Hoodwinked
It seems
there is a new kid on the animated film block, Kanbar Entertainment. Their
first feature length film is entitled Hoodwinked and is written and directed by
the multi-talented Cory Edwards. Although this is his first time in the
director’s chair (do they have director’s chairs for animated films? Maybe
there’s a director’s laptop somewhere!) with ten years as a stand-up comedian,
several years of TV hosting and some film experience as editor and producer of
Chillicothe (written and directed by his brother Todd Edwards who also co-wrote
Hoodwinked) he’s certainly brings a lot of nouse from the entertainment
industry with him.
The Plot
On to the
plot, the writers have tried to put an original spin on the classic fairy tale
of Red Riding Hood. It comes out as a hybrid of Red Riding Hood, CSI and a
Hercule Poirot story. All of the main characters are there, Red, Granny, the
wolf and the woodsman but their characters have been extrapolated and warped
somewhat. Red runs and delivers goods from Granny’s goodie shop (producing
goodies seems to be the staple industry of the woods), whilst secretly
hankering after a life of travel and adventure. The wolf is an investigative
journalist, the woodsman an aspiring actor and Granny is an extreme sports nut!
The film
revolves around a central scene that you’ll all recognise from the fairy tale,
Red Riding Hood arriving at Granny’s to find the wolf dressed up in her place,
Granny hog-tied in a closet with the woodsman making a late entrance to
seemingly save the day. Next we cut to Granny’s house later that evening and
all the main characters have been arrested by the gruff and incompetent police
chief. It seems that he believes that one of the characters involved in the
disturbance is involved in the wider problem of goodie recipe theft. It seems
that there is a ‘goodie thief’ stealing everyone’s goodie recipes causing them
to close down (it seems that no one keeps copies of their recipes).
Into this
fray enters Nicky Flippers, the suave (and this time competent) investigator in
the Hercule Poirot mould (even down to the little mustache). The story then
becomes a who-done-it, with each character telling their own back-story of how
they came to arrive at the aforementioned central scene. It turns out that the
stories aren’t quite as straight forward as it first seemed and Nicky Flippers
begins to piece together the identity of the ‘goodie thief’ from the
information provided by the protagonists.
The Film
The central
idea behind Hoodwinked is a pretty good one and lends itself to some
imaginative and funny sequences, and on that front Cory and Todd Edwards
deliver. In my opinion though, the funniest moments come not from the main
characters, but from the wolf’s side-kick Twitchy and a singing mountain goat.
The main characters provide some interesting and humorous scenes, but not many
laugh-out-loud moments, the only times I found myself having a good laugh was
when Twitchy was involved, his frantic antics and squeaky voice made the film
for me. Having watched the film through a couple of times now I still laugh
whenever Twitchy’s on-screen.
Seeing each
characters perspective leading up to Granny’s house worked very well, each was
pretty interesting and had some good moments in, with the exception of the
woodsman, although there was a humorous song in his section, it didn’t really
bring much to the story overall. The problem this film has, in my opinion, is
in its scope. The idea of the ‘goodie thief’ stealing all the recipes putting
all the goodie manufacturers out of business just didn’t seem epic enough to
carry a full feature length film. Come the end of the film, when the goodie
thief has been thwarted and the recipes restored to their rightful owners, it’s
like…..so what? Interesting and humorous though each story is, it just doesn’t
seem to add up to a motion picture. Having said that, it seemed better the
second time through, I think this is one of those films that, whilst it won’t
be back in your DVD player on a regular basis, you can watch more than once.
The voice
talent used in Hoodwinked was excellent and some of the voices made the
characters. There are some big names in there, although you might not recognise
them at first. Anne Hathaway (who was easily recognisable) was perfect for Red,
Andy Dick was great as Boingo as was Cory Edwards as Twitchy. Big names that
you might no recognise first time through are Glenn Close as Granny, James
Belushi as the woodsman and Chazz Palminteri as the wolf. All in all though no
complaints about the voice actors, there was some great casting as they were
all appropriate for their characters.
Extras
On this
single disc edition the extras included are:
Deleted and
Extended Scenes – This section comprises of 5 scenes that were either deleted
or cut in the final version due to time constraints. There’s an option to watch
the scenes with commentary from the writer/director Cory Edwards and it’s worth
watching with this option on, just to find out why scenes were cut. Having
watched them all, the only one that I’d have liked to have seen in the final
film was the extended Red delivery scene.
Feature
Commentary by Writer/Director Cory Edwards, Writer/Co-director Tony Leech and
Writer/Co-director Todd Edwards – As many DVDs as I have I’m ashamed to say
that this is the first commentary that I’ve ever listened to! Obviously I can’t
compare it to other commentaries, but with three funny guys involved the
commentary by itself was quite funny. Whilst there is information imparted by
the guys, there’s probably more funny comments and quipping between them than
information about the film itself. Worth watching if you’re into commentaries,
if not then give it a miss.
“Critters
Have Feelings” Music Video – An extra song that wasn’t in the film. The
animation for the video is not up to the standard of the film and the song’s
not that good either, not really worth watching.
How To Make
An Animated Film – 12 minute Documentary about the origins of the film with
interviews from Cory Edwards the write/producer as well as several producers.
It details the character development and design, story development, casting and
some of the technical stuff behind the animation. I do quite like these behind
the scenes documentaries, but we’ve all seen them time and again.
Theatrical
Trailer – What it says on the tin.
Picture and
Sound (contributed by Steve Peto)
The picture was erm... Unusual.
Don't get me wrong it was not a bad quality picture; on the contrary the
picture was crystal clear with a fantastic colour palette. There were no grain
or edge enhancements that I could detect it's just that the picture seemed more
suited to a console game picture rather than that of a film, it had that look
and feel to it. This was not a bad thing, just different.
Sound wise the vocals seemed to be mainly rooted to the centre speaker, and the
fronts were used when there was singing from the characters, I couldn't really
detect much from the rears, if there was anything there then is was extremely
low volume, although the music and dialogue were clear and concise.
Overall
An
interesting take on an old story. First time through I was entertained but
somewhat underwhelmed. Stand out moments were scenes with Twitchy in and the
song with the mountain goat. Second time through was a bit better, Twitchy
still made me laugh but I think I wasn’t waiting for the plot to take an epic
turn and so just sat back and enjoyed it. Fun for all the family!
