Hoodwinked!
Back in December of 2005, this little film based on the Little Red-Riding Hood story from the Weinstein Company made it's way in theaters. I know technically some people refer to it as 2006 Animated film since it was released in January of that year, but I'm counting it as a 2005 film since it was released in Los Angeles on December 16, 2005. Before I go on, I would like to say that next to Sony Pictures Animation. the Weinstein Company has made some terrible animated features like the Hoodwinked sequel, Escape from Planet Earth, The Nut Job, TMNT, and even distributing the American version of The Magic Roundabout, Doogal. And I know I say this a lot, but this movie is basically the only good one they've made. I mean, what else can you say about a detective noir story that features fairy-tale characters. That's another thing I'd like to say, before the Hoodwinked sequel killed off the trend, there were a couple of films who made the fairy-tale setting more endearing like the Shrek franchise and some who didn't like Happily N'Ever After and this film seems to be right down the middle. But enough about that. Now that we are looking into Hoodwinked, will it be a mystery that is very complex and interesting as it was advertised when it came out? Or will it turn out to be as bad as, say, Shrek the Third? Let's find out.
The Story: When looking into the story, I will say that it makes the movie stand out from other fairy-tale genre movies on account of one thing, being a crime story. Yes, the entire movie is basically a mystery film where it involves authorities trying to find the Goody Bandit, a thief who steals the recipes of sugary treats. There is a downside to this though, that part of the story only happens when the movie hits the 60-minute mark. Most of movie features this Rashomon-style plot element where the main characters each tell their sides of the story of how they ended up coming together in the beginning of the movie. With that said however, it doesn't mean that part of the movie is generally bad. In fact, there are a lot of good moments in it. From each character's point-of-view, we see how they have gotten into various problems, misunderstandings with each other, and what happened during various parts of the movie from their stories. Another factor I would like to talk about is the movie's humor. While most of the jokes are either just slapstick, sarcastic wit, and non-sequiturs, they are rather funny and don't slow-down the movie in any way. Another aspect is regarding the fairy tale setting and one complaint I have with it is that it mostly focuses on the characters from Little Red Riding Hood and anthropomorphic animals while other fairy tales are either referenced or do not appear at all, but I must applaud for not showering the movie with so many fairy tale characters like the sequel did. One more thing I want to talk about is the movie's action scenes where the characters either fight with each other or are put in a dangerous situation. I will admit, they are very well-handled and can seem rather exciting at times, I dare say that the action scenes are the best part of the movie. With a more-or-less pleasant plot, decent humor and great action, it's safe to say that this is fairy tale story is no ordinary one.
The Animation: Okay, I just want to get this out of the way here and say that most of the animation isn't that good. In fact, it's only barely passible for the movie. Let me start with the worst part of the animation, the character design. As I said in my follow up review in The Top 10 Worst Animated Movies of the 2010 Decade, the animation looks completely unfished and unfocused, making the characters a bit hard to look at since a lot of them aren't fully animated whether it be some of the animals having little fur while clothed and some of the human characters look more-or-less frightening. The character animation and movements however are somewhat better as it gives an earthly feel to the movie. That's actually a surprising thing for the movie compared to it's sequel as the latter has the opposite effect because in that movie, the character designs look better, but the animation is crap, while in this movie, it's a bit more believable like in the action scenes like Granny doing thrill-seeking stuff and Red's fight with Boingo, who by the way is very well animated with his ears. As for the background animation, I will admit that it is decent for what it is whether it be the backgrounds of the forest, the snow mountain, or even Boingo's lair. If there is anything else other than the character design that I have an issue with, it would have to be the fact that the everything in the movie has a generic look to it. I mean, the characters and backgrounds look bland and somewhat uninteresting. But I consider that only a minor thing to complain about since for one thing, the movie came out in 2005 and upgraded animation was a bit hard to find those days and also, this came from a lesser-known animation company, so this sort of thing can be expected. The animation here is similar to goodies, some may seem stale, but others aren't so bad.
