Die Rotkäppchenverschwörung

I'm annoyed at all the "know-it-alls" on these boards who are judging this film solely based on what they think they see in the trailer.

One guy went so far as to say that it was shoddy script-writing.

Let me just say this... I spend most of my time helping to make feature animation look really good... it's my job.

I've been involved with some very slick looking films. However, no matter how good it looks, if it's not a good story, it's still a crappy film.

Like the old saying goes: "you can polish a turd, but in the end all you're gonna have is a shiny turd."

I've seen Hoodwinked. I can say from experience that the animation isn't the greatest, the deformations aren't the greatest and the general tech of the film isn't the greatest. There have been many "prettier" films to hit the silver screen. After all, this movie was made on a shoe-string budget by CG standards.

Having said that, I fell in love with this movie after five minutes. The characters are endearing, the humor was fantastic and there's a level of originality and sophistication in the scriptwriting and storytelling that have not been seen before in the area of animation, not to mention a level of "cleanness" that is rare nowadays.

And, I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who has this opinion... after all, Bob and Harvey Weinstein decided to distribute it.

Go see the film... you won't be disappointed.

-Matt Steele

(edited for misspelling)

I'm not going to give Hoodwinked a harsh review like so many others. This is primarily a kids movie, nothing more, nothing less. All the kids in the cinema that I was in were roaring with laughter and I must admit at times I was also laughing out loud. Some of the older people and parents will enjoy the references it makes to other movies and fairy tales, although they are dumbed down for the suited audience.

The plot is almost like an animated, kids version of Pulp Fiction. Many different stories (told by Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf, The Woodsman and Granny) intertwine.

The voice actors all do a great job with their characters and the animation, although nowhere near the best, was still pretty good. The characters were all hilarious, the funniest being a singing goat and a nutty squirrel (who I think was high).

3/5.

Despite low-budget animation, the newest feature by the Weinstein Company, "Hoodwinked," is saved by some silly animal and human characters, as well as great writing and hilarious jokes.

Basically, it's the story of Little Red Riding Hood as told from the vantage point of Red (voice of Ann Hathaway), the Big Bad Wolf (Patrick Warburton), Granny (Glenn Close) and a dimwitted, axe-wielding woodsman (Jim Belushi).

The four are arrested, accused of stealing goodie recipes and interrogated by a long-legged frog, Inspector Flippers (David Ogden Stiers). Each suspect tells a different story that somehow cleverly ties the whole event together. In other words, it's like a version of Kurosawa's "Rashomon" as produced by computer animators who could not get work at Pixar, Disney or Dreamworks.

Seeing the studio's press release, I noticed the poor computer work and thought this would be another "Valiant," but the crisp dialogue and truly funny situations made me laugh almost all the way through this film, which is director Cory Edwards' feature debut.

It's also a much more entertaining picture than "Chicken Little" or "Shark Tale" could ever hope to be. And while the puns are pretty much aimed at adults, the kids will enjoy the many animal characters, such as pigs as policemen (get it?!), a singing, hillbilly goat (Benjy Gaither), a squirrel on speed (director Edwards), a Huggy bear-type stool pigeon sheep (Chazz Palimeri) and a tricky little bunny, Boingo (Andy Dick).

This film runs 85 minutes and opens for wide release on Friday, Jan. 13.

Now here is a modern-day animated film that is hard to classify. It's part film noir, part fantasy, part comedy, part Indiana Jones adventure, part Thin Man detective, on and on. One thing for sure: although kids might like it, this movie is geared more for adults. Even older adults as some of the humor is referenced by classic movies.

I doubt if this was a hit movie probably because of the above. Animated films need to be geared toward young kids who want to see it, and then get their parents to take them to the theater. I'm not complaining, just explaining why some of you may not have heard of this film. I heard about it by accident, since it got very little publicity.

More than the geared-toward adults-dialog, what fascinated me were the visuals. I read where other reviewers here on IMDb downgrade the artwork but I disagree. This is beautifully drawn with magnificent colors that are not bold and bright, Although most animated films of today feature bright and bold colors, which look fantastic, this looked good, too, because of the richness of the colors. It's hard to describe; you have to see it. It just looks different, but very pleasing to my eyes.

Overall, the story was only so-so and sometimes lagged in the first half of it, but I get the feeling this DVD will rise in my ratings as I see it multiple times.

If you are looking for an animated film and story that is different, look no further.

HOODWINKED easily could have been an excellent film. Who hasn't heard of Little Red Riding Hood? It unfolds as an ongoing investigation into the facts, where each character, one by one, recounts events from their own perspective. Sound interesting? Well, it seems HOODWINKED was truly well conceived, but experienced several setbacks during its execution.

What began in the mid-nineties with Toy Story, soon followed by SHREK and Finding Nemo, the C G I Category (Computer Generated Images) continues to establish itself as a more dominant genre with each passing year! But ALL CGI movies can't be a TOY STORY, a SHREK or a FINDING NEMO (Shame, that!)

First off, the animation in HOODWINKED, by Weinstein Studios(??) just didn't manage to convince me! In their intent to mimic the "CLAYMATION" of Wallace and Grommit, they placed a limitation on themselves which impeded them from realizing the full potential of the CGI process. In addition, they were incapable of making a film like SHREK, for example, which encountered great acceptance from both adults and from children alike! Nevertheless, since there are really so few good comedies nowadays, HOODWINKED Is quite acceptable! 6.75******* SEP/07.