Hoodwinked! is a 2005 American animated musical comedy film directed by Cory Edwards, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Todd Edwards and Tony Leech from a story by the Edwards brothers. It retells the folktale "Little Red Riding Hood" as a police procedural, using backstories to show multiple characters' points of view. The film features the voices of Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, Jim Belushi, Patrick Warburton, Anthony Anderson, David Ogden Stiers, Xzibit, Chazz Palminteri, and Andy Dick.
Hoodwinked! was among the earliest computer-animated films to be completely independently funded. Working apart from a major studio allowed the filmmakers greater creative control, but also restrained them economically. Due to the film's low budget, its animation was produced in the Philippines with a stylized design inspired by stop motion films. The Weinstein Company did not sign on as the film's distributor until near the end of production, and while the company had several roles recast with higher-profile actors, it otherwise made few changes to the film. Structurally, the film was inspired by non-linear crime dramas, such as Rashomon and Pulp Fiction. It was released shortly after the first two installments in the successful Shrek series by DreamWorks Animation, which accentuated the fairy tale parody genre of which Hoodwinked! is a part. Hoodwinked!, however, intentionally deviated from the Shrek series in its style of humor and in certain plot elements. This was in part based on Cory Edwards' concerns over exposing children to the high level of cynicism often found in the genre.
The film was released in Los Angeles and Philadelphia on December 16, 2005, for a one-week engagement, before expanding nationwide on January 13, 2006. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its clever script and voice acting but criticized its low-budget computer animation. It was a commercial success, grossing $110 million against an $8 million budget. A sequel, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, was released in 2011, to critical and commercial failure.
Plot
Red Puckett arrives at her Granny's house, where Wolf W. Wolf, an anthropomorphic gray wolf, has disguised himself as the latter. As Wolf attacks Red, a bound Granny jumps out of a closet before a woodsman named Kirk bursts through the window. A police investigation led by Detective Nicky Flippers ensues.
The police question Red first, who explains she was delivering goodies for Granny's pastry business when she discovered a threat from the mysterious Goody Bandit, who has been stealing recipes and causing pastry businesses to shut down. Red had set out to take the Puckett recipe book to Granny's mountaintop home for safekeeping, but fell out of a cable car owned by her rabbit friend Boingo and encountered Wolf, who asked her suspicious questions. After evading him, she met a goat named Japeth, who accompanied her to Granny's house, where she found Wolf waiting to ambush her.
Wolf reveals that he is an investigative reporter who was searching for a lead on the Goody Bandit's identity and had reason to believe that Granny and Red were connected. Wolf and his hyperactive squirrel assistant and photographer Twitchy confronted Red in hope of solving the mystery. When they failed to detain Red, they made haste for Granny's house, arriving ahead of her through a shortcut known to Boingo. They found Granny already tied up in the closet before Wolf disguised himself as her using her merchandise, planning to trick Red into revealing the truth about the Goody Bandit.
Kirk explains his appearance at Granny's house was a coincidence. He is an aspiring actor trying out for the part of a woodsman for a commercial. After his schnitzel truck was robbed by the Goody Bandit, he was consoled by Boingo, then received a callback for the commercial. He spent the rest of the day getting into character by chopping trees. While chopping one near Granny's house, he was distracted by noises coming inside, causing a tree he left unfinished to collapse and push him through the window of Granny's house.
Granny reveals she is secretly an extreme sports enthusiast. Earlier that day, she competed in a ski race, with Boingo spectating, until she was attacked by the opposing team. Discovering they were hired by the Goody Bandit to eliminate her and Red, Granny parachuted home, but was entangled in her parachute cords and thrown into her closet by her ceiling fan before Wolf arrived.
Feeling betrayed by Granny's secrecy, Red wanders off alone. Flippers deduces that Boingo, who was present in all four stories, is the Goody Bandit. Red notices Boingo sneaking in and stealing the recipe book. She follows him to his cable car station hideout and confronts him, but is overpowered and captured. With the police pursuing Boingo in the wrong direction, Wolf sends Twitchy to get them back while he, Granny, and Kirk locate Boingo as he explains to Red his plan to add addictive "Boingonium" to the recipes, then bulldoze the forest to build a corporate empire.
Wolf and Kirk distract Boingo as Granny sneaks into his lair, but they are all found out. Boingo sends Red down the mountain in a cable car loaded with explosives, but Granny rescues her before the police arrest Boingo and his henchmen. Afterward, Kirk finds success in a yodeling troupe while Red, Granny, Wolf, and Twitchy are enlisted by Flippers to join the "Happily Ever After" crime-solving agency.
