Chazz Palminteri Movie:

Editorial 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

Hoodwinked Reviews:
Excellent DVD!
2009-11-16 - Hoodwinked first came across my attention a month ago while channel-surfing. The movie is another take on the Grimm's Fairy Tale, Little Red Riding Hood, and purports to tell "the real story". While stories of "the other point-of-view" are nothing new, many are widely successful (Gregory Maguire's Wicked, for example). Hoodwinked deserves to be in the ranks of such success stories.

What sets Hoodwinked apart from others is that rather than settling one viewpoint, the film tells the story of all of the players: the Wolf's, the Woodsman's, and even Granny's. In the fairy tale, Red is seen as an innocent child performing a family errand and accosted by the personification of evil. But in Hoodwinked, Red is a delivery girl for a local business, and the Wolf is fleshed out as an intrepid reporter who mistakenly believes Red is responsible for a rash of thefts in the neighborhood. His foray into cross-dressing is simply an attempt to get to the truth. Even the woodsman, believed by Grimm to be a hero, becomes a clumsy oaf whose role in the adventure is best left unsaid. As for Granny, well, her beehive hairdo is merely a cover for a woman most people would love to have as a grandparent! Glenn Close does a magnificent job voicing this spry, sly, surprising grandmother.

The cast is supplemented by several supporting cast members such as Japeth the Goat, Twitchy the Squirrel, and Boingo the Rabbit (superbly voiced by Andy Dick). But rather than relegating such characters to bland, background chorus roles as you would find in a Disney film, Kanbar Entertainment gives each one a separate identity, and an important part to play. Yes, some of them do sing--the music in this film is quite good--but it is music that Walt would never approve of.

After seeing only half the film, I promptly ordered the DVD, and it now occupies a place of honor in the rack beside other animation greats such as The Incredibles, and The Simpsons. I plan to get the soundtrack as well.

Director Cory Edwards has written a sequel, titled Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil, which centers on Hansel & Gretel. I look forward to see this next year.


Often overlooked
2009-11-14 - A very good, often overlooked retelling of the story of the Little Red Riding Hood. An animated who-dunnit with lively music and fairly decent animation. This movie is in my library because it does what Shrek fails to do. It pokes irreverent fun at some of our most beloved fairy tales and fables without all the unnecessary potty-humor. Shrek easily has five star quality but loses stars quickly on fart jokes and sexual innuendo. Hoodwinked is good decent fun but only 4 star quality.

A Red Riding Hood Movie You've Never Seen Before
2009-11-11 - You Know whats so awesome about this movie they took he red ridding Hood story and twisted it into something new and unique. I love this movie. I Recommend it for everyone

great movie for kids and the adult jokes are hilarious, too
2009-11-08 - My children are addicted to this movie, we borrowed it from friend and had to get one of our own. The video was in mint condition and arrived in a few days as advertised. Never orded from Amazon before and now I certainly will again.

Kids love it
2009-09-30 - This is a entertaining movie. My 3 year old boy has watched it 25 times in 2 months, and it has not become annoying (yet). My 12 year old boy also enjoys this movie.