The Characters: I just wnat to say this outright; unlike the story and some of the animation, I feel like I have to be critical of the characters if the story. I am not saying they are bad characters, in fact, I do find them somewhat enjoyable, it's just that the way they are executed makes them kind of an afterthought. The core issue regarding these guys is that they are mostly one-note, annoying, or just plain unnecessary for the feature. Red Riding Hood, or Red as she's known here, is the typical young girl who strives to prove to everyone that she is capable of much more, Granny is the eccentric elder lady and Red's grandmother who, while having an interesting character depth of being a daredevil, is otherwise just the loving grandmother, the Wolf, hilarious as he can be with Patrick Warburton voicing him, is an undercover reporter who often gets in over his head, and Kirk is a simple-minded actor and yodeler-wannabe who, while being generally likable, feels like he's the most unnecessary character to the point where even the movie flat-out says that he only got tangled up with the others by accident. For the side characters, I wouldn't say they're any better. For instance, Twitchy, the Wolf's companion and photographer, while having a cute appearance, is just this ongoing joke about how hyper he is, Nicky Flippers is the detective who wants to hear all the characters's stories before closing the case, Chief Grizzly is the leader of the forest animal cops who is more impatient and wants to close the case, and the villain of the film a.k.a. the Goody Bandit, Boingo, is honestly one of the saving graces for the characters given how over-the-top he is thanks to Andy Dick's performance and pulling off a completely cunning plan with the help of his ski-team henchmen. Though Boingo isn't really without his flaws as there are very subtle and not-so-subtle hints that he is the villain. As for other characters that appeared, they are very minor like the Wolf's sheep friend Wollsworth, the ski-team leader and Boingo's right-hand Dolph, and Japeth the singing goat, though I stand by what I said when I reviewed the sequel that he is my favorite character in the first movie. Like I said before, I do find the characters enjoyable, but they aren't really all that impressive.
The Songs: Wow, I can't believe this movie is actually a musical. I guess that even if this movie is a crime-thriller, it wouldn't help to have some songs in order to lighten the tone. Here's what I'd like to say though. As great as some of these songs are, I do find them to be, well, unnecessary as Kirk. The biggest problem with these songs is that they feel like they were just added in as filler, they don't really impact the movie, and aren't really all that long. But since it's a musical, I might as well try to look into them. To start off, "Great Big World" is simply Red singing what she wants out of life, "The Schnitzel Song" is just a fun song for young ones, "Tree Critter" is a rather nice rock song, but is honestly just as weak as The Schnitzel Song mostly because the scene keeps cutting away from the singers. The song that I will admit is pretty good is the villain song "Top of the Woods" with just how hilarious and catchy it is. The only songs that I feel overshadow that one aren't really sung by any of the characters but rather play in the background of the movie, which are "Critters Have Feelings" and "Red is Blue". The former is a rather nice and calming rock ballad that you can hear at the movie's end while the latter is a charming tearjerker that perfectly captures what Red is feeling when she finds out about Granny's thrill-seeking hobby. While some songs aren't really all that bad, I just got to ask, why was this movie a musical?
I wouldn't say this fairy tale is as groundbreaking like Shrek, but I would call it unwatchable like Happily N'Ever After either. Hoodwinked! is a fairly decent animated film that, as I said before, it the only good film made by the Weinstein Company with it's good story, sub-par but okay animation, characters that, while not the best, aren't certainly the worst, and songs that can be chalked-up as filler. If I would have to make a recommendation, I would say you can watch this film and also enjoy it, but avoid the sequel because that film may as well be a bad Straight-To-Video release. You will probably love the fairy tale aspect of this movie given how it twists it into something different, but please don't be surprised if you consider Shrek doing it better.
Story: 7/10
Animation: 6/10
Characters: 6/10
Songs: 4/10
Score: 6/10