"Why are you reading that book? Nobody reads books anymore! Movies are always better, especially sequels."
When Hansel (Hader) and Gretel (Poehler) are kidnapped by an evil witch, Verushka (Cusack), it is up to Happily Ever After, HEA, Agents Granny (Close), Wolf (Warburton), and Twitchy (Edwards) to save the day. But Wolf's antics lead to the Witch escaping with the kids and Granny. Meanwhile, Red (Panettiere) is in training at the secret base of the Sisters of the Hood. During training, she learns that Granny has been taken... and then the Sisters discover their secret truffle recipe is missing. Can Red and Wolf find a way to work together to find the recipe and rescue Granny?
Despite having mixed feelings about the original Hoodwinked!, I had a 1/2 price rental at Redbox and decided to give the sequel a chance. The sequel takes all the good things from the original, throws them on the ground, stomps on them, and then uses the broken pieces to build the film. There are good moments (and talented voices), but overall it was a mess.
Bill Hader and Amy Poehler are a riot as Hansel and Gretel... they dive right in and play to the rafters. The characters are funny and just the right amount of adorable and evil. More Twitchy and Wolf... Twitchy is funny and gets the best sight-gags, while the Wolf gets the best lines / ad libs. Patrick Warburton is an incredible voice actor (he also provided the voice for Kronk in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove), and sounds great here. The 3 little pigs, as voiced by Cheech and Chong and Phil Lamar, more of them would be better.
The bad
Why bring back Kirk the Woodsman? He was funny in the first film when performed by Jim Belushi. In this film he is a waste and voiced by Martin Short (who is funny in his own right, but just out of place here). And what was the deal with his yodeling team? Yes, it was funny to realize that Heidi Klum voiced the Heidi character, but they didn't have a strong purpose. The Nicky Flippers (Stiers) and Granny characters are sorely underused... and the Sisters of the Hood plot line fell flat. Hayden Panettiere was ok as Red, but not stupendous. All uses of the Japeth the Goat (voiced by Benji Gaither). He was great in the first, but is a walking un-funny punchline.
Overall, it felt like the writers, director, etc dropped the ball. This could have been a smash hit... the type of film that did better than it's predecessor, but they just never made it. It felt like they didn't even try. A bitter waste. Nice try, but if you make a third film.. step it up and make it good!
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011) 86 minutes
Director: Mike Disa
Starring: Hayden Panettiere as Little Red Riding Hood
Glenn Close as Granny
Patrick Warburton as The Big Bad Wolf
Joan Cusack as Verushka the Witch
Bill Hader as Hansel
Amy Poehler as Gretel
Cory Edwards as Twitchy
David Ogden Stiers as Nicky Flippers
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