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

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Hoodwinked! (2005)

The classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood gets twisted to good comedic effect in this animated movie, written and directed by Cory and Todd Edwards (with some assistance from Tony Leech in the writing department).

The film begins with 'Red' (Anne Hathaway) visiting her granny (Glenn Close), only to find that it's a wolf (Patrick Warburton) trying to pass himself off as the grey-haired relative. Then a screaming woodsman (James Belushi) smashes his way into the cottage. The whole situation is one big mess. Although it would seem that the wolf is the main baddie, Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers) is determined to unravel the whole thing and hear the different tales from everyone in order to get to the truth.

Despite the rather crude animation style (well, it's not awful but it's no PIXAR), Hoodwinked does enough to make for an entertaining viewing. The twisted fairy tale may have been played out over the past decade or so, but it can still be fun, especially when made into the form of a whodunnit.

The voice cast all do a good job (I could listen to Patrick Warburton read a phone book and I'd be laughing my ass off), and as well as the main players already mentioned there are roles for Andy Dick, Anthony Anderson, Xzibit and Chazz Palminteri, but the script never feels quite sharp or funny enough to make the most of them.

Of course, Hoodwinked! is aimed at kids and it does a lot right for the target demographic. The bright colours and larger than life characters all appeal (especially a mountain goat cursed to sing constantly instead of talk), everything is cute without being too sickly and there are plenty of easy laughs.

It's not that Hoodwinked! is bad, it's just not great. It's not that clever, it's not hilarious and it's not as technically polished as twenty other animated movies I could name off the top of my head. But stick the DVD on and the little ones will be happy from start to finish, which means that it has succeeded in its main aim.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hoodwinked-DVD-Glenn-Close-Voice/dp/B000JCET3S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368052139&sr=8-1&keywords=hoodwinked