Delighted to be Hoodwinked

Typically I enjoy animated features slightly more than I enjoy musicals and slightly less than I enjoy a terrible headache. Even with the advent of animated films which make valiant attempts to keep parents as well as kids entertained, they still tend to be childish. Which I suppose is the point, and so let the kids go to the animated films and I'll stick to live action. In fact if at all possible, never bring your kid to a live action film, particularly one I am viewing, since I'm going to be quickly irritated by your crying, fussing child.

I say all this because I loved Hoodwinked. It wasn't that it was really all that more funny than any other animated film and many have commented that it looks like a Shrek (2001) clone, it was that it was ridiculously clever. From the most basic premise of a German fairy tale, I would never have guessed one could get so much mileage. It is only at the point when the four traditionally characters (the wolf, the grandmother, the girl and the woodsman) come together do things really get going.

The investigation that gets going with the aid of a frog named Flippers is what makes the movie so damn clever. The audience is treated with four narratives. Each following the events of the person in question up to the coming together of the four. Each is filled with its own set of occurrences that at times seem rather bizarre. But as each consecutive person tells his or her tale, little pieces of the puzzle are filled in. Each time it happened I smiled and laughed and was generally amazed.

Although it eventually erodes into a more standard villain narrative, it still has its moments and the four part interrogation still fascinated me and it made up most of the film. This movie is worth seeing for that first part if for no other reason. And if for some reason unlike me, you actually enjoy animated films, then you should definitely see this one. It is not in my opinion, just a Shrek clone.