A teenage Red Riding Hood trains in a distant land with a mysterious, covert group called Sisters of the Hood. She is then called upon by Nicky Flippers--head of the Happily Ever After Agency--who teams her with the Wolf to investigate the disappearance of Hansel and Gretel.
Genres: Kids/Family, Animation and Sequel Running Time: 1 hr. 34 min. Release Date: April 29th, 2011 (wide) MPAA Rating: PG for Some mild rude humor, language and action. Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Cast And Credits
Starring:
Hayden Panettiere, Bill Hader, Glenn Close, Amy Poehler
Directed by:
Mike Disa
Produced by:
Maurice Kanbar, Joan Collins Carey, Bob Weinstein
From the Department of Needless Sequels comes “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil,†another Weinstein Company bid to crack the overcrowded field of children’s digital animation. A successor to the lackluster “Hoodwinked!,†with a cast of formidable voice talents, the film takes fairy-tale characters â€" Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, the Grandmother â€" and drops them into a comic web of fantastical espionage.
Red (Hayden Panettiere), a member of the Shaolin-like order the Sisters of the Hood, is pressed into service by the top-secret Happily Ever After Agency when Granny (Glenn Close) is kidnapped by a witch (Joan Cusack) who has also imprisoned the seemingly innocent Hansel and Gretel (Bill Hader and Amy Poehler). In tow are Red’s friends Wolf (Patrick Warburton) and the squirrel Twitchy (Cory Edwards).
From there it’s a procession of pop-culture send-ups delivered at light speed, interspersed with affirmative messages about exercise, proper diet and â€" so refreshing in this kind of movie â€" girl power. (It also offers perhaps the most barbed visual aside ever to come from the Weinstein brothers about their former corporate master, Disney.)
The letdown with “Hoodwinked Too!†is the animation. The images don’t remotely approach the nuance of, say, “Ice Age,†let alone anything from the mack daddy, Pixar. And while it seems there’s no getting away from this marketing aesthetic, the resemblance at times to a video game is far, far too acute. The “Shrek†films â€" in visual terms â€" have done this kind of thing better.
From the Department of Needless Sequels comes “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil,†another Weinstein Company bid to crack the overcrowded field of children’s digital animation. A successor to the lackluster “Hoodwinked!,†with a cast of formidable voice talents, the film takes fairy-tale characters â€" Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, the Grandmother â€" and drops them into a comic web of fantastical espionage.
The letdown with “Hoodwinked Too!†is the animation. The images don’t remotely approach the nuance of, say, “Ice Age,†let alone anything from the mack daddy, Pixar. And while it seems there’s no getting away from this marketing aesthetic, the resemblance at times to a video game is far, far too acute. The “Shrek†films â€" in visual terms â€" have done this kind of thing better.
