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Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Anchor Bay Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (10th October 2011). |
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The Film
 I suppose the sequelization of “Hoodwinked” (2005) was inevitable. Entirely unneeded, but inevitable. Writer/directors Tony Leech and Cory & Todd Edwards’ unconventional retelling of the Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf tale—stitched together with other similarly-fashioned inversions on equally popular fairytales, wrapped in an intriguing “Rashômon” (1950)-like structure—was an unmitigated success, taking in over $100 million in Worldwide gross off of a minuscule budget of $15 million. But box office receipts be damned, the original “Hoodwinked’ isn’t particularly good, even if it isn’t terrible either. I’ve always considered it a poor imitation of the increasingly terrible “Shrek” films (2001-2010), but with a minuscule budget that led to a uniquely grotesque style of horrendously cheap animation. The first film’s cleverness is slight, but it had moments of inspired writing and genuinely funny comedy. Unfortunately, its sequel, “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil” keeps that low budget aesthetic—despite the animators having twice the money at their disposal—and somehow loses all of the concept’s cleverness supposed charm in a forest of unoriginal (and unfunny) clichés. “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil” finds our heroine, Red (Hayden Panettiere, stepping in for original voice actor Anne Hathaway), training with a mysterious group in the mountains called the Sister 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. It seems a wicked witch (Joan Cusack) has abducted tow 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 squirrel partner, Twitchy (Cory Edwards)—for the search and rescue mission. The more expensive follow up features animation that is still crude and low budget looking, with an almost purposefully “cute” video game quality, but now inexcusably so. The few moments of actual artistic competency that were somehow slipped into the animation only draw attention towards the inferior qualities of the other animated elements. The “Hoodwinked Too!” voice cast, although impressive in name—the likes of Martin Short, Cheech & Chong, David Alan Grier and Phil LaMarr support Close, Hader and Poehler, the underrated Warburton, Stiers and Cusack, with smaller roles—don’t really add anything to the film, and the drivel they’re forced to deliver only makes that more obvious. The characters have little to do, and a lot of time to do it. It may run a mere 87-minutes, but the film is excruciatingly slow paced, and as a result quite boring. And parodies abound, but with little consequence or relevance to the plot (I laughed a few times, but for the wrong reasons: intentional or no, every moment with Red training in the mountains looks blatantly ripped from the files of “Kung Fu Panda” (2008) and I find that hilarious). “Hood vs. Evil”—written by Leech and the Edwards brothers, with directing duties shifting to Mike Disa—is riddled with pop culture references that have no place in a kids movie. Or, really, considering how dated some of them are, any movie made in 2011. Be on the lookout for easy-to-spot nod to “Silence of the Lambs” (1991), with returning villain Biongo the Bunny (voiced by Andy Dick) playing a Lecter-like baddie, complete with “Hello Clarice” dialogue, in one scene. Also, Granny appears in full black-and-yellow motorcycle gear a la The Bride from “Kill Bill” (2003). And Wolf has a soul crushing scene where he references The Fonze from “Happy Days” (1974-1983), and the character’s infamous shark-jumping incident, ‘cause, ya know, that’s current. I ask, why is there a reference to a twenty-year-old thriller—which is a great movie, but lest we forget it’s also very, very adult and features, among other things, a guy wearing someone else’s face —in a kids movie? Who’s the Lecter joke for? The same person who understands the pointless homage to the even older sitcom from the seventies, and knows that Granny’s costume comes from a Tarantino flick, that’s who. And those people—the parents—aren’t watching “Hoodwinked Too!” Not by choice. And they’ve already tuned out by the time most of those references show up, because the rest of the film is so awful. Admittedly, kids—younger one’s at least—may get a tiny bit more enjoyment from “Hood vs. Evil”. Younger audiences don’t usually demand that things like plot logic, characterization, or an actual story appear in a film at some point (and they won’t understand the horrible references to Arthur Fonzarelli) so “Hoodwinked Too!” might satisfy their cinematic cravings. After all, the animation, although simplistic and ugly, is colorful. But I’d rather believe that even the dumb kids could see that this sequel is worthless. If your little one’s are in absolutely need of animated fairytale fantasy, put the original in the Blu-ray player and call it a day. Or better yet, draw their attention to something from the animation houses—PIXAR, DreamWorks, heck even Blue Sky—who know a thing or two about, well, anything.
