Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011) Reviews

• Less inspired than the original

  CSHaviland2011-05-06

  The original Hoodwinked was a clever movie, giving us a twist on the Little Red Riding hood fable, making it into a crime caper. It was well written and very funny. The sequel seems uninspired and poorly conceived. Nothing clever here. A few witty moments strung together into an adventure movie that isn't nearly as clever. Some characters were just thrown in because they were liked (the goat) and didn't serve any other purpose, other characters just seemed odd and uninteresting (the harp), and the main characters, while true to their original conceptions, were stuck in a weaker, more convoluted plot. At least the first half of the movie had its funny moments. The last half of the movie seemed tired and uncreative. I am not in the movie's primary demographic however (being 45). My sons, ages 4 and 7, enjoyed the movie very much and laughed quite a bit. So if you are a parent, take your kids. They'll probably enjoy it. If you're not a parent and you like computer animated features, don't set your expectations very high.

• Most disappointing sequel ever

  Mrohnoes2011-05-11

  The 1st Hoodwinked movie will always be loved by me. It has good writing, sound, acting, and story. It is the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, mixed in with some crime drama, and it worked v....Huh? What's that? Oh god, the f**king sequel. Wow, what a disappointment. The problems? The story isn't as good, the writing is crap (expect many done-wrong references to much better movies), and various other problems! Let's start with the story. Basically, the HEA(Happily Ever After)Agency mentioned in the first movie turns out to be like the CIA of the Hoodwinked world. The heroes from the 1st movie (except Red, I'll get to that in a minute) are on a mission to save Hansel and Gretel from an evil witch. But they screw up, and Granny gets captured, even though, you know, she's capable of preventing that from happening to herself (yeah, a few of the characters' traits and personalities were changed for no reason). Now the HEA calls upon the help of Red, who's currently training in the mountains from Kung Fu Panda with the Sisters of the Hood. She fails the test given to her, and is given some bulls**t legend about a magical truffle, which, when eaten, makes the person unstoppable. It also turns out that the recipe for the truffle was stolen, and everyone freaks out. Some agents of the HEA come by and pick up Red to bring her to the HEA. By the way, we never see the Sisters of the Hood again, so you won't care about them. OK, screw it, I'm not talking about the story anymore, because I didn't care about it. I'll just say that the evil witch is not the main villain, but Hansel and Gretel are. One reviewer on here likes this twist, but she apparently didn't stop to think about how the hell that would work, because it doesn't make a lick of sense. Now the writing was "meh" to say the least, but the references just sucked. Though the worst of all, has to be the scene where Red finds a table that has the tools and ingredients needed to make the Magic Truffle. When Red tries to concentrate, her granny's words come to mind. Then, out of nowhere, we hear Obi-Wan say "Luke, use the Force." My god, that was painfully forced. Thankfully, the rest of the references aren't as bad, but they still suck. There are 3 other things I should mention. First, is that the billy goat from the 1st movie is here as well, except he's part of a running joke where he gets hurt by falling or being flattened. Guess how many times they repeat this joke? FIVE TIMES. That is LAZY. And it's not even funny. Second, as you watch the movie, you'll probably notice characters from the 1st movie. The problem? None of the main characters acknowledge their existence, even though they were important in the 1st movie. Third, if at all possible, DO NOT see this movie in 3D, because there's nothing remotely 3D in the movie that would make it worth paying a few extra bucks. Overall, Hoodwinked Too! sucks, though it's not god-awful (but it got there 10 times too many), as the action scenes range from decent to good. If you want some Hoodwinked!, go watch the 1st movie.

