling of " Little Red Riding
Hood" with a modern twist on all of the characters such as the title
character, the wolf, the woodsman and Red Riding Hood’s grandmother.
The “McGuffen” (plot device) is Red’s attempt at bringing her
grandmother’s book of recipes to her grandmother’s mountain retreat
before someone tried to steal it, as there’s been a thief who’s been
raiding the enchanted forest to start there own "Enchanted Forest
Super Franchise (my paraphrase…)."
Red’s trip to her grandmothers home is full of danger and intrigue,
which comes to a climax when she discovers the wolf in the bed
disguised as her grandmother, the old woman breaks through the door
while still being tied up and the woodsman crashes through the
window wielding an ax…
… An instant later the police arrive on the scene and then each
character is sat down at the kitchen table and Detective Nicky
Flippers (voiced by David Ogden Stiers best known from "M*A*S*H" as
Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III…) has each of the four
characters tell their version of the story.
As an aside to The Fedora Chronicles readers: Nicky Flippers is a
nod and salute to William Powell’s "Nick Charles" from "The Thin
Man" movies… gray fedora and all.
Each version of this story is crazier then the last:
Red Riding Hood as the young girl becoming a woman and trying to expand her horizons and go beyond her expectations…
… The Wolf as a tabloid reporter trying to break the story of a life time.
… The Woodsman as a would-be actor from Austria who sells Schnitzel between auditions.
… Red’s Grandmother as a CEO of her own company that makes baked-goods and spends her time playing extreme sports…
… And as the different versions of the story
changes and we get to see the story from the other points of view
from the main characters it slowly becomes something else besides
“Little Red Riding hood” and transforms into a hybrid of Anne
Hathaway’s earlier motion picture “Ella Enchanted” and a really bad
knock-off a James Bond movie... (Evil Villain, secret layer, plot to
take over the world.)
"Hoodwinked" would have been funnier if there wasn’t already another
movie that spoofed fairy tales such as "Shrek…" in fact, if you’ve
seen the two Shrek films, then there are going to be aspects of this
movie that will already seem tired and already done. The same holds
true with The Austin Powers movies, ("International Man Of Mystery,"
"The Spy Who Shagged Me," "Goldmember…") with a master villain
that’s more comedic then threatening. There just doesn’t seem to be
anything new or fresh in that direction in this film.
"Hoodwinked" wants so badly to be edgy and hip “to the extreme”.
It
goes to the edge, but doesn’t commit. It wants to screw around and
mess with stereotypes, but then falls back and becomes politically
correct again...
Furthermore… there’s really nothing enduring about “Red…” Anne
Hathaway is well cast and does a great job providing the voice with
the material she’s given, but this isn’t the same Anne Hathaway who
became a household word with “The Princess Diaries.” There isn’t the
same subtle innocence in her voice anymore, she has a mature young
woman who’s outgrown the Wonderful (and sometimes too safe) World Of
Disney. To that extent, she just isn’t young enough to play “Little
Red Riding Hood” with out the rest of the movie feeling awkward.
The character is rendered with a perpetual pout with these huge doe
eyes, often times looking too much like a fragile, expressionless
china doll and less like a girl of action. That’s not condemning or
condoning the artists, because it seems to an extent that keeping
her looking “girlish” was an artistic choice and had little to do
with the abilities of the software that’s been available for years.
… And with one of the other minor characters “Twitchy” (spastic
squirrel and assistant to The Wolf) who actually had too much
expression, you have further proof that making “Red” virtually
expressionless was more of an artistic choice.
Hoodwinked isn’t a bad film, nor is it unfunny… there are some great
laugh out loud moments at the expense of some of the characters such
as the Austrian actor turned woodsman, the diabolical rabbit (a nod
to "Monty Python And The Holy Grail?") and many of the blundering
animal police men. But just as I’ve said before, "Hoodwinked" feels
tired and already played out. There are a few salutes, tributes and
just plain satires of classic and vintage movies scattered through
out… but when the movie ended and there was a door open for there to
be sequels or even a whole "Hoodwinked" franchise… I can’t say that
I was excited.
In all, "Hoodwinked" is a good movie to watch and experience just
once, but I can’t see how it can become a "franchise" or get people
to see it more then once…