Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil

2006's Hoodwinked! was a low budget and mediocre animated film that managed to grab the attention of enough bored kids to become a modest success. I don't think anyone was begging for more, but there was money to be made, so here's Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil. Director Mike Disa obviously saw no need for improvement. The sequel sticks with the original film's formula of simplistic animation (though it's certainly improved this time around), tired pop culture references, and forgettable characters. About the only thing that's different is you now have to pay more to see it, given that it's now in uninspired 3D.

The film kicks off with the heroes from the first film now working as agents for the Happily Ever After Agency (the H.E.A.) - a kind of fairy tale Mission: Impossible-style organization who set out to ensure every story has a happy ending. The returning heroes include the dim-witted Wolf (voice by Patrick Warburton), feisty Granny (Glenn Close), amphibian detective Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers), and the overly-caffeinated squirrel Twitchy (Cory Edwards). They're short one member, as young Little Red Riding Hood (Hayden Panettiere, stepping in for Anne Hathaway from the first) is away in the mountains, honing her martial arts and pastry baking skills with a secret society known as the Sisters of the Hood. On their latest mission, the H.E.A. must rescue Hansel (Bill Hader) and Gretel (Amy Poehler) from the evil witch Verushka (Joan Cusack). The mission fails, and Granny ends up getting captured in the process. When word of this gets to Red, she leaves her training behind, and reunites with her friends to save the fairy tale world from this latest threat.

The plot is tied into a magical recipe for chocolate truffles that's been guarded by the Sisters of the Hood for years, as it holds the ability to give whoever eats it incredible powers, going missing. It's just an excuse to toss out some pop culture references, and halfhearted movie parodies of Goodfellas, Deliverance, and Silence of the Lambs. We also get a lot of B and C-list celebrity cameos including David Alan Grier (funny as a bridge-guarding troll), Brad Garrett as a Mafia giant, Cheech and Chong as the Three Little Pigs (who are now working for the forces of evil), and Andy Dick reprising his role from the first film as a sadistic bunny. The only actors who get to make any sort of impression are Hader and Poehler, as their bizarre performances as the strudel-addicted children get a couple laughs. Everyone else seems to know just how uninspired of a project they're stuck in.

At least Hoodwinked Too! feels like it belongs with a lot of the current crop of animated films. Aside from the wonderful Rango and the enjoyable Gnomeo and Juliet, kids have had to sit through some very slapdash offerings lately, like the forgettable Mars Needs Moms, and the beautiful but mediocre Rio. Still, I imagine most little kids will be able to see right through this lazy sequel. The animation is bright, but generally uninspired. The voice cast seems to be comprised of whoever the studio could afford. (Panettiere sounds uninterested, and is a poor replacement for Hathaway.) And aside from a couple stray gags, the laughs are few. There is a surprising number of action sequences, but they seem to be tailor made for a video game tie-in, rather than advance the story.

There's really not a whole lot else to say. It's barely passable, it will be gone from most theaters by the time the summer blockbusters start rolling in next month, and it's a lazy sequel to a movie most people don't remember in the first place. With a combination like that, you have to wonder why the film didn't just go straight to DVD. Or why the filmmakers didn't just toss out the script, and put some actual time into a new one.

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