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Hoodwinked!

7/10

Stars: (Voices): Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, Patrick Warburton, Jim Belushi, Anthony Anderson, Xzibit, David Ogden Stiers, Chazz Palminteri

Director: Cory Edwards

There's trouble in the Hood. Red Riding Hood, that is. This clever CGI cartoon, which will have you constantly chuckling, takes a new spin on the old story.

Even as Chief Grizzly (Xzibit) and Detective Bill Stork (Anderson) come upon the seemingly traditional scene of a wolf (Warburton) trying to eat Granny (Close) before Red (Hathaway) and The Woodsman (Belushi) intervene, they sense something fishy, connected with their search for The Goodie Basket.

Red, Granny, Wolf and Woodsman all have different stories - which interlock in surprising ways. It's up to frog 'tec Nicky Flippers (Ogden Stiers), a Poirot of the forest, to sort out the culprit. 'Take 'em Downtown,' growls the Chief. 'It's the woods, Chief,' protests Bill. 'We don't have a Downtown.'

It's that kind of film, owing a lot to Shrek and its successors. 'I'll get you,' grates the wolf - who turns out to be Wolf W Wolf, undercover reporter, 'and your little Granny too.'

Granny, Red and the Woodsman all turn out to have secret lives, but the best characters are a singing hillbilly goat (Benjy Gaither), who uses his long horns as a rocking chair, and yet another manic squirrel (director Edwards), who talks at a rate of knots. The wolf shakes his head. 'You ever thought of decaffeinated coffee?' he asks.

This is literally fun for all the family.

David Quinlan

USA 2005. UK Distributor: Momentum. Colour.
81 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: U.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 24 Sep 2006