'Hoodwinked Too!' exclaims its badness

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

Few probably remember 2006's Hoodwinked.

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  By Kanbar Entertainment/The Weinstein Company

  You'll toss your cupcakes, too! Red, voiced by Hayden Panettiere, tries to round up her errant pastries.

By Kanbar Entertainment/The Weinstein Company

You'll toss your cupcakes, too! Red, voiced by Hayden Panettiere, tries to round up her errant pastries.

But Hoodwinked Too!Hood vs. Evil is memorable for being one of the most obnoxious animated movies of recent years. If ever there was a movie that should have gone straight to video ? or better yet, never have been made ? this is it.

The title hints at the collection of gratingly bad puns that run rampant in this frenetic jumble of a film. The story, which spins off traditional fairy tales and is interlaced with pop culture, borrows from Shrek, Over the Hedge and many other animated movies of the past decade.

Hayden Panettiere is the voice of Red, a feisty martial artist in a crimson cape. She's training with a covert group called the Sisters of the Hood. But she's forced to stop before she's fully trained when the Happily Ever After Agency alerts her that a witch (Joan Cusack) has kidnapped Hansel (Bill Hader) and Gretel (Amy Poehler). Also in peril is Red's Granny (Glenn Close). Red joins Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers) for a rescue mission.

It's too bad an eclectic cast with such talented comedians as Poehler and Hader is wasted on a story dogged by a manic pace and 3-D technology that hardly comes into play. The cringingly unfunny dialogue is so sub par, some Robin Williams-style ad-libbing could have really improved things.

The computer-generated look of ceramic toys that come alive is off-putting rather than endearing. Worst of all are the dated, corny jokes referencing Silence of the Lambs,Happy Days and Goodfellas.

The kidnapping of Hansel and Gretel is nonsensically connected to a coveted recipe for a special truffle that, when eaten, conveys unparalleled power.

* out of four

Stars: Voices of Hayden Panettiere, Glenn Close, Patrick Warburton, Joan Cusack, Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Cheech Marin
Director: Mike Disa
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Rating: PG for some mild rude humor, language and action
Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes
Opens Friday nationwide

On one hand, Red is being taught martial arts and encouraged to flex her muscles and find her own path.

But the whole story comes down to the baking of a particularly potent chocolate confection. Hansel and Gretel, after sampling the truffle, become gargantuan.

A toothless moral about not making a pig of oneself is slapped on near the end, to little effect.

Take the kids to see Hop again, or Rio, but steer clear of the humorless Hoodwinked Too!

The movie's witlessness is as astounding as its hyperactive pointlessness. Who would think an animated story starring fairy-tale characters could be so grim?

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