Based on the Little Red Riding Hoodfolktale, structurally, it borrows from the films Rashomon and The Usual Suspects, as well as frequently intertwining various plots. The film's setting uses the same type of anachronistic and satirical mixing of modern and fantasy culture as the Shrek films. It is 86 minutes long and is rated PG for mild action and thematic elements. A twenty-two minute behind the scenes video podcast is available for free in iTunes.
A sequel to the film, titled Hood vs. Evil is currently in the making and is expected to be released in 2008.
The story begins in medias res, with Red, the Wolf, Granny, and the Woodsman in their confrontation at Granny's house. Mid-scene, the story jumps ahead to the police cordoning off Granny’s house following the opening events. The lead investigator, frog-form Nicky Flippers, interrogates each of the four participants, with each character giving their own version of how and why they arrived at the house. Because the film uses a police interrogation as a framing sequence, it is evocative of the 1995 crime thrillerThe Usual Suspects, and because the four participants’ stories converge at points prior to the meeting at Granny’s, and are at times self-serving, the format is evocative of Akira Kurosawa’s1950 film Rashomon.
Red, the first interview subject, tells Flippers that she is merely a delivery person for her Granny’s "goodies", and that when she came across the ransacked home of another goody-maker, the latest in a recent string of such attacks by a thief known only as the Goody Bandit, whose crimes have resulted in the closure of many goody makers in the forest, Red decided to take the hidden recipe book in the house for safekeeping. This admission appears self-ruinous, as it casts Red in a suspicious light, but Red asserts her innocence, adding that on her way to Granny’s house, she fell from an air trolley she was riding with the rabbit Boingo, and when she landed in the forest, she ran into the Wolf, who, after questioning her, appeared to become hostile. After using a “Wolf Away” spray to repel the lupine attacker, Red fled, using a mountain railway system manned by Japeth, a singing goat with detachable horns with different uses. As the railway cart they were riding emerged from the mountain, Red saw that the tracks far ahead of them were apparently destroyed, and an image of her Granny appeared in the sky above her instructing her to use her hood as a parachute, which Red successfully did (the goat used a pair of helicopter-horns to land safely also). When she gets to Granny’s she sees through the Wolf’s transparently obvious Granny disguise, and just as he reveals himself and the two confront one another again, a bound and gagged Granny jumps out of her closet, followed by a crazed-looking axe-wielding Woodsman, who bursts into the living room through the window, screaming, to the horror of the other three.
Flippers then interrogates the Wolf, who it appears certain is the culprit. But the Wolf reveals that he is an investigative reporter whose prior stories Flippers is familiar with, and tells him that he and his hyperactive photographer, a squirrel named Twitchy, were investigating the recent thefts of various recipes by the Goody Bandit, and became suspicious of Red when he saw her traipsing through the forest with goodies in a basket. He explains that he was merely questioning Red because it was his job, and that when his tail got caught in the film chamber of Twitchy’s camera, he roared in pain, which Red took as an attack. After using a shortcut provided by Boingo the rabbit, the Wolf and Twitchy used the mountain railway system, which was destroyed when Twitchy lit a candle in the cart that turned out to be a stick of dynamite. The duo arrive at Granny’s house, and the Wolf throws Twitchy in the closet to hide, but Granny is already there, and already tied up, which complicates the authorities’ view of the Wolf as the culprit. The Wolf puts on a Granny disguise, and the confrontation is again seen.
The Woodsman is then interrogated. He reveals that he is an aspiring actor, and that for money, he drives a goody truck, selling schnitzel on a stick to children. He tells Flippers that after a disastrous audition for a bunion cream commercial, where his thick Bavarian accent hurt his chances, he then discovers that his goody truck has been robbed, apparently in another attack by the Goody Bandit, as Boingo pops in on the scene. The Woodsman is distraught, but receives a callback for the commercial, and decides to prepare for the role of a woodsman by chopping down trees. After chopping away most of a giant tree, he finds himself atop it as it rolls down the hill towards Granny’s house, and he is thrown through the living room window, hollering the entire way. This makes him the only person there completely by accident.
