Hoodwinked!
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Hoodwinked! (alternatively styled Hoodwinked) is a 2005 computer-animated musical comedy mystery film. It retells the folktale Little Red Riding Hood as a police procedural, using backstories to show multiple characters' points of view. It was produced independently by Blue Yonder Films with Kanbar Entertainment, directed and written by Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech, and produced by Katie Hooten, Maurice Kanbar, David K. Lovegren, Sue Bea Montgomery, and Preston Stutzman. The film features the voices of Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, Jim Belushi, Patrick Warburton, Anthony Anderson, David Ogden Stiers, Xzibit, Chazz Palminteri, and Andy Dick.
The film was released by The Weinstein Company in Los Angeles, California, on December 16, 2005, for a one-week engagement before expanding nationwide on January 13, 2006. Critical reception to the film was varied; although its script and voice performances were praised by many reviews, its animation quality was heavily criticized. The film was a commercial success, earning over thirteen times its less-than-$8 million budget. Because of this, it is regarded as the most profitable animated film ever made. A sequel, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, directed by Mike Disa. It was created by an entirely different team, even though the original draft of the screenplay was written by the Edwards brothers and Leech. It was released in 2011 to negative reviews and financial failure.
Plot
In a similar vein to other films parodying fairy tales like Shrek, the film tells how the tale of the Little Red Riding Hood turns into a non-linear crime drama similar to Pulp Fiction in which each suspect gives his/her own version of the story to solve a mystery before it becomes too late to stop the true criminal mastermind behind an unresolved case.
Good Qualities
- The story is rather original. Who could have had the idea into turning the Little Red Riding Hood story into a police drama?
- The four stories that the protagonists tell are told from their perspectives but all four are connected to each other in different ways.
- Many likable characters, including Red, Kirk the Woodsman and Nicky Flippers.
- Voice acting did amazingly well with each characters, especially from Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close and Patrick Warburton.
- Good musical numbers like "Be Prepared", "The Schnitzel Song", "Top of the Woods" and "Red is Blue".
- Japeth the Goat and his song "Be Prepared" are considered by most as the best part of the film, even being the film's saving grace for critics who disliked the film.
- The plot twist of Boingo being the true villain is well-executed and unexpected. Indeed, this movie established the cliché that a cute character can be actually the bad guy.
- Many funny scenes and good jokes, such as Granny "living life on the edge" and Twitchy making a sonic boom after drinking coffee.
- Perfect pacing.
- Its climax is incredible and fast-paced.
- Unlike most animated films from then and nowadays (whether good or bad), it doesn't resort to toilet humor to be fun.
- Its tone is enjoyable and entertaining.
- The CGI animation does look decent in some scenes.
- Red is a very badass girl, proving that women can be just as tough as men if they put there mind to it.
Bad Qualities
- Elephant in the room: The CGI animation aged like milk; it's cheap, lazy, and unfinished, even for 2005 standards, looking like a game for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox game and also looking similar to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys and Whacked!. Though to be fair, this was one of the first computed-animated films to be completely independently funded without backing of any studio.
- One notable example of the janky animation comes in the form of a shot of Wolf playing a game of basketball, in which the character models for the other players don't look properly rendered.
- Twitchy can be hard to understand in some scenes due to him speaking EXTREMELY fast, and his voice can come off annoying. This was likely intentional, however.
- Some characters, such as Kirk, and The Children can sometimes look uncanny.
Reception
Critical Response
Hoodwinked! received mixed reviews from critics. The script, originality, and cast were praised, though the quality of animation was heavily criticized. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 46%, based on 124 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "This fractured fairytale doesn't have the wit or animation quality to compete with the likes of the Shrek franchise". On Metacritic, it received a score of 45 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Despite mixed reviews from critics, most viewers love the film for its originality, characters and unexpected plot twist, deeming it as one of the best "Shrek knock-offs". In addition, most viewers agree that while not at the level of Shrek, Hoodwinked! is entertaining in its own way and was far better than other "fractured fairy tale" films like Chicken Little and Happily N'Ever After, which came out around the same time as Hoodwinked!.
Box Office
The film was a commercial success, earning over thirteen times its less-than-$8 million budget, and is regarded as the most profitable animated film ever made.
Legacy
Despite being just a low-budget animated film, which are usually average to even bad, this one is the opposite, Hookwinked proves that even low-budget animated films can be successful and even to positive reviews.