The Cannon Movie Tales films are all worth watching at least once, though overall quality wise they are variable. None are perfect, though some have more and bigger flaws than others, but none are worth avoiding either, with the best three being Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast and Snow White and the worst being The Emperor's New Clothes, Puss in Boots and this (was mixed on Sleeping Beauty as well).
Red Riding Hood is nicely photographed, as is the case with all of Cannon's films, even when the low budget shows everywhere else in the visuals. It also contains one of Cannon's best songs in the cute, funny and menacing duet Never Talk With Strangers (which is the song that serves the most point to the story, and the only one to move it forward) and some witty scripting and entertaining chemistry with Ninet and Dagger. There are some decent ideas and one does have to credit the film for trying to bring in some life-like themes and situations, while the scenes telling the story that audiences are familiar with are executed quite well, with some nice humour and suspense. The acting is very much a mixed bag, with the best performances coming from a charming and sweet Amelia Shankley without being too sugary and a touching Isabella Rossellini.
Was mixed however on the songs and Rocco Sisto. There are some good songs here, Never Talk to Strangers is great and Good at Being Bad is sung and acted with relish by Sisto. Lost in the Woods however goes on for too long and suffers the worst of the problem of taking too long to explain things and then over-explaining it, and Man Without a Heart is just limp in every way imaginable, with uninspired choreography, forgettable at best melody, cringe-worthy and again over-explanatory lyrics and Craig T. Nelson's one-note and pretty tuneless singing. There is some lush and energetic scoring, but along with Puss in Boots there are some cheap synthesised sounds that give it a more 80s sound than the rest of the Cannon films. Sisto plays Dagger the Wolf with real playfulness and really entertains in his chemistry with Shankley, but he could have been much more menacing, there were times where it did seem like he was underplaying too much.
Craig T. Nelson is all over the place in his dual role of Godfrey and Percival, he looks zombified as Percival and then plays Godfrey with such a hammy over-theatricality that it jars with everything else. Apart from the photography, Red Riding Hood is one of the cheaper-looking Cannon films, with drab lighting, bargain-sale-fancy-dress-like costumes and incredibly unimaginative, minimally furnished and recycled sets, Godfrey's throne room is the sparsest and cheapest-looking throne room personally seen and the forest set is completely lacking atmosphere or character. While the dialogue and interplay between Ninet and Dagger was entertains, the rest was rambling and stilted and while Rossellini and Shankley are endearing together, any scenes shared with Nelson come over completely cold. The story is treated disappointingly here, appreciated the ideas and the life-like themes (plus reasons are given for Dagger's pursuit of Ninet and why Ninet appears unharmed after being saved) but more could have been done with them and they ended up convoluting and dulling the story rather than adding or expanding anything, with at least half an hour of pedestrian pacing and not much happening (somewhat aimless in fact). The actual story of Red Riding Hood that everybody is familiar with, while among the most successful parts of the film, arrives too late into the story and it felt like not enough time was dedicated in telling it.
Overall, not a bad film and has enough to make it worthwhile, but one of Cannon's lesser efforts. A good try but doesn't quite come off. 5/10 Bethany Cox