Voice cast
Anne Hathaway as Red Puckett, a young girl and worker at her Granny's bakery. Patrick Warburton as Wolf W. Wolf, a gray wolf investigative reporter. Glenn Close as Abigail "Granny" Puckett, Red's grandma, bakery owner, and extreme sports enthusiast. Jim Belushi as Kirk Kirkendall the Woodsman, an Austrian aspiring actor who owns a schnitzel truck. Cory Edwards as Twitchy, a fast-talking, coffee-addicted squirrel and Wolf's assistant and photographer. David Ogden Stiers as Detective Nicky Flippers, a British frog detective who is the head of the Happily Ever After Agency (HEA). Andy Dick as Boingo, a rabbit who secretly operates as the Goody Bandit. Anthony Anderson as Detective Bill Stork, a stork detective. Xzibit as Chief Ted Grizzly, a bear and the chief of police. Benjy Gaither as Japeth the Goat, a mountain goat who owns a minecart business and is always singing due to a supposed curse by a mountain witch. Chazz Palminteri as Woolworth, a sheep and an informant of Wolf's. Ken Marino as Raccoon Jerry, a raccoon police officer. Tom Kenny as Tommy, a pig police officer. Preston Stutzman as Timmy, a pig police officer. Tony Leech as Glen, a pig police officer. Joshua J. Greene as James "Jimmy" Lizard, a lizard and the director of the Paul's Bunion Cream commercials. Mark Primiano as 2-Tone, a penguin and one of Granny's skiing friends. Kevin Michael Richardson as P-Biggie, a polar bear and one of Granny's skiing friends. Tara Strong as Zorra, a red fox and one of Granny's skiing friends. Tye Edwards as Dolph, Boingo's German sidekick and the leader of the Evil Ski Team. Todd Edwards as Sandwich Man, an obese Snack Shack proprietor who wears a white tiger costume. Kathryn J. Lovegren as Quill, a woodpecker and one of Red's woodland friends. Charles Coplin as Caterpillar 1 Troy Norton as Caterpillar 2 Kelly Stables as Schnitzel Kid 1 Eli Montgomery as Schnitzel Kid 2 Cameron Barr as Skunk Reporter
Production
Hoodwinked! was one of the first independent computer-animated films to be produced without the aid of a distributor. Although the film's budget is listed as $30 million on Box Office Mojo, several sources have rejected this figure, reporting that the film was produced for no more than $15 million. Director Cory Edwards explained in a 2009 interview that the film's actual budget was under $8 million. Any of these figures would be significantly lower than is typical for a computer-animated film's budget. At the time of Hoodwinked!s production, the costs of computer-animation software had only recently decreased to a price that was accessible to more than just major studios, and leading up to the film's release, producer David Lovegren said, "Six or seven years ago, the idea of doing Hoodwinked! as an independent [animated] feature would have been impossible".
The filmmakers only made the film independently by necessity, and Cory Edwards has said, "It's not a model to be followed. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, seat-of-your-pants kind of thing that just barely came off." However, he added that the process was worth going through to get the film made and encouraged aspiring filmmakers to be willing to follow it.
Development
After a number of years spent producing commercials and music videos in Tulsa, brothers Cory and Todd Edwards founded their own production company, Blue Yonder Films. Joined by their friends producers Brad Knull, Robert Yanovitch and Preston Stutzman, who also led marketing for the company, the group released their first feature film, Chillicothe, at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Emboldened by this success, the company then moved to Los Angeles in the hopes of producing a sophomore film. Blue Yonder evolved as Knull and Yanovitch left to pursue other interests, and new opportunities for the remaining three partners proved elusive at first. An associate producer on Chillicothe, Sue Bea Montgomery, sought out studios that might want to work with the trio; she was met with indifference and determined that Blue Yonder Films would have to further establish itself on the independent scene before anyone would take interest. Montgomery then set up a meeting between the filmmakers and Maurice Kanbar, a successful entrepreneur who had made a minor investment in Chillicothe.
The Edwards brothers pitched a number of ideas for live-action films to Kanbar and proposed a development deal that would have entailed Kanbar paying the group and covering their rent in exchange for a significant portion of the rights to any scripts that Blue Yonder Films ever sold. Kanbar, however, was interested in a more direct approach, preferring to focus efforts on getting a single film produced. He had always admired animation, and after seeing a direct-to-DVD computer-animated short film that Cory had made called Wobots, suggested the possibility of producing an animated feature with Blue Yonder Films, one that would tell a familiar narrative with a twist. Kanbar gave the group a month to come up with a story idea.
Although Kanbar expressed interest in producing a retelling of "Cinderella" or The Adventures of Pinocchio, the Edwards brothers insisted on avoiding stories that had already been defined by The Walt Disney Company. Several ideas were considered by the brothers. Cory suggested "Little Red Riding Hood", describing it as a story "so simple that you can go a lot of different directions with it", and within a few days, inspiration came to Todd through non-linear crime dramas, such as Rashomon (1950), Pulp Fiction (1994), Run Lola Run (1998) and Memento (2000). Todd's proposal to retell "Little Red Riding Hood" as a police investigation, exploring the narrative through multiple points of view, was embraced by Kanbar, who agreed to fully finance the film before seeing a finished script. Kanbar's initial plan was to release the film directly to DVD. In 2002, Kanbar and Montgomery joined together in founding Kanbar Entertainment and Kanbar Animation, independent production studios that teamed with Blue Yonder Films for the production of Hoodwinked!