• Hoodwinked deviating from its last idea

  rgkarim2011-04-29

  Think back to 2005 when the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood was rewritten in a cute format, full of mediocre comedy, ridiculous antics, lots of loud screaming, an X-Files approach to getting the answers and a demented bunny that tied everything together. Yes it was none other than the first Hoodwinked. Today I watched the sequel to this cute spin of Red Riding Hood and I'm here to report that it has deviated from this formula. Hoodwinked Too begins with a quick, exciting chase scene involving a witch, two fat kids, a wolf, a coffee induced squirrel, and a couple of background animals. Granny is still the master daredevil and shows us the amazing moves shes famous for from the first one, except this time its on a hog. However after this brief, thrilling, funny scene, the movie takes a quick turn to Red and her secret training ground. Here we learn about her attitude problem and how she has to work with a team instead of being alone. Once these scenes are done, the movie essentially is laid out for you to predict. You clearly can guess who the bad guys are, you can guess what is going to happen to the accomplices, and you pretty much can guess everything that is going to happen in this movie. As a result, this movie really has no twists to it. So is this movie worth watching? Well in my opinion it depends on what you want to see. One great thing about this movie is that Twitchy the squirrel has a lot of screen action and has a lot of hyperactive, funny movements and skills that will make kids laugh their heads off, and maybe some adults as well. The squeaky voice may get on some parents nerves, but I assure you that kids will love this funny colorful character. A second thing that parents might enjoy a little more, or adults who like CGI movies is the constant references to James Bond and the catchy one liners that this movie can throw at you. The wolf in particular has a couple of shrek like lines that adults will get more than kids, but it still doesn't match the brilliance that the green ogre has shown. A third thing I will say is good about this movie is that its not slow at all. The movie keeps a brisk pace and allows anybody with a short attention span to be centered on the movie and not drifting to sleep, which I find as a big positive. Also the woodsmen yodelers were pretty good as well, but their role in the movie was too short for me and should have been expanded. If you're a fan of Granny however, then you may not enjoy this movie as much as the master spy plays a very low key role in this movie. Aside from that beginning scene I mentioned, Granny has a few quick flips, tricks, and kicks that are diluted from her classic role. Some of the comedy in this movie is also very slap sticky and beat you over the head, especially gags about disguises and what not, which does get a little old. The story is weak as well, and really did not impress me as much as the first one did. Although the first story was not a masterpiece, it still was a creative look on the red riding hood story. This one deviated a little too much for my taste and should have tried to get another story going, without putting in so much secret agent warfare. Okay recommended audience for this movie, definitely viewers who have kids that like squeaky, hyperactive characters, this movie has a lot of them. Fans of the fairy tale parodies may appreciate this film as well, though may not be as impressed by this film as others. Overall for this kind of movie I'll say a 6.5 maybe 7 at the most for a good try at a fun kids film. However, it just doesn't reach out to a large audience like Pixar and Disney do in their work. Until next time, this is rgkarim signing out. Please email me if you have any ideas to improve my writing at rgkarim@mail.roanoke.edu

• forgot what made the original good

  maxblackanvil2011-05-02

  I wasn't interested in seeing the first Hoodwinked, due to the commercials, which seemed to focus on bad animation and making a wolf in an afro funny. When I got the DVD for my kids, it quickly became a family favorite, having quick humor, sly references to other movies, and (not least) an interesting plot. A police investigation into the happenings around the story of little red riding hood and resultant conflicting accounts by each of the major players made for a quite interesting movie. Hoodwinked 2 seems to have forgotten what made the first movie enjoyable. It starts off well, but then drifts into a straightforward, predictable story of Hansel and Gretel trying to obtain a secret recipe which gives them unlimited power. There are no overlaps, story twists, or the quick wit that made the first movie fun. Also, strangely absent is music. The first movie was loaded with catchy songs (often sung by a scene stealing goat). The only music in this film are sung by said goat, but only enough to set him up for a repeated "object falls on him" joke. Familiar characters from the first movie show up as bystanders, but none of them speak, i.e. the x-games bears and the cops appear, but are not heard or utilized in the story. Frankly, I expected more from this movie, but was not totally surprised. If you haven't seen it, watch the original instead. Skip this one.

• A very pale shadow of its first part

  LazySod2011-08-08

  Picking up the story where the previous one left off (more or less) this film continues a fairy tale world where Red Riding Hood is not quite as helpless as she is in the original tales and where Granny is something else entirely. The characters are, to an extend, the same as they were in the first film - but quite sadly that is the end of the comparability of the two. Where the original film is a quirky "whodunnit" that attempts to solve a crime by having the audience sit through several viewpoints on the events that happened this sequel is a sequence of standard events that seems to be stolen from several other films - and stolen poorly at that. As a comedy it doesn't work - good scenes are few and far apart. As a twisted fairy tale it doesn't work either - it's not convoluted enough by far. As an animation film it doesn't work either - it's bland and many scenes feel overly easy. All in all, an insult to the first film and I only didn't feel cheated out of paying because my kid did seem to like it (he's never seen the original though) 5 out of 10 sequels too many