Wednesday, February 08, 2006 The Weinstein Company The Weinstein Company has jumped on the CG feature bandwagon. This is a bad situation on 3 levels: 1) The animation is primitive and clunky, 2) The stories are hollow and cynical, and 3) Overall it creates a bad impression of CG as a medium. The purpose of Hoodwinked is not originality. Rather, it chooses to retell a classic story (Red Riding Hood) in the structure of another story (Rashomon) in the visual style of any Pixar movie with the pop culture and pointless references of anything recent by Dreamworks (especially Shrek, which even features red riding hood).

Just because fairytale + parody + CG = $$$ before doesn’t mean that it is a formula worth repeating, especially if you are going to half-ass every quality that made the inspiration a success. I do not have high hopes for their next animated feature Doogal, which looks like another retold adventure set in the low budget style of Nickelodeon.

I am not in a position of authority to criticize, but still.