hoodwinked Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Amy Poehler certainly didn't look pregnant when she showed up for a chat at the Apple store in Soho last weekend (as part of a series of talks taking place during the Tribeca Film Festival), but in retrospect, the Baby Mama star had the sprightliness of a gal with a special secret. Along with moderator and Saturday Night Live co-star Fred Armisen, Poehler really worked the room, gently mocking the crowd ("I think all these guys are waiting to get into the Genius bar") while slipping in occasional hints that she actually has an authentic strategy behind her career.

"I would like to do more serious acting," she said, not mentioning her recent voiceover work for Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil. "I've been doing sketch comedy for a long time, and it'd be nice to turn the volume down a little bit and try other stuff. I have a secret desire to be on Law & Order, but I wish I could be on an old Law & Order, with Jerry Orbach." Armisen, somewhat facetiously, said he would never tire of comedy. "It's like eating to me," he claimed.

How many computer-animated satires of fairy tales can we possibly tolerate? Lionsgate is hoping at least one more since they have acquired Happily N'Ever After for distribution in North America. The film is a version of the Cinderella story and takes place in Fairy Tale Land, where a war is brewing between good and evil characters. Voicing these characters are Sigourney Weaver, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, Jr., George Carlin, Patrick Warburton, Andy Dick and Wallace Shawn.

Shrek was witty enough in its poking fun of of fairy tales, and even went a bit too far with the jokes, in my opinion. Since then Shrek 2 and Hoodwinked have further driven the gags into the ground, and I can only expect this movie to be more of the same. Is it necessary to keep ripping off Shrek? Considering the box office for Hoodwinked wasn't anywhere near what the two Shrek films were, we know that kids aren't simply into the premise. This time the copy has more in common with the original, though, as Happily was produced by Shrek producer John H. Williams. We'll just have to wait until early next year to see if there's any interest in this, but my guess is the kids will just wait for Shrek the Third, which comes out in May.

• Doogal - A saccharine, cheap-looking CGI import from Britain about a lazy, cowardly, sugar-addicted pooch (with a mullet cut) who must find a way to save the world from an icy death is not the follow-up to Hoodwinked that Disney escapees Bob and Harvey Weinstein hoped for...or we asked for. At least they've got the swell Over The Hedge in theaters this week. Formerly titled The Magic Roundabout and re-dubbed (Doogal, that is. Not Over The Hedge.)

• Duma - With most arthouse films rated "R", it is always a pleasure when one comes along that culture mavens can take their kids to, and The Black Stallion director Carroll Ballard's latest nature trek -- a visually lovely adventure -- certainly does fit that bill. It is about a 12-year-old South African boy (Alexander Michaletos) who must return his pet cheetah to the wild, encountering and overcoming a number of obstacles along the way, the biggest one being our initial reluctance to accept its premise.
 

• The Call Of Cthulhu - The H.P. Lovecraft Preservation Society, a group of dauntless fans that created the brilliant, Cthulhu-themed musical, A Shoggoth On The Roof, have created the ultimate fan film, an incredible tribute to the writer whose work seeded modern horror favorites like Re-Animator and From Beyond. Shot like a 1920's era silent film, the 47-minute feature is technically amazing, shot (in black-and-white), lit and performed like an authentic film of the period would have been (although it would have horrified people of the time right into Arkham Sanitarium.) Considered Lovecraft's most famous story, the story of a man who inherits a collection of documents detailing the ghastly Cthulhu Cult, it is very faithfully adapted, not to mention super-efficient. The title cards are in the viewer's choice of an astonishing 24 different languages, and the lush, symphonic score can be played in hi-fi and the kitschy-fun, lo-fi "Mythoscope". A skillful build and an extremely satisfying payoff (think creature design King Kong '33 style) add up to one of the smartest horror films of recent memory.

Since Hoodwinked's box office returns currently stand at more three times the film's budget, the Weinstein Brothers can't be blamed for wanting to reteam with the film's makers. To that end, they've acquired the rights to a pitch from Cory Edwards and Tony Leech who, along with Edward's brother Todd, wrote and directed Hoodwinked. The new film, another animated feature, is titled Escape From Planet Earth, and sounds completely fantastic: it's a comedy about a prison break staged by the various aliens imprisoned at Area 51. I mean, that's brilliant! Why has no one does this before? Seriously, it seems sort of obvious for an animated movie - what could possibly be more fun for an animator than creating an entire universe of aliens?

Leech will directed this movie all by himself, but the Hoodwinked trio are currently working together on a follow-up to the film for the Weinstein Company, tentatively titled Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil. (Ooooh the clever.)

