Saturday, January 28, 2006

The Best Family Movie Since The Incredibles

Hoodwinked succeeds in skewering the fairy tale genre with a simplicity and genuine wit that exceeds anything they did in the Shrek movies. In the prologue we are presented with the classic telling of Little Red Riding Hood. What comes next is a Rashomon retelling of the memorable "What big eyes you have" story from four separate (and cleverly distinct) points of view: that of the grandmother (not what she seems), the wolf (whose story pays homage to the Chevy Chase film Fletch, much to my amusementnt), the woodsman (not really a woodsman) and of course young Red herself.

Hoodwinked is not only brilliantly constructed and well written, but superbly performed and genuinely funny. It's suitable for all ages (why it received a PG rating to begin with is a mystery to me), and Mom and Dad will enjoy it as well as the kids. Glenn Close, Jim Belushi, David Ogden Stiers, Anne Hathaway and Andy Dick lead the cast.

3 comments:

Rick said...

that's a resounding endorsement. my kids loved it, but i didn't get to see it with them. definitely on dvd, but now i might have to make the theater trip after all. hmm.

Todd R. Vick said...

Tracy and I have $40.00 in movie coupons from the last 2 Christmases. Perhaps we should use them...

Chuck said...

I saw it (sans kids) yesterday and could not see why it was PG. But, "The Best Family Movie?" I was wracking my brain to try and think of other movies that I have taken the girls out to see, and, other than Narnia, they were all forgettable (Besides Narnia, March of the Penguins and Chicken Little were the only two I could recall. And, neither of those would have been better than Incredibles).

I will say that, as an adult, I loved the film the way that I love classic Rocky and Bullwinkle.