Video
The simplistic animation style of “Hoodwinked Too!” doesn’t support the sort of refined textures and consistently crisp detail found in the latest and greatest productions from PIXAR and “Hood vs. Evil’s” other more sophisticated foes. Most character designs are flat and crude, and the few—like Hansel and Gretel—that are a bit sharper and more articulated still pale in comparison to the sheer awe-inspiring intricacies of most PIXAR characters. Some scenes and elements within scenes are more elaborately detailed than others: The cover of a leather bound book has rich and rough texture, and the Big Bad Wolf’s whiskery face offers all sorts of wiry goodness. But for every moment that is more complexly rendered, viewers get a sequence like Red’s confrontation with the ogre on the bridge, which looks like its part of a game for the Nintendo Wii. Issues with the film’s second-rate designs and animation aside, Starz/Weinstein’s 1.78:1 widescreen 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 high def presentation isn’t what I’d call a disappointment. On the contrary, the transfer is quite nice, offering vivid, candy-coated colors, excellent depth and contrast with inky blacks, and a satisfyingly clean encode free of the noise, artifacts and most of the bothersome banding that afflict nearly every scene on the DVD. Blu-ray can only reveal what was rendered in the original animation, and considering the source, I can’t imagine “Hoodwinked Too!” ever looking better on the format.
Audio
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track at 48kHz/24-bit is a mixed bag. Surrounds and low-end bass are largely inert, despite the film featuring more than a few sequences that would seem perfectly suitable for an immersive and explosive showcase. ). However, the Blu-ray’s lossless track delivers clean, accurate dialogue and offers a level of clarity and crispness that the Dolby-equipped DVD also in this package just doesn’t provide. That’s not to say “Hoodwinked Too!” sounds amazing. But it does sound good. Optional English and Spanish subtitle are also included.
Extras
This two-disc Blu-ray+DVD combo pack is light on extras. The bonus materials—mostly EPK nonsense—include twenty minutes of featurettes, three cringe-inducing music videos, a storyboard-to-film comparison, an image gallery and a few bonus trailers. The entire package can be sped through in about thirty minutes, not counting the standard def copy of the film on the DVD. Worse yet, most of the supplements are encoded in ugly 480i/p. DISC ONE: BLU-RAY Things start off on a bad note with a trio of music videos: - The video for “I Can Do It Alone” by Hayden Panettiere (anamorphic 1.78:1 480p, 3 minutes 29 seconds) is laughable and looks like it was made with Windows Movie Maker. - The videos for “You Know It” by Lavay Cole (2 minutes 57 seconds) and “Perfect Two” by CeeJ (3 minutes 8 seconds) are admittedly better in terms of production value—perhaps good enough for an amateur Youtuber. All three songs are equally HORRID though. “The Voices” (anamorphic 1.78:1 480p, 19 minutes 14 seconds total runtime) are 5 very fluffy featurettes with the actors and director Mike Disa. They talk about voice acting and their characters. Disa has the gall to use the word subtext in one of the featurettes, which I find bizarrely hilarious. Also amusing is the moment when David Ogden Stiers completely botches the name of his character’s intelligence gathering organization and some of the plot details while director Disa is in the room with him! Also available in a play all option, the individual interviews are: - "Hayden Panettiere as Red" - "Patrick Warburton as Wolf" - "Heidi Klum as Heidi" - "Wayne Newton as Jimmy 10-Strings" - "David Ogden Stiers as Nicky Flippers" A brief piece titled “Storyboard Sequences” (anamorphic 1.78:1 480p, 4 minutes 30 seconds) is a storyboard-to-screen comparison for two scenes—the post-title Bridge sequence and the HEA Invasion. A “Production Artwork” image gallery (1080p, 39 images) includes concept drawings, early computer models, and promotional materials for the characters and locations of the film. “Hoodwinked Too! Video Game Teasers” includes two teasers for two upcoming games based on the film: - "Red’s Escape" mobile game teaser (10 seconds). - "Decoder" game teaser (30 seconds). Wow, both of these sure put the special in special feature! And finally, bonus trailers for: - “Spy Kids: All the Time in the World” (1080p, 2 minutes 26 seconds). - “Rio” on DVD and Blu-ray (2.40:1 widescreen 1080p, 2 minutes 32 seconds) play before the menu. DISC TWO: DVD The second disc is a full retail DVD-9. It contains the film in anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen 480i/p with 5.1 Dolby Digital (448kbps) surround and English and Spanish subtitles. The DVD transfer is shockingly bad, home to artifacts and banding galore. All of the special features from the Blu-ray are also included on this disc.
Packaging
“Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil” comes to blu-ray from Starz/Anchor Bay and The Weinstein Company in a two-disc package. The first platter—a Region A locked BD-25—includes the film, in high definition, and a smattering of special features. The seconds disc—a Region 1 coded DVD-9—is basically identical of the HD disc, but with all content encoded in standard definition. The keepcase is the usual eco junk. Note: a separate 3D SKU is also available and was released the same day-and-date as the 2D blu-ray and DVD.
Overall
So, “Hoodwinked Too!”, yeah? The film… well… it’s awful. But you knew that even before this review was published. And hopefully, for the sake of my sanity and the future of humanity, some of the youngsters out there knew it too. But the Blu-ray’s video transfer, simplistic animation aside, is flawless and the disc sounds pretty good. Extras are lean and uselessly promotional, but include a bonus DVD copy, which is why I gave that section a fraction of a point. What you do with this information largely comes down to how eager your kids are to see another “Hoodwinked”. Fingers crossed that they aren’t.
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