Granny is the last to be interviewed. She reveals that she is an extreme athlete known as Triple G (a homage to the Vin Diesel character Triple X in xXx) who prefers activities like snowboarding to being the stereotypical goody-making grandmother. She explains that she enjoys such activities, and that at the Extreme Dream Snow Sports competition between her teammates and an imposing European ski-team, Boingo the rabbit even asked for her autograph. She tells Flippers that during the race down the mountain, the opposing team physically attacked her and her team, and she narrowly escaped a mountain avalanche via a parachute (winning the race in the process). As she approached her home, she saw Red below her in the railway cart, and advised her to use her hood as her own parachute. Shortly after, Granny arrived in her bedroom. Her parachute became caught in the ceiling fan, and she ended up wrapped up in it and thrown into her own closet. The familiar confrontation with Red, the Wolf and the Woodsman then ensued. The revelation of Granny’s other life is a shock to Red, who is hurt that Granny kept her other life a secret from her.
The police are back to square one, as none of the four appears to be culprits, but then the basket of Granny’s goodies and the recipe book is found to be missing, as is Red. But we then see Red following the real thief, the one who was present during all four accounts: Boingo. Red follows him on the air tram up to the mountain, where he and his henchmen, the aforementioned opposing snowboarding team, plan to corner the market on goodies, and make them highly addictive to kids. Red is discovered, and placed in the air tram filled with dynamite. The Wolf, Granny and the Woodsman follow, and foil Boingo’s evil plans. Red is freed from the air tram before it explodes, and Boingo and his henchmen are captured by the police. The next day, Flippers tells Red, Granny, the Wolf, and Twitchy (the Woodsman became a world-famous yodeler) that he is a member of the "Happily Ever After Agency", and offers to enlist the four to work for him.
The reporter Wolf W. Wolf is (as mentioned in the DVD commentary) a parody of Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher from the movie Fletch, starring Chevy Chase. Wolf wears the same L.A. Lakers jersey, has the same type of music during his telling of the story and uses the same gags as Fletcher (e.g. a large afro, buck teeth, and impersonation in order to get information). Wolf W. Wolf is also an apparent parody of "Fletch F. Fletch," one of Fletch's aliases.
The scene where Red is trapped inside the dynamite filled cable car and she kicks the sheet of metal from the floor of the car is a frame by frame parody of the scene in the film The Fast and the Furious when the same thing happens to Brian's car in the first race.
When Wolf knocks on Granny's door, one of the things he says through the door is "Candygram." This is a reference to the "Landshark" sketch on Saturday Night Live, where "Candygram" is one of the ruses used by the Landshark. It is also another reference to Chevy Chase as the voice of the Landshark was provided by Chase.
Granny's command to Red to "Use the hood" is likely a parody of the famous line from Star Wars where Obi-Wan Kenobi instructs Luke Skywalker to "Use The Force."
In the scene where the police find Grandma's trophies, Flippers sees GGG tattooed on the back of Grandma's neck. This is a reference to the movie xXx. A similar reference occurs in the scene where Granny causes the avalanche. This is a frame-by-frame parody of a similar scene in xXx.
Another film reference occurs when Granny is climbing on the ceiling and a drop of sweat falls from her brow. This again is a frame-by-frame parody of a similar scene from the 1995 film Mission: Impossible or drop of blood from the 2002 film Spider-Man.
In the film Over The Hedge, another hyperactive squirrel (Hammy) saves the day after being given a caffeinated drink. In their compulsive behavior, Twitchy and Hammy both bear similarity to Scrat, the popular sabertooth squirrel of the Ice Age movies.
Just before Boingo starts singing his "Top of the Woods" routine, the first claim of being "top of the woods" seems like a loose reference to James Cagney's last line in White Heat: "Made it Ma! Top of the world!".
When Red mentions that Kirk "finally made it", she holds up a card saying "Der Happy Yodelers / The Sound of Munich". The card is a clear reference to Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music, although the music used in the movie is of a different genre than that implied by the card.
Boingo tells Keith to change his name to Boris. Keith looks very similar to Boris (played by Alan Cumming), a henchman of Alec Trevelyan in the James Bond film GoldenEye.
In the scene where Twitchy tries to tell the officers what's happening, they parody Lassie. At one point, Bill even says, "Timmy's stuck in the well!"; a reference to that film.
In Granny's extreme sports montage, she is shown drinking "Forest Dew", an obvious parody of the extreme sports scenes featured in some Mountain Dew commercials. In the last scene, there is also an ad for the drink, promising "Clean Taste! Pine Scent!". The ad's blurb is "Taste the Mountain!" The ad also appears on Granny's refrigerator, below her shopping list.
