“Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil” features an all-star cast providing the voices and the film does have its moments of laughter but it seemed more like a direct-to-video type of film rather than an animated feature film. It was OK.
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TITLE: Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil
FILM RELEASE DATE: 2011
DURATION: 87minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (widescreen 1:78:1), English 5.1 DTS-HD, Subtitles: Spanish
RATED: PG (Some Mild Rude Humor, Language and Action)
COMPANY: The Weinstein Company/Anchor Bay Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: August 16, 2011
Directed by Mike Disa
Written by Mike Disa, Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, Tony Leech
Produced by Joan Collins Carey, Maurice Kanbar
Co-Producer: David Lovegren
Executive Producer: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein
Associate Producer: Rebecca Palatnik
Music by Murray Gold, Tom Kearne
Edited by Robert Anich Cole, Tom Sanders
Production Design by Ryan L. Carlson
Art Direction by Ryan L. Carlson
Featuring the voices of:
Glenn Close as Granny Puckett
Hayden Panettiere as Red Riding Hood
Cheech Marin as Mad Hog
Patrick Warburton as The Big Bad Wolf
Joan Cusack as Verushka the Witch
Bill Hader as Hansel
David Ogden Stiers as Nicky Flippers
Amy Poehler as Gretel
Cory Edwards as Twitchy
Martin Short as Kirk the Woodsman
Brad Garrett as The Giant
Andy Dick as Boingo the Bunny
David Alan Grier as Moss the Troll
Tomy Chong as Stone
Phil LaMarr as wood/Ernesto
Wayne Newton as Jimmy 10-Strings
The good… the bad… the Twitchy. HOODWINKED TOO! HOOD VS. EVIL finds our heroine, Red (Hayden Panettiere), training with a mysterious covert group called the Sisters of the Hood. But Red is forced to cut her training short when she gets an urgent call from Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers), the head of the super secret Happily Ever After Agency, aka the HEA. A wicked witch (Joan Cusack) has abducted two innocent children, Hansel (Bill Hader) and Gretel (Amy Poehler), and Nicky needs the whole Hoodwinked gang – Red, Granny (Glenn Close), the ever-clueless Wolf (Patrick Warburton) and his over-caffeinated little partner, Twitchy (Cory Edwards) – for the search and rescue mission.
In 2005, the Weinstein Company released their animated film “Hoodwinked!” produced by Blue Yonder Films with Kanbar Entertainment which was a film that starred many all-star talent from Anne Hathaway, Glee Close, Jim Belushi, Patrick Warburton and more.
The film was successful as the film budgeted at $15 million (which is very low for an animated film), would go on to earn $110 million in the box office.
Looked at as an animated parody of “The Usual Suspects”, “Hoodwinked!” introduces us to Little Red Riding Hood, Granny, the Big Bad Wolf and Twitchy the Squirrel. By the end of the film, the four are enlisted by Nicky Flippers to join the Happily Ever After Agency and take on crime.
Fast forward to 2011 and the sequel “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil” which was budgeted around $30 million unfortunately had a delayed release and instead of being released in January 2011 (which the Burger King promotion for the toys began), was released in April 2011 and unfortunately made only half of its budget in the box office.
“Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil” now makes its appearance on Blu-ray with a Blu-ray + DVD release scheduled for an August 16, 2011 release.
Similar to the first film, many talent were used in the film. Hayden Panettiere (“Heroes”) would become the new voice for Red Riding Hood, Patrick Warburton as the Big Bad Wolf, Glenn Close as Granny, Cory Edwards as Twitchy, Martin Short would be the Woodsman, Bill Hader and Amy Poehler as Hansel and Gretel, Joan Cusack as Verushka the Witch, Heidi Klum as Heidi, Brad Garrett as the Giant, Wayne Newton as Jimmy Ten Strings , David Alan Grier as Moss the Troll and Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong and Phil LaMarr as the Three Little Hench Pigs.
For the sequel, Wolf, Granny and Twitchy are sent by Nicky Flippers, leader of the Happily Ever After Agency to save Hansel & Gretel who were kidnapped by the Angry Witch. But as usual, the Big Bad Wolf ends up botching the whole operation and the Angry Witch escapes with both Hansel and Gretel.
Meanwhile, Red Riding Hood is being trained and tested to become a member of the Sister of the Hood (which Granny is a member of). Unfortunately, Red Riding Hood still has an anger problem and just as she is about to complete her testing, her anger gets the best of her and she fails the test.
