Movie Reviews
Hoodwinked 2
Released: 29th April 2011
Directed by: Mike Disa
Starring: Hayden Panettiere, Glenn Close, Patrick Warburton
Certificate: U
This is by far the worst animated movie I have ever seen. From the paper-thin plot, to the unfunny recurring “jokes,” to the laziest animation imagineable, Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil is a complete stinker. I guess it’s a rule in Hollywood now that if a first installment is marginally well received, makes money, and leaves room for a sequel (they always do), then a second film is guaranteed. Hoodwinked the first barely skated by with a 47% on RottenTomatoes but brought in $110 million worldwide, making a sequel inevitable. Thus, we have the creation of Hoodwinked Too.
Needless to say, any of the original charm from the first film does not carry over to the second. Anne Hathaway is replaced by Hayden Panetierre to voice the lead Red Riding Hood character, already a step in the wrong direction. Red Riding Hood must to save her grandmother’s secret recipe from getting into the wrong hands since once cooked, this recipe makes its eater all-powerful. This plotline is sustained for 87 minutes until the unsatisfying conclusion that (spoiler alert) you can eat one of the power muffins and become unstoppable, but if you pop more than one in your mouth you’ll balloon out of control like the girl in Willy Wonka. What an unbelievably ridiculous cop out.
Bad “two/too” puns aside, there are a plethora of failed jokes and bits in the film that are worth mentioning. My favorite was a traveling, yodeling goat that appeared six times, at the beginning of each new location the movie brought us. Let me reiterate that point: SIX TIMES!! Not only was it unfunny, it was absolutely perplexing and had no place in the movie whatsoever. He would sing a song about his travels and his misfortune and then some other unrelated event in the movie would lead to a large object falling on the goat, breaking his spirit, but unfortunately not breaking his spine.
This leads me to the animation. The budget for this film (the term “film” being used very generously here) was $30 million. Since we’ve already established that this is a complete money grab, they of course had to add 3D technology. So, the focus on 3D led to complete disregard for the synching of lips and speech or to any of the background elements in each scene. Normally, a smaller character like a squirrel was zipping around in the background for no other reason than to distract the viewer from the mistimed lips and dialogue, or presumably to make use of the 3D. Since I didn’t see the 3D version, I got to focus on the bad animation, and it is truly the worst I’ve ever seen. Proof: just look at how lazy this spider web is, attached to nothing and supporting a bus:
With Pixar normally setting the bar high, I can’t see how movies like this get produced. I’ve never been happier to see that a movie actually lost money box office vs. budget, and I’ll be shocked if and when they complete the trilogy. Please, please don’t see this movie when you’re even close to sober.
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