Source: Yahoo News
Reviewed By: Michael Rechtshaffen
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – A satirical take on “Little Red Riding Hood,” the computer-animated “Hoodwinked” occupies some considerably shaky turf situated uncomfortably between “Shrek” and dreck.
Despite attracting a name voice cast including Glenn Close, Jim Belushi and Anne Hathaway, this first effort from Kanbar Animation, a venture formed by Skyy Vodka inventor Maurice Kanbar and animation veteran Sue Bea Montgomery, gets hopelessly lost in the woods.
Hampered by a comedic tone that’s too one-note to sustain a feature-length format and less than fluid digital animation, this Weinstein Co. release, which opens Friday in Los Angeles and goes wide January 13, will unlikely have a fairy-tale ending at the box office.
Writers Cory Edwards (who also directs), Todd Edwards and Tony Leech take a Rashomon approach to the Girl N the Hood story, turning Grandma’s home invasion into a crime scene investigation.
No babe in the woods, Red (voiced by Hathaway), is now a martial arts expert, Granny (Close) prefers participating in extreme sports to knitting, the Wolf (Patrick Warburton) is a glib investigative journalist and the Woodsman (Belushi) is a dim-witted struggling actor.
Assigned to the case is the debonair, amphibious detective Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers), accompanied by police chief Grizzly (Xzibit) and police officer Bill Stork (Anthony Anderson), but while their attempts to learn the identity of the perp known as the Goody Bandit yield intermittent bits of comic inspiration, it all starts growing tired long before the happily ever after part.
It’s the kind of thing that would have been right at home as a Fractured Fairy Tale segment in the old “Rocky & Bullwinkle” cartoons (there’s also the 1955 seven-minute Looney Tunes short, “Red Riding Hoodwinked”) but at 81 minutes, with pacing that’s all over the place, the production simply doesn’t add up to a basket of laughs.
Not helping matters is the cost-effective but jerky CGI and bland ’70s-style songs by Edwards which don’t exactly blend neatly with John Mark Painter’s ’80s electronic Harold Faltermeyer tribute score.
VOICES:
Red: Anne Hathaway
Granny: Glenn Close
The Woodsman: Jim Belushi
The Wolf: Patrick Warburton
Detective Bill Stork: Anthony Anderson
Nicky Flippers: David Ogden Stiers
Chief Grizzly: Xzibit
Woolworth: Chazz Palminteri
Boingo: Andy Dick
Director: Cory Edwards; Screenwriters: Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, Tony Leech; Story: Todd Edwards, Cory Edwards; Producers: Maurice Kanbar, Sue Bea Montgomery, Preston Stutzman, David K. Lovegren; Editor: Tony Leech; Music: John Mark Painter; Songs: Todd Edwards.
