Pop Culture Corner - February 9, 2006
02-10-2006
by Aaron Dicer

Joyz in the Hood
"Hoodwinked", PG

 Substance tends to outweigh style for me, and that's a good thing for "Hoodwinked", a retelling of the story of Little Red Riding Hood.  Now that I think about it, I, myself could benefit from the world embracing substance over style, so feel free to join in.  The point is, Hoodwinked is that perfect pepperoni bacon pizza that comes delivered in a beat up 1973 Ford Pinto you'll still devour the slice no matter which wheels cart it to your door. (Sorry, didn't mean to offend the Pinto peeps, to make it up to you, here's your chance to own a piece of history).

 "Hoodwinked", at its heart, takes an old story and makes it infinitely better.  Many sleepless nights I've lain awake pondering the wolf's side of the whole Grandma incident. OK, maybe not, but I'm glad the creators of Hoodwinked did.  This computer animated film takes us through the story from four very different angles; Red's, the wolf's, Granny's, and, well, a German woodsman who sells treats from a van while secretly wanting to be an actor... seriously.  Each of their stories pieces more of the puzzle together until we get a complete understanding of what happened that day in the woods, long, long ago.  To give away much more than this is to rob the movie of what is it's primary success, the joy of discovery.  The setup allows us to travel 4 different roads to the same destination, allowing for new interesting characters and surrealist comedy along the way.  The cumulative effect of this is that you spend the 90 minutes with a big grin plastered on your face and leave the theater satisfied.

Like I said, it's a good pizza, but what about that Pinto?  Let me be very clear.  The animation on this movie is bad, really bad.   In a world of Nemo, Shrek, and even Larry the Cucumber, it's just not up to par.  On the first frame, I think I actually let out an audible "ew" (for which I got "the stare" from some lady in the row ahead, "sorry ma'am, it's involuntary, I promise") At this point I was very concerned that I would be so distracted by the poor CG that I wouldn't see past it.  This, fortunately, proved untrue.  Still, it's an important warning and asterisk to what would be a glowing review otherwise.  Don't go expecting Pixar, go expecting "God wants me to Forgive Them?" divided by 2.

As shoddy as the animation is, it's almost forgivable when you realize how much of an independent film this truly was.  This film was written and directed by a group of three friends who took on the formidable task of producing a feature length animated film by themselves.  I don't want to spend too much time going into the details but sufficed to say it's been a long eightish year journey and an uphill battle (for more of the story you can check out these great articles chronicling both the before and after of this amazing process).  The simple fact that they managed to get a movie onto screens seems to be a tremendous accomplishment.  Yet there is more about the Edwards brothers (Cory and Todd) and Tony Leech that I find interesting.  My first clue was in the credits (yes, we stay through the credits.  Imagine that, not jumping up and rushing out, but soaking in what we've just seen.  Sorry, pet peeve, stepping off soapbox now.), there amongst the names Glen Close, Patrick Warburton, James Belushi, Anne Hathaway, and Andy Dick was this name: Benjy Gaither.  My wife and I immediately turned to each other with the look you might get if you found a 5-dollar bill in your Coke.  I mean, I like 5-dollar bills and I like Coke, I'm just not sure what they are doing together.  After a dismissive, "Can't be that Benjy Gaither” we went on with our lives and picked up some grub (Did you know Taco Bell accepts soggy carbonated bills?  Now you do.)  Halfway through my argument with the teller about why they no longer serve the Chili Cheese Burrito, we had forgotten all about the Gaither connection.  Then I started doing research for this review, and turns out it is that Benjy Gaither.  Son of Bill and Gloria, founder of Christian rock supergroup "Benjamin" (just kidding Benjy, you know I love you, you guys were great at my winter formal, I think Plumb may have even been with you then, good times.)  At that point I had to follow the rabbit down the hole. Here's what else I found:

- Cory Edwards hosted CCM TV from 1993 - 1996 where his brother Todd worked as well.
- Tony Leech starred in "Petra Beyond Belief", no not the music video, the movie, released on video in 1990.
- All three also starred in 1999's "Chillecothe" which Todd wrote and directed.

CCM TV?  Petra?  Are you kidding me?  How do three guys with this background make a movie that makes 44 Million in 4 weeks!?  I guess the answer isn't that hard, they wrote a great script and got great actors involved (including Benjy who plays perhaps the funniest character in the film, a goat named Japeth who never speaks but only sings.) and made a movie that is easy to recommend and a joy to watch.  Despite the low quality animation, ever other area of this film works very well, and it's a testament to simply creating a great product and getting it out there for an audience to see ("Napoleon Dynamite" worked in much the same way).  This movie is content to live and die on it's merits, when the directors could have easily played the church card and rallied the Christian army to it's side.

Another thing I genuinely appreciated about this movie was the message.  Amidst the fun and frolic is a simple take on working together to find truth. How the same story told four different ways (eh hem, the gospels anyone?) can lead to the same answer.  It's a beautiful take on post modernity, which says that everyone can have his or her own truth, whereas this story shows how there is one truth, even if we all tell it in a different way.

In the end I didn't go see Hoodwinked because of any choreographed church marketing plan or even because I knew of it's Christian subculture connections.  I went because I heard it was a funny, well written comedy that my whole family might enjoy.  I suggest you do the same.

After all, it's all about the pizza not the Pinto.

Message – A
Content – A
Quality – B

Overall – 90%

(Aaron Dicer is Program Director and does the morning show at 101.7 “The Fuse”, in Saginaw, Michigan.  He has also spoken around the country at youth events and seminars on how a Christian can interact with culture in a positive way. Every week he will offer a new review of a TV show, Movie, or other piece of pop culture.  You can hear him at wprj.org, read more articles at hookedonsiphonics.com, or be his friend at myspace.com/aarondicer.  Questions, comments, opinions, ideas? Email him at dice@cmcentral.com)