La Véritable Histoire du Petit Chaperon rouge

A few months ago I was speaking with a friend who runs a drive-in movie theater. He asked me what movies I may want to see when he opens for the season. I remembered seeing ads for "hoodwinked" but never caught it in the theater so I told him I'd like to see it. He remembered the film and played it last weekend.

As it turned out, I could only bring my 9 year old daughter and 2 year old son because my wife had some sort of meeting. I really wasn't looking forward to seeing it with a 2 year old but surprisingly he watched the entire movie! That was a first for him. My 9 year old girl loved it laughing out loud every few minutes. Her favorite characters were the singing goat and the squirrel. I thoroughly enjoyed it too and will buy the DVD on my way home today so I can show the rest of the family (and see it a few more time myself).

Thanks for making such a wholesome and clean movie that is NOT lame in any way at all. It was genuinely clever, original, entertaining and funny, very very funny. I sincerely hope you make movies like this for years to come and that each one is more successful. Thanks!

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.

Lots of people bitch about the animation being pretty stone age in this film, and for a reason. Technically, "Hoodwinked" is far behind "Finding Nemo" or "Incredibles". However, if you look past the unpretty exterior, there is plenty of goodies to found inside. Hilarious punchlines and a clever script by far makes up for the lack of jaw-dropping animation. Actually, I found the outdated CGI to add another layer of quirkiness to this little flick! When comparing "Hoodwinked" to other recent releases in the genre, it comes out with flying colors. Where "Chicken Little" and "Valiant" fail, this one really excels! Dialogues are well written and full of treats that makes this one a movie to see more than once. And for once, I even enjoyed the musical numbers, catchy and well performed. It doesn't have any scenes that - like "Shark Tale" - fell plastic or numb, instead it's an 80 minute, twisting and turning roller-coaster that doesn't stop until the credits start rolling. All you have to to is buckle up, and enjoy the ride

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 is an ultra low budget affair compared to the average 3D CGI-animated film (it was shot for a reported 15 million vs 70 to 90 million for films like Finding Nemo or Shrek 2). If you want a fairer comparison in terms of animation quality, you'd have to look at something like Jimmy Neutron (30 million budget).

What really made the animation work in terms of style is...the style. Hoodwinked almost looks like a revved up Rankin-Bass stop motion animated film in the vein of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Once you get absorbed in the world of Hoodwinked, you stop comparing it to Pixar and simply enjoy the magic little world the creators obviously put so much care into creating.

And the film is indeed absorbing! It starts a little slow, but once the story picks up steam, it is non-stop fun. It's clear that the writers weren't going to let a lower budget stop them from writing a clever and often laugh-out-loud funny script. My kids, aged 12, 8, and 3, giggled throughout the film. Your kids will LOVE the squirrel, the granny, and the singing goat, and adults will pick up more culture references in terms of homage scenes (not in adult content) to pictures like Fletch, Kill Bill, and the Matrix.

One thing comes across very clearly in Hoodwinked--love of the craft. So many seemingly throw away gags end up being very important to the story later on. Enjoy this little gem of an "indie" animated film, and imagine what these young guys could do with a bigger budget next time around!