| Film Review | Sam Milligan |
Hoodwinked
“I think it’s safe to say that you know the least about
anything of anyone in this room.”
- Nicky Flippers
This
is a surprisingly good animated film. Seeing the quality of
the animation in the trailers might indicate otherwise, and
I’ll be the first to say that the animation is not up to the
level of Shrek or Ice Age. But the story
itself is very good, and more than makes up for a little
less detail and some slight jerkiness in a couple of places.
It’s obvious that the CGI was done on a shoestring budget,
but you only need to get a few minutes into the movie to
forget about that, as the voice characterizations and the
story itself take over and make you forget those minor
niceties.
Everybody knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood, right?
Only part of the story, as it turns out. Each of the
characters (Red, Granny, the Wolf and the Woodsman) has her
or his own point of view, and that’s how the movie proceeds.
Add in a forest police force that seems by turn more
interested in making an arrest or in the contents of Red’s
basket of goodies than in finding the truth, an
investigating frog that wants to get the bottom of it all,
and a mysterious thief who is stealing goody recipes from
everyone in the forest, and you have a highly entertaining
comedy-crime drama. Nothing is as it at first seems to be,
and the individual stories, each told from a different point
of view, nevertheless weave into a hilarious whole.
My favorite character has to be the Wolf, voiced by Patrick
Warburton (best known by some as the voice of Kronk in
The Emperor’s New Groove), with such classic lines as
“What can I say? I was raised by wolves.” Glenn Close as
Granny gave a fantastic vocal performance, Jim Belushi as
the clueless Woodsman was hysterical, and Anne Hathaway was
very properly indignant as Red (“You again! What do I have
to do, get a restraining order?”) Toss in David Ogden Stiers
(Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester from TV’s MASH) as
the frog investigator Nicky Flippers, Andy Dick (News
Radio) as Boingo the Rabbit, and screenwriter/director
Cory Edwards as Twitchy the Squirrel (think of Chip and
Dale or maybe Alvin of Alvin and the Chipmunks -
on speed), and you have a film that is entertaining for all
ages, and one you won’t mind taking kids to see, because
you’ll enjoy it as much as they do.
I’m not going to write about any of the details of the
sub-plots, as they would be spoilers, and this really is a
good enough movie to see the first time without knowing
what’s coming. Suffice it to say that I laughed throughout
the movie, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
