I'll admit, when I saw the poster for this one when it was in theatres, I had just one thought: Creepy. All those big eyed, computer animated shiny faced creepy creeps. I was the kid who, in the middle of the night, got out of bed to turn the stuffed toy to the wall because the hall light was reflecting in its plastic eye and it gave me the creeps. I wasn't so sure about this movie.
Well as it turns out, it's a harmless, non-scary, funny little movie. And yes the word Creepy comes up at least twice, proving that it doesn't take itself too seriously.
In a twist on the old fairy tale, the story is basically about the interrogation of the four persons involved in an altercation in the woods. Granny (who isn't your typical Granny, it turns out), Red, the Wolf, and the Woodsman all get a chance to tell their story.
If there's one thing a kid loves, it's repetition. Kids love it even more if something changes just a little bit with each repetition. Each one of the stories ties together in a way that makes it easy for the young viewer to figure out what's going on.
As far as the characters go, several stood out. The wolf is played by the always great Patrick Warburton. Andy Dick brings a special ickiness to Boingo the Bunny. Twitchy the Squirrel, voiced by directed Cory Edwards, is brilliant. I mean, I hate squirrels even more than I hate creepy dolls and stuffed toys, but I loved Twitchy.
Unfortunately I didn't feel the same way about Red. The character looked grumpy and somewhat snotty and Anne Hathaway's voicing didn't improve it. (I really want to like Anne. She's hit or miss for me.) I really do think it's a big eyed shiny faced prejudice on my part though.
Yeesh!
But I won't hold it against her. In her favour, at least she's a strong female character and let's have more of those!!
The animation is just awful. Not even so bad it's good. Just too bright, too harsh, too chunky. Having said that, with its over the top colour and quick edits, this cartoon is probably perfect for a generation raised on video games.
The songs were great though. I liked the "Creatures of Habit", the band performing at the Extreme Sports competition. (Long story...) I thought the song "Critters Have Feelings" was a nice homage to The Cars. Very eighties sounding.
If the kid in your life is begging to watch Hoodwinked, go ahead. You'll find something to laugh at and the kid will too!
8 comments:
We actually own Hoodwinked and I wasn't that impressed. The whole family watched it together, though, and that in itself is some thing. I did like the squirrel.
wow. You just summed up the whole movie in three sentences!!!!
Impressive.
To me it looks incomplete. The screenplay was above average, the voice work stellar, but the animation looks like the third stage in a four-stage process. I'm guessing that if you watched the animation in 'Cars' before they did that final render, it would look very much like this.
It's almost like one of the Weinbergs wathed the rough, liked it, saw how much it would cost to do the final render, and said 'Fuck it. This is good enough.'
And did you pick up on the Chevy Chase connection with the Wolf? It was Fletch. Remember that movie? He even wears the same shirt and hoodie.
My 10-year-old does an excellent imitation of Jabeth the Goat. He walks around all the time singing 'Be Prepared'
I got horns that open bottles, and I got horns that hold my keys
I got horns that when you turn em right, they help me watch TV
I got horns that open pickle jars, and horns that come with hair
I got horns that hang my other horns, I always come prepared
To be prepared, to be prepared
This lesson must be shared, this lesson must be shared to be prepared
To be prepared, to be prepared
And unless you've got a spare, you've got one life so handle it with care!
yeharr
Are we secretly related somehow, because my kids (specifically 12 year old Girl, the Mimic) has been singing that FOR FOUR DAYS NOW!
Oh, and I didn't get the Fletch thing. I think it's been too long since I saw it. (At the drive in with my parents...) I read about it after I wrote this. That's when I read what the real critics say!
I was not impressed with the movie at all. My thoughts were "what the hell is going on?" I think at one point I left the room for a while. I thought I would like it because I like Anne Hathaway but this was simply disappointing.
Poor Anne Hathaway. She's sooooo stereotyped now. She just can't break out of the princess / fairy tale thing.
I guess she did something different in Brokeback Mountain, I didn't catch it to see, but evidently in Devil Wears Prada, she is the same rags-to-riches fairytale princess type she's always been. Too bad.
The wolf was brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Patrick Warburton is awesome.
The rest of it, I really liked. I didn't care about the animation, so much and the music just kicked butt! Haha! But that's the kid in me speaking.
And my daughter sings the Goat Prepared song over and over too. It was cool the first 500 times I heard it, but even I have my lines one can't cross!
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