Guilty Pleasures: Hoodwinked!
By Samuel Hoelker
April 21, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com

We're horribly animated! What are you going to do about it?
Sometimes, I really have to think about what films to discuss. I have pretty average tastes, so more or less, I like things and don’t like things that most people like or dislike. I can’t really lie and say that something like I Am Number Four is a strangely unsung masterpiece; I couldn’t live with myself. Luckily, for some reason in my mind, the sequels to Men in Black came in mind. Why MIBIII needs to be made ten years after the second one makes no sense, almost as little sense as why MIBII needed to be made at all, and especially five full years after the first one (that, unlike MIBII, was actually good). And then, hey, let’s talk about other sequels being made five years after the original! I’m relatively willing to give sequels a chance (I even saw Evan Almighty in theaters, something few did and fewer admit), but I don’t really think Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (which, in this writer’s fair opinion, is a worse title than the Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel) really needs to exist.

Good thing I’m not here to talk about Hoodwinked Too! I’m here to talk about Hoodwinked!, a movie so overlooked that I’m sure just about everyone in the world is really confused by the sequel’s title (well, at least the “Too” part; I’m still confused by the rest). While a minor success at the box office, it fell by the wayside, partially because everyone felt the need to compare it to Shrek. (Side note: Out of the 128 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, 13 of them [that’s over 10%] mention Shrek in their capsule comments. The movie has nothing to do with Hoodwinked! (besides general themes) While both are set in a fairy-tale world, they’re distinct worlds. Shrek mocked the concept of fairy-tales by creating its own; Hoodwinked! instead uses existing fairy tales and combines them to instead make a tribute to genres in live-action filmmaking.

Little Red Riding Hood (Anne Hathaway) delivers goodies for her Granny (Glenn Close) throughout all of the forest. However, other foodmakers’ recipes have recently been stolen, causing the forest to basically shut down. Red makes her way to her grandmother’s place, only to find the Wolf (Patrick Warburton) in her place. A crazed lumberjack (Jim Belushi) hops in through the window, and at that point they all relate their stories, like Rashomon but less boring. Plus, Andy Dick plays a bunny.

Hoodwinked! is a perfectly affable combination of genres. Not only does it borrow its general structure from Rashomon, but the whole frame story is done in the style of a police drama. It’s also a typical children’s animated film, with uninteresting songs padding the only-75-minutes-anyway film, but with decent action towards the end. The humor is all over the age spectrum, and Patrick Warburton is one of the major characters. If that fact alone doesn’t make you want to go out and see it, I feel bad for you.

But outside of it being a pleasant film, what makes Hoodwinked! something worthy for this column? Whenever I’ve talked about Hoodwinked! and how I enjoy it, people always seem incredibly shocked. They just assume it’s a dumb, forgettable kids’ movie, and I reply back that such a description should go to the animation studio’s other feature film, Doogal (which I believe holds some box office record for lowest gross in one way or another). While many people find fault that Hoodwinked! shares themes with Shrek, I think that’s where it really shines. While two similarly-themed films usually end up being released at the same time, one thrives while the other doesn’t. Of course Hoodwinked! has its limitations in terms of box office potential (and, y’know, isn’t as good as Shrek), but it’s obvious from watching the film that it’s not deterred at all by Shrek. It neither attempts to distance itself from Shrek nor become too much like it – it confidently stands its own ground.

Despite a few script flubs (I really can’t imagine them thinking that having a xXx gag could be funny in 2006, let alone today in 2011), Hoodwinked! is solidly funny. It overcomes some dumb clichés (or did it set the clichés?) and turns them into something that seems original (or may actually be original!). It’s almost refreshing, which is something that’s rarely said about computer-animated films, and never about non-Pixar films. While I won’t stand by the concept of the sequel, I’ll still see it because I have faith that if Hoodwinked! can turn out really good, why not the sequel?