Meanwhile, she is told about the Sister of the Hood and their biggest secret is a recipe for a truffle which has a secret ingredient which only the Sister of the Hood knows about. The ingredient used on the Truffle can give a person tremendous powers and when the box of the truffle recipe is opened, the Sisters of the Hood start to panic as the recipe has been stolen. Meanwhile, Red Riding Hood receives news that her granny, Hansel and Gretel have been kidnapped by the Angry Witch.
Meanwhile, as Granny is tied up, she finds out that the Angry Witch is actually Verushka the Witch, a former member of the Sister of the Hood, who quit because she kept getting second place against Granny in competitions. But now, Verushka wants revenge by getting the secret ingredient of the truffle in order to become powerful.
Meanwhile, Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf and Twitchy go on an adventure to find out who kidnapped Granny and where she is being held and that includes confronting a giant, Boingo the Bunny, The Three Little Hench Pigs and more!
Can they save Granny in time? And who is the real mastermind that orchestrated the kidnapping?
VIDEO:
“Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil” is presented in 1080p High Definition (widescreen 1:78:1). Picture quality is good. Nice details on the objects and surroundings are good. On the main characters, details are good but not as excessive as other big-budget animated films. Because this film does feature its fair share of animals, you expect to see a lot of hair physics and really making the fur look realistic. “Hoodwinked” is not one of those type of animated films.
In fact, at first I was wondering if the film was stop-motion because some of the characters look like models and are solid. But “Hoodwinked” goes for its own style, its own look and it works.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil” is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The lossless audio is good but could have been better. If anything, for an animated film with a lot of action sequences, you would expect to hear more robust surround usage but instead, it becomes more dialogue driven and sound from the front and center channels. But for the dialogue, audio is clear and understandable.
Subtitles are in English SDH.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil” comes with the following special features:
- Music Videos – Included are the following music videos “I Can Do It Alone” by Hayden Panettiere (3:34), “You Know It” by Lavay Cole (3:02) and “Perfect Two” by CeeJ (3:13).
- The Voices – (19:13) Interview with the celebrity cast of “Hoodwinked Too!” with Hayden Panettiere, Patrick Warburton, Heidi Klum, Wayne Newton and David Ogden.
- Storyboard Sequences– (4:29) Featuring the storyboard sequences for Bridge and HEA Invasion.
- Production Artwork – Using your remote, view the artwork from “Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil”.
- Hoodwinked Too! Video Game Teaser
EXTRAS:
“Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil” comes with a Blu-ray and DVD version of the film. The DVD is presented in 1:78:1 widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1 plus a $10 off a $30 purchase of Dippin’ Dots merchandise coupon on the Dippin’ Dots website.
“Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil” has its moments of fun and while one can say that fairy tale characters in a hero setting are not that interesting, the first film did very well in the box office. But I feel that this sequel had some issues from its delayed release (which is never a good thing) and lost out on the kids meal tie-in (as the toys came out months before the movie was released).
Needless to say, “Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil” unfortunately failed in the box office and whether or not it does well on Blu-ray and DVD, who knows.
Is it a family film? I watched it with my eight-year-old and he enjoyed it as the film does have its funny moments. But because it is rated PG, many parents may be wondering why the film is PG.
For one, you have the three little pigs who are trying to kill Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, you have the antagonists who want to destroy all living things and there are moments of crude humor. Granted, nothing overly violent but for some parents, it may be too much for their little ones. But for older kids, no problem.
But I figured that while I found the film to be fun and good, because the film quality-wise in animation and also story-wise was OK, I felt that perhaps maybe my 8-year-old would be a bit more upbeat about the film.
I asked my son about what he thought about the film and interesting thing is that he immediately talked about the first film and the kids meal toys (So, I guess the kids meal tie-in is very important for children) and in this case, he talked about how cool the Woodsman was in the first film (he is shown a few times later towards the end of the sequel).
He also mentioned that the characters of Red Riding Hood, Granny, the Big Bad Wolf are too boring for him. So, I guess he didn’t like it much as I thought he did and for me, I enjoyed it a bit more.
As for the Blu-ray release, I felt the lossless audio could have been better, I felt there could have been more special features included (perhaps even a commentary track) and the picture quality, I felt the animation was good but for a feature film amongst the other competition out there, it’s like comparing apples to oranges and “Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil” was more like a grape.
Overall, “Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil” was an OK animated film. It’s not the best, nor is it the worst but it had a feel of a direct-to-video type of film rather than an animated feature.
