Hoodwinked

We bought Hoodwinked for the kids to watch on a car trip a while back, and they were totally obsessed with it. I mean, much more obsessed with it than I've seen them be about any other movie. They watched it like three times in the first week we had it, which is not normal behavior for them. I finally watched it all the way through, and it's great. It's kind of a Rashomon version of Little Red Riding Hood, with great, catchy songs, cool action, and a script that shows some brainpower and doesn't just try to shamelessly manipulate the audience. It's got stuff for the grownups (like "Fletch" references!), but it doesn't feel insincere the way the Shrek movies do. (I don't know--Shrek just never did it for me.) Best of all, from my point of view, no dead moms! I mean, sure, Red's parents are absent, but it's not remarked on. So either nothing tragic happened or whatever tragedy happened is not defining her life. Either way, I'm fine. I suppose the whole "Extreme sports granny" thing is a bit cliched, but this leads to some great cartoon action, so I couldn't really complain. I'll make the same plea for this one that I did for Nanny McPhee--vote with your wallet and show 'em that you can make money if you make a movie for kids that doesn't suck. Just having a movie in the house that the kids are obsessed with that I can stand to watch at all really makes me feel like I spent my money well.