During the end credits, a graphic of Twitchy and the Wolf doing a parody of Batman and Robin appears.
Some of the scenes involving hand to hand combat are obvious adaptations to the style (and camera angles) of The Matrix fight scenes.
The opening title of the film is remarkably similar to the opening header for the 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, that also features a villain planning to make profits from an enormous conglomerate.
Dolph, Boingo's lead henchman bears a striking resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger in both appearance and voice.
It is speculated by some fans that the Gecko movie-director character that is seen in the Woodman's POV may be a reference to the video game character Gex because of their similar species and relation to the movie business
Trivia
An alternate title of the film was Hoodwinked! The True Story of Red Riding Hood.
An early cut of the film featured the voices of Tara Strong as Red and Sally Struthers as Granny before the voices were recast with Anne Hathaway and Glenn Close. Jim Belushi, who voiced the Woodsman, also did so with a far heavier Austrian accent.
The book flipping by at the beginning of each sequence tells the actual story of the movie. (Depending on the page, the original fairy tale is in there as well.)
Nicky Flippers, as mentioned in the DVD commentary for Hoodwinked, is based on Nick Charles, the detective character in The Thin Man.
In the Disney animated film The Emperor's New Groove, Patrick Warburton played a doltish henchman named Kronk, who, among other things, had the unique ability to understand squirrel language. In this film, he plays the Wolf, whose assistant is an at-times-hard-to-understand squirrel.
The scene where Boingo tells Keith to change his name was not scripted. It was ad-libbed by Andy Dick while recording his lines.[1]
When Red runs the mine rollercoaster with Japeth, Wolf's mine cart can be seen passing under her. When Wolf runs the mine rollercoaster with Twitchy, Red's cart can be seen passing behind him.
At the very end of the end credits, stairs and a railway show up and fly up to make the Fotokem Film and Video logo. After that, it shows one final picture of Granny, Red, and the Wolf, and under it says "Please consume goodies responsibly." This may be a parody of beercommercials, where they say to "please drink responsibly".
During Red's telling of what happend, as well as under special features on the DVD, during the song, "Great Big World", five moles on a log float by that are dressed up like the Village People. At the end of "Great Big World", one (the Indian) falls from the limb of a tree. These characters are also shown as a graphic during the end credits of the movie, with the Woodsman joining them.
Todd Edwards, brother of Cory, appears as the voice of the costume-wearing Sandwich Man.
Publisher of "Once Upon A Times": Kanbar Press, named after Kanbar Entertainment.
The cab Wolf rides in has the markings of a Yellow Cab. (Listening carefully, the viewer can hear the song "Critters Have Feelings" playing on the cab's radio, in a slower mix. Also the top of the cab features a sign advertising "Paul's Bunion Cream".)
Originally, the music for the movie had a more "Saturday-morning" feel, including a lighter first song: "Woods Go Round". The musical number was animated, but subsequently lost during the re-versioning - but has since been spotted at the tail end of Dish Network's broadcast of the film.
If you look closely in the scene where Red meets Wolf in the forests, you'll see that the scene is completely relit on both characters' POV. In Red's POV, the forests is dark and spooky. However on Wolf's POV, the scene is light and peaceful. As mentioned on the DVD commentary, this is because it's the two characters' perspective of each other.
In the DVD a co-director says they almost deleted Japeth out of the movie. Also, they had 4 year olds ask why the bunny was the bad guy.
The music that plays when the Wolf appears resembles the Wolf-theme from Peter and the Wolf.
When Boingo's ears emerge from Red's hood when he arrives to meet Dolph at the Air Tram, Boingo's actions mimic a specific plot-point in the 1981 novel, Who Censored Roger Rabbit?
Red partly resembles Lil' Red from Shrek 2 the video game in a more "cartooned" and younger version. Even Red's karate is reminisent of Lil' Red's preference to fight with kicks and punchs, easily seen in the game during the fight with Puss in Boots.
The scene where they bring Wolf in to give his POV to the police officers, the bit when he walks by Red, is taken directly from the movie Kill Bill, including the music being played in the background.
Duck (Seen recklessly driving, when magazine falls on windshield)
Woodchuck (Vocalist, Creatures of Habit; voice of Cory Edwards) (Note: Identified by species only in the commentary, and in the song "Critters Have Feelings")
Polar Bear (P. Biggie, member of Granny's team. Voice: Kevin Michael Richardson)
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