Red Riding Hood. You probably know the story. But there’s more to every tale than meets the eye. It’s just like they always say: ‘You can’t judge a book by it’s cover. If you want to know the truth, you’ve gotta flip through the pages.’ Such is the voice-over narrative that kick-starts ‘Hoodwinked! The True Story of Red Riding Hood’, a wonderful little animated film that has remained under the radar. First impressions leave you less than dumb-founded about the animation. It is all jagged and not at all as refined or smooth as what the consumer is used to from such films as Shrek or Finding Nemo. But for all those who feel they need to throw a certain amount of condescension at this film, you’ll have to make do with criticising the animation, because, trust me, the rest just blows you away. I watched it quite recently after it came out - it never aired in the cinemas here, unfortunately, and have just watched it again, only to fall in love with it, again...
The story is brilliant. A fresh twist to a classic tale. No, much more than that. ‘Hoodwinked’ isn’t just a new twist, it’s new entirely. It’s a real roller-coaster ride of gags, wonderfully clever writing, and great, I repeat, great music. The soundtrack, for me at least, is what makes this film a true treasure. Now, it’s not a great soundtrack in the sense that the Harry Potter soundtracks are, or Gladiator, or Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one in particular - written by Klaus Badelt, not Hans Zimmer, who is credited for the last two, for some strange reason, but that's another story...). The music isn’t classical for most parts. It’s a soundtrack of songs. And I know what you’re thinking: ‘Uninspired musical numbers that we have seen chewed on and regurgitated hundred-fold in other movies? God help us all!’ No no, ‘Hoodwinked’ has much more in store: a veritable feast of great songs that were created specially for the movie, and that are more varied than the fauna and flaura of the Great Barrier Reef.
Things kick off wonderfully already with ‘Critters have Feelings’. A silly little indie-rock gem, with a touch of Franz Ferdinand thrown in for good measure. The following is the animated music video you can find on the DVD as an extra:
‘Critters have Feelings’ by John Mark Painter
Your ears are given very little time to recover as we almost immediately are thrown into the next, by now classic, song ‘Be Prepared’:
'Be Prepared' by Benji Gaither
Ben Folds - for all you emo connoisseurs out there - couldn’t resist a collaboration, thankfully. The result? Beautifully simple, simply beautiful:
'Red is Blue' by Ben Folds
My personal favourite, however, cannot be found on YouTube, or rather, only in miserable quality. Which is a pity, because it’s by far the best song of them all... And it’s not on the soundtrack, either. It’s called ‘Little Boat’ by Daniel Rogers. I do have the song as an MP3, however, and I’m more than happy to send anyone a copy via e-mail or something. Just send me a text. With that said, enjoy this rendition, nonetheless:
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