Review of Hoodwinked Too! Hood VS. Evil (2011) by Corey B — 07 Jan 2012

The first Hoodwinked was a fun enough diversion, using a Rashomon structure to deconstruct the Red Riding Hood story. It wasn't great, but it was a pleasant surprise. I can barely remember it to be perfectly honest, but it had a few good chuckles.

The sequel goes for a straightforward adventure story, and is far less interesting. It's not the disaster I was expecting from the reviews, but with few laughs, and a tired story that has one good twist, it's not exactly captivating.

The biggest problem is that the characters really can't sustain a feature film. The original managed to double back on itself and flip the stereotypes around, so the characterization didn't need to be deeper than, Granny isn't helpless...she's a spy.

Here, the surprises are out of the way, and the characters are put into stock situations to try and create depth. Will Red and Wolf be able to work together, can Red fight her self-destructive impulses....yawn...snore...zzzzzz.

It would be fine if there were bigger laughs, or more exciting action scenes, but it's a fairly routine kid's picture with little in the way of innovation.