Ani-MAY-tion Month: Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil (2011)

Although I didn't love it, I was one of the few people who quite liked Hoodwinked! So I thought the sequel might be okay. I was wrong. Oh, it's full of minor chuckles, and the voice of Patrick Warburton is always a plus for any piece of animation, but it's vastly inferior when compared to many other releases from the past few years.

The story this time around sees Red Riding Hood (voiced this time by Hayden Panettiere) and The Big Bad Wolf (Warburton) working together to rescue the kidnapped Granny Puckett (Glenn Close). It turns out that she's in the clutches of the same witch (Joan Cusack) who has Hansel and Gretel (voiced by Bill Hader and Amy Poehler).

There are plenty of cute characters here for kids to enjoy, and plenty of jokes either directly or indirectly alluding to famous fairytales, and that's all well and good. But even the younger viewers might realise that they're being short-changed by the ugly, clunky animation onscreen. And adults hoping to find the experience relatively painless? Well, okay, it IS relatively painless, but it's also below average from start to finish. Perhaps the laziness is best summed up by a scene that parodies The Silence Of The Lambs - a film made over twenty years ago that youngsters won't necessarily know about and adults will consider irrelevant within this context.

Anne Hathaway, wisely, skipped out after her stint in the first movie, so Red Riding Hood is voiced this time around by Hayden Panettiere. As mentioned above, Close and Warburton both return to their roles, as do Cory Edwards, Andy Dick and David Ogden Stiers. Martin Short takes over as Kirk the Woodsman (a role played by James Belushi in the first movie), but most of the fun comes from Hader and Poehler. Cusack isn't given as much to do, but she's as good as ever.

Director Mike Disa doesn't seem to care too much about the whole thing. The fact that he helped create the screenplay, along with about four other people, means that he can get most of the blame for the finished product.

Feeling more like a loosely connected series of puns and gags, as opposed to a cohesive feature film, Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil isn't one to actively seek out. It's not that it's a terrible film. It's just not half as much fun as it could/should be.

4/10

http://www.amazon.com/Hoodwinked-Too-Hood-vs-Evil/dp/B0052XI5J8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368134257&sr=8-2&keywords=hoodwinked+too

I don't know how long I have left in my laptop, but it's dying a little more each day. YOU can help me keep up with my daily review schedule, as every copy of my book sold gets a few pounds in my pocket, and gets you a good read (if I say so myself).

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.