Doogal, an animated flick about a dog and his pals, is based on a British TV series. However, because Americans apparently don't like accents, it's been redubbed for release here, with vocal talent including Jon Stewart, William H. Macy, Kevin Smith, and Whoopi Goldberg. Based on the new, behind-the-scenes clip that's up at AOL, the movie shares both the erratic charm and modern hipness that virtually all animated films seem to strive for these days, combining Dr. Phil and Ice Age 2 references with a story about selflessness and friendship. While the clip, which runs about five minutes, leaves one hopeful that the movie might not overdo the trendiness quotient (unlike, say, Shrek 2), five minutes can hide a multitude of sins. Adding to the charm factor is the rather diverting plot point of a solemn snail (Macy) who is "head over heels" in love with an oblivious, over-confident cow (Goldberg) - of course, this element of the movie will send chills straight to the heart of Americans who find it a little too close to those dreaded human-animal hybrids.

In addition to footage from the movie, the clip includes interviews with the cast, an executive producer, and one of the film's writers. What's odd, however, is that the writer is one Cory Edwards, better known as the writer/director of Hoodwinked, who has of late not exactly endeared himself to the animation community with his reactions to criticism of his film. Edwards' presence here is strange because he's not credited as a writer on Doogal - he's listed only as providing "additional voices." I wonder if he was brought on to change the cultural references from British to American, or if he's always been involved in an uncredited way - either way, though, it's awfully strange to suddenly foreground him as the writer in the movie's first American promotional footage. Though it's impossible to know how the movie will do in theaters, I'm guessing that Edwards has learned his lesson and will be keeping his mouth shut, no matter how harsh the criticism.

Doogal is released in the US at the end of this month.

The continually ambitious Weinstein Company has picked up North American distribution rights for an upcoming computer animated monster-comedy (that is a comedy about monters, not a very large comedy) from Exodus Film Group. Igor, as the film is currently called, is follows the haphazard adventures of a mad scientist's assistant who dreams of winning the Evil Science Fair. It builds upon a likewise upcoming animated short entitled Igor: Unholy Frijoles, starring such voice talent as Jay Leno, Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi, and John Cleese. Chris McKenna is scriptwriting, and no annoucement has been made regarding cast or crew at this time.

Hm. The Weinstein Co. seems pretty hot under the collar for computer animated properties these days, eh? I suppose that is to be expected, seeing as how the cost of production for such films has dropped so low, and they have a perfect built-in audience comprised of youngsters and their parents, who will jump at any movie with a PG rating. Let's hope this one is a little less...generic than, say, Hoodwinked and its ilk.

According to early box office estimates, Screen Gems' clever ploy of not screening Underworld: Evolution for critics had the desired effect: the film took in about $27.6 million this weekend, more than doubling the take of any other film and even bettering the open of the first installment in the series. This weekend's other major release was End of the Spear which, though it didn't make much (about $4.2 million) depending on your source), was shown in fewer than as half many theaters as Underworld; it ended up in the eighth spot. Holding steady in second was Hoodwinked, which made just over $11 million in its second week of release; it was followed by Glory Road and Last Holiday, both of which took in $9.1 million in week two.

Among Oscar hopefuls, Brokeback Mountain's expansion to about 1200 screens earned it fifth place and just under $8 million - I guess all those Golden Globes didn't hurt, huh? And appearing for the first time in the charts this weekend is Terrence Malick's The New World, which was released in its recut form on Friday. The film took in a modest $4.3 million, which was good enough for the final spot in the top 10. The growing audience bodes well for both Malick and his film, as does the positive critical response to the new edit. (For the purposes of comparison, Hostel, which is in its third week of release, also made $4.3 million - but on 2,258 screens to The New World's 811.)

When it opened on Friday, Hoodwinked received incredibly mixed reviews - critics either hated it with a passion, though it was genius, or didn't really care. Undaunted by the bizarrely mixed opinions, however, people went to see the movie, and it finished the weekend with just shy of the top spot at the box office (according to the latest counts), bringing in nearly $17 million. And now, since it cost less than $20 million to make, it's no surprise that Hoodwinked 2 is already in the works. Though the movie's end perfectly sets up a sequel, the team behind it (brothers Cory and Todd Edwards and Tony Leech) say that part two will actually be more focused on "back story and subplots" rather than going forward from where Hoodwinked ends. In addition to the animated sequel, the trio is also working on a handful of projects that involve actual humans.

Since they freely admit that Hoodwinked came less out of passion for the story or animation and more out of a desire to get a foot in the door - according to Todd Edwards, the hardest thing about making Hoodwinked was "Putting all the projects that we really wanted to do on hold" - it'll be interesting to see what the sequel does for the filmmakers. If they end up being pigeon-holed as clever animators, they may never get to those other projects.

[via JoBlo]

Remember earlier, when we reported that Glory Road had bested all comers at this weekend's box office? Um, we lied. Actually, we were just misinformed, by first Variety, and then The Guardian. Word on the street now has it that The Weinstein Company's Hoodwinked! actually took the top spot, with Disney's sports mush landing at number two.  Well, that'll teach us to wake up at 7am and start blogging on Martin Luther King Day. Full, presumably correct top ten after the jump.