May 2, 2011
Review - " Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs Evil "
(in theaters) By Roland Hansen
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Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs Evil
Directed by: Mike Disa
Starring: Hayden Panettiere, Glenn Close, Patrick Warburton, Joan
Cusack, Bill Hader, Amy Poehler
Enough with the fractured fairy tales! In Hoodwinked Too, Hood Vs.
Evil, an unfunny and unnecessary sequel, girls in the Hood try to
recover a recipe for a magical truffle. This trite trifle is like a bad
cake—flat and way past its "best by" date.
The Bigger Picture: Six years after the original (plus several Shrek
sequels and fairy-tale reboots later), is anyone still interested in the
adventures of a plucky, butt-kicking Red Riding Hood? This
hopelessly stale follow-up should've gone direct to DVD instead of
hoodwinking audiences into paying inflated 3D ticket prices.
Red (voiced by Hayden Panettiere, replacing Anne Hathaway)
abandons her training with the Sisters of the Hood when she's called
back into service with the Happily Ever After agency. Her HEA mission
is to rescue Hansel (Bill Hader) and Gretel (Amy Poehler) from the
clutches of Verushka the Witch (Joan Cusack).
But the two tubby tots are actually in cahoots with Verushka. Together
they kidnap Granny (Glenn Close) and force her to bake a top-secret
dessert that empowers the consumer with superhuman abilities. Red
teams up with the Big Bad Wolf (Patrick Warburton) to thwart this
diabolical culinary plan before the villains can obtain the recipe's
mystery ingredient.
This Grimm-ly witless movie subjects you to frenetic action sequences, worn-out gags and even some odd racial
stereotypes. Pop culture references are obligatory and here include nods to The Silence of the Lambs, Goodfellas, Star
Wars and...wait for it, Huggy Bear...Starsky & Hutch. Wow, way to keep it fresh!
When all else fails (especially the attempts
at humor), the script interjects girl-power
platitudes and exclamations of "Muffins!"
Though it's probably best not to associate
those two—it's a family film.
The candy-colored animation is serviceable
and though the voice cast is surprisingly
star-studded, most are phoning it in
particularly Warburton, who sloppily tosses
off joke lines as if he's too bored to give
them punch.
This new Hoodwinked feels much like so
many other unmemorable movies that pass
through theaters. And that is truly
disappointing considering their previous
outing was so original and enjoyable.