Hoodwinked

PLOT:

The story begins with Little Red Riding Hood (Anne Hathaway), the Wolf (Patrick Warburton), Granny (Glenn Close), and the Woodsman (James Belushi) in their confrontation at Granny’s house. Mid-scene, the story jumps ahead to the police cordoning off Granny’s house following the opening events. The lead investigator, frog-form Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers), interrogates each of the four participants, with each character giving their own version of how and why they arrived at the house. Because the film uses a police interrogation as a framing sequence, it is evocative of the 1995 crime thriller The Usual Suspects. Because the four participants’ stories converge at points prior to the meeting at Granny’s, and are at times self-serving, the format is also evocative of Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 crime drama Rashomon.

Red’s Story

Red, the first interview subject, is a fiesty preteen who uses her “innocence” to convince Flippers that she is not guilty. She tells Flippers that she is merely a delivery person for her Granny’s “goodies”, and that when she came across the ransacked home of another goody-maker, the latest in a recent string of such attacks by a thief known only as the Goody Bandit, whose crimes have resulted in the closure of many goody makers in the forest, Red decided to take the hidden recipe book in the house for safekeeping. This admission appears self-ruinous, as it casts Red in a suspicious light, but Red asserts her innocence, adding that on her way to Granny’s house, she fell from an air trolley she was riding with the rabbit Boingo (Andy Dick), and when she landed in the forest, she ran into the Wolf, who, after questioning her, appeared to become hostile. After using a “Wolf Away” spray (much like pepper spray) on Wolf, Red (with the help of some birds) tricks the Wolf into falling into the river. She then continues on her journey using a mountain railway system manned by Japeth, a singing goat with detachable horns with different uses. The two soon find themselves in the middle of an avalanche which they barely escaped using the tunnel, but as the railway cart they were riding emerged from the mountain, Red saw that the tracks far ahead of them were apparently destroyed, and an image of her Granny appeared in the sky above her instructing her to use her hood as a parachute, which Red successfully did (the goat used a pair of helicopter-horns to land safely also). When she gets to Granny’s she sees through the Wolf’s transparently obvious Granny disguise, and just as he reveals himself and the two confront one another again, a bound and gagged Granny jumps out of her closet, followed by a crazed-looking axe-wielding Woodsman, who bursts into the living room through the window, screaming, to the horror of the other three.

Wolf’s Story

Flippers then interrogates Wolf W. Wolf, who it appears certain is the culprit. But Wolf reveals that he is an investigative reporter, modelled after Chevy Chase’s character Fletch, whose prior stories Flippers is familiar with, and tells him that he and his hyperactive photographer, a squirrel named Twitchy, were investigating the recent thefts of various recipes by the Goody Bandit, and became suspicious of Red when he saw her traipsing through the forest with goodies in a basket. He explains that he was merely questioning Red because it was his job, and that when his tail got caught in the film chamber of Twitchy’s camera (which Twitchy was fixing after he accidentally swallowed his camera), he roared in pain, which Red took as an attack, and beat him up far more extensively than in her version of the tale. After being tricked down the river by Red and the birds, the Wolf decided to beat her to Granny’s. After using a shortcut provided by Boingo the rabbit, the Wolf and Twitchy used the mountain railway system, which was destroyed when Twitchy lit a candle in the cart that turned out to be a stick of dynamite. The duo arrive at Granny’s house, and Wolf throws Twitchy in the closet to hide, but Granny is already there, and already tied up, which complicates the authorities’ view of the Wolf as the culprit. Wolf puts on a Granny disguise, and the confrontation is again seen. Twitchy then shows Flippers the photographs he took that provides Wolf’s alibi which clears suspicions that Wolf was the culprit.

The Woodsman’s Story

The Woodsman is then interrogated. He reveals that he is an aspiring actor, and that for money, he drives a goody truck, selling schnitzel on a stick to children. He tells Flippers that after a disastrous audition for a bunion cream commercial, where his thick Bavarian accent hurt his chances, he then discovers that his goody truck has been robbed in another attack by the Goody Bandit, as Boingo pops in on the scene. The Woodsman is distraught, but receives a callback for the commercial, and decides to prepare for the role of a woodsman by chopping down trees. After chopping away most of a giant tree, he finds himself atop it as it rolls down the hill towards Granny’s house, and he is thrown through the living room window, hollering the entire way. This makes him the only person there completely by accident.

Granny’s Story

Granny is the last to be interviewed. She reveals that she is an extreme athlete known as Triple G (a homage to the Vin Diesel character Triple X in xXx) who prefers activities like snowboarding to being the stereotypical goody-making grandmother. She explains that she enjoys such activities, and that at the Extreme Dream Snow Sports competition between her teammates and an imposing European ski-team, Boingo the rabbit even asked for her autograph. She tells Flippers that during the race down the mountain, the opposing team physically attacked her and her team. Despite knocking two out with snowballs, the largest of the group nearly knocks her off the cliff. With Granny clutching onto his arms, he admits that he and the team were hired by the Bandit, before pushing her off the cliff. However, she managed to get back onto the mountain, causing an avalanche with two grenades to delay the ski team, before escaping via a parachute (winning the race in the process). As she approached her home, she saw Red below her in the railway cart, and advised her to use her hood as her own parachute. Shortly after, Granny arrived in her bedroom. Her parachute became caught in the ceiling fan, and she ended up wrapped up in it and thrown into her own closet. The familiar confrontation with Red, Wolf and the Woodsman then ensued where Granny popped out of the closet by banging Twitchy against the closet door to force it open. The revelation of Granny’s other life is a shock to Red, who is hurt that Granny kept her other life a secret from her.

After the questioning, the police are back to square one, as none of the four appears to be culprits, but then the basket of Granny’s goodies and the recipe book is found to be missing, as is Red. But we then see Red following the real thief, the one who was present during all four accounts: Boingo, just as Flippers figures it out. Red follows him on the air tram up to the mountain, where he and his henchmen, the aforementioned opposing skiing team, plan to corner the market on goodies, and make them highly addictive to kids. Flippers and the Police learning of the missing tram go down the mountain, just as the group discovers the villains heading up the mountain, while Red confronts Boingo, engages him in a fight, and loses due to the bunny’s suprising ability to use his ears for impressive karate. After revealing their plan to her, she is placed in the air tram filled with dynamite to destroy the forest. While a caffeine-induced Twitchy goes to alert the police that they are heading the wrong way, Wolf, Granny, and the Woodsman follow, and foil Boingo’s evil plans. Red is freed from the air tram before it explodes, and Boingo and his henchmen are captured by the police. The next day, Flippers tells Red, Granny, the Wolf, and Twitchy (the Woodsman became a world-famous yodeler) that he is a member of the “Happily Ever After Agency”, and offers to enlist the four to work for him.

REVIEW:

This movie has its ups and downs. The idea is a good one, and for the most part, they do a good job with it. The animation leaves something to be desired, though. I’m not sure if it’s sub-par, or if I’m just spoiled by watching the masterful masterpieces that come out of the Pixar cannon.

The voice casting is some of the best I’ve seen. Who would have ever guessed Xzibit as a grizzly bear cop? I kept waiting for him to go pimp someone’s ride…lol

I don’t really have much to say on this one. I liked it, but didn’t love it. It’s worth a watch if you’re bored, there’s nothing on, of if you’re a an of someone in the cast, but I wouldn’t go out of the way to go watch it.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars