Hoodwinked!

Director: Cory Edwards

Stars: Jim Belushi, Glenn Close, Anne Hathaway, Patrick Warburton

Year: 2005 Running Time: 81 mins Rating:

There are two sides to every story, but in Little Red Riding Hood's case, there are four. Following a domestic disturbance at Granny Puckett's place, the cops hear testimony from little Red, the Wolf, the Woodsman and Granny herself. The truth is in there somewhere... but where does the notorious 'Goody Bandit' fit in? My, what sly humour and engaging CG-animation it has. All the better for putting an uproarious, Rashomon-style twist on the much-loved fairytale.

Review

First, the facts: Red arrives at Granny's cottage in the woods but she doesn’t buy the Wolf's cockamamie disguise. Granny - trussed up – falls out of the closet and there's a ruckus. Then an axe-wielding woodsman comes crashing through the window.

Police Chief Grizzly can't bear breaches of the peace. He wants answers, and fast. But the four suspects only start to croak when Detective Nicky Flippers arrives at the scene.

The kid Red (Hathaway) says she was out delivering Granny’s sought-after goodies when this creep Wolf (Patrick Warburton) accosts her in the woods. After giving him the slip, he goes and turns up in Granny's bed. My, my.

Wolf says she's got him all wrong. As a reporter investigating the Goody Bandit case, he thought Red's delivery round was just a front. After all, Granny's recipes are the only ones that the bandit hasn't stolen. The disguise thing? That was a mix-up.

As for the Woodsman (Belushi), he's just a simple schnitzel-seller from Austria with an acting dream. One minute he was getting into character for his breakthrough role, the next he was making a real show-stopper of an entrance.

And Granny? She's voiced by Close and looks exactly like one of Terry Gilliam's Monty Python creations, and let’s just say that her passion for extreme sports got the better of her.

Whether they're all telling the truth or it's just one big fairytale, the cops are only interested in catching the Bandit. Until then, nobody gets to live happily ever after.

With a look falling somewhere between Roger Rabbit and Shrek, Hoodwinked is an animated sugar-rush.

The songs are naff and the well of ideas does eventually run dry (do all animated movies have to have a twitchy squirrel?) but there's an endlessly singing hillbilly goat with changeable horns whose just-for-the-hell-of-it appearance is worth its weight in popcorn alone.

Once upon a time, there was a man called Walt who would never have allowed any kiddie classic to be treated with such irreverence. Thankfully, he doesn't control the world of animation any more.

Elliott Noble