Movie: Hoodwinked - Trouble in the Hood

It seems an animated CG flick snuck under my radar last year. Hoodwinked is a relatively low-budget cartoon taking place in Little Red Riding Hood's universe. It's like Shrek, except that it's funny. They didn't even have simple physics like gravity right; and there's no fur/hair effects like Monsters Inc or Final Fantasy. Everything's just textured 3D. But they've got the humour.

It's a kid-flick. Complete with random bursting of songs ala Disney's Snow White, but no grand production like Beauty & the Beast.

But there's also a lot of adult sub-text meant for the grown-ups. The whole story is told like The Usual Suspects, a damn good movie if there ever was one.

There's also a bit of social commentary about big business killing the mom & pop stores.

Plot: There is a bandit stealing recipes all about fairy tale land. Red is safe-keeping her grandma's recipe book, and running from Wolf. Wolf is after Red. Grandma has a secret she's hiding. And the Woodsman has an ... impediment. It's up to Hercule Poirot, a toad, to cross examine the suspects and solve the case. (I figured it out 15min into the movie.)

There are some great voice talents, like Glenn Close and James Belushi. But my favourite is Patrick Warburton as the Wolf.

Patrick who?? He's the voice of Kronk (the guy who speaks to squirrels) in The Emperor's New Groove, still one of Disney's most enjoyable cartoons. He's David Puddy, the mechanic in Seinfeld. Joe Swanson, the cop neighbour in Family Guy. And plenty others. He's got a very distinctive voice that lends itself to humour. His voice has a special character, like... the anti-James Earl Jones.

Another special character in the movie is Twitchy, the squirrel photographer on Desoxyn. It's nice to see so many movie homages to insane squirrels lately. Ice Age 1&2, Over the Hedge, and now this. Twitchy gets to drink coffee here too.


Memorable quotes:
Wolf : What kind of candles are those?
Twitchy: Dee-na-mee-tay! MustbeItalian...

Villian: Dolph, tie up the brat; Liesel, hold the book; Vincent, get the truck; and Keith, change your name, please, that's not scary and I'm embarassed to say it. Boris, try that. Keith, ya know, OOOO Watch out for Keith!