Hoodwinked: Movie & DVD Review (2006)

(Originally published 2006)

The new computer-animated movie, "Hookwinked," is a riff on the "Little Red Riding Hood" tale, literally reimagining our innocent, skipping little sweet tart as a street-smart, butt-kicking, take-no-prisoners hard-lass from the 'hood.

The film, which director Cory Edwards based on a script he co-wrote with Todd Edwards and Tony Leach, begins on a high note but doesn't sustain it, with Red Riding Hood (voice of Anne Hathaway) stopping by her grandmother's house to find in Granny's bed a wolf (Patrick Warburton) cross-dressed as Granny herself.

Thing is, this Red isn't so easily fooled and she's certainly no pushover. She's still a child, yes, but she's a child of pop culture and 40-plus years of feminism, with her calculating eyes seeing plenty and an eagerness to protect herself taking hold the moment the opportunity presents itself. This is, after all, a Red Riding Hood not afraid to use a can of Mace.

To wit: After noting the Wolf's big hands, his bad breath and his big ears ("All the better to hear your many criticisms with, my dear"), soon his mask is off, his fangs are bared, and Red is ready to rumble. Before she can, however, in through the window comes the Woodsman (Jim Belushi), who starts swinging an ax and shrieking just as Red's real Granny (Glenn Close) leaps out of a closet, mysteriously bound and gagged but nevertheless ready to fight.

What's going on here? Initially, a few laughs, but when the movie reveals itself to be an old-school police procedural that relies on an endless string of flashbacks to help assemble the truth of how we came to this point, it falls apart.

With its pile-up of twists, stretches in logic and broad winks at the audience only serving to complicate an already dense plot, the movie gets stuck. It doesn't help that it courts comparisons to the superior "Shrek," which boasted better animation and successfully toyed with fairy tale conventions in ways that "Hoodwinked" fails to match.

It's tough to nail a movie that wants to please as much as "Hoodwinked" does. It also would be unfair to overlook the fact that some of the jokes are indeed clever. The problem is that in trying so hard to have a good time, Edwards and company didn't know when to quit. They have created overkill, not comedy, with momentum lost amid the chaos.

Grade: C