In the woods, something sinister creeps. If it isn't the wolf (and he claims it is not), then who’s stealing the recipes and putting all the goodie-makers out of business? The Muffin Man has closed up shop, Peter Rabbit and his family are moving on, and Red Riding Hood is worried.
This cute movie is a worthwhile take on the Red Riding Hood myth, examining the "scene of the crime" at Grandma's house with all the panoply of police, CSI, and a Nick Charles-like private eye with a talent for getting to the bottom of all the alibis. First there's Red herself, the wide-eyed innocent (voiced by Anne Hathaway). Or is she innocent? In a forest terrified by the serial cereal bandit, where no one's cookies are safe, is it naïveté that leads her into the woods — or cunning?
Then there's the wolf (voice of Patrick Warburton, square-jawed as The Tick and The Emperor's New Groove Kronk). Is he really slinking around the woods, slavering over Red's goodies and her Grandma's dry thighs? He makes a pretty solid case for himself as a crime reporter, suspicious of Grannie and her delivery-girl, Red, just trying to get the story. When he's accused of the crime, he is quick to demur, "Ah, the wolf did it. Talk about profiling."
In the original story, the woodsman is almost an afterthought. In this tale, he is a fully realized suspect, arriving in shards of glass, screaming, and flailing his axe just in time to rescue Red from the wolf's threat to "take out you and your Grannie too!" Jim Belushi's voice is bland, Austrian, and western by turns as the hapless lederhosen-clad actor tries to find his "inner woodsman" while he practices for an audition. His skipping commercial for schnitzel-on-a-stick is worth the price of the DVD all by itself.
Article comments
1 - DrPat
Many thanks to the editor who fixed my egregious typo in the title (and the little one in the text).
Grats, guys!
2 - Cass
I wanted more goat. :) "Oh, an avalanche is coming and I do not feel prepared...."
3 - DrPat
I see it now -- a C&W release, reviewed on BC, of the Goat's biggest hits.
My grandkids were especially taken with his interchangeable horns. (They call this DVD, which they've now watched half-a-dozen times since we bought it on Saturday, the "Goat Movie".)
4 - NancyGail
Patrick Warburton as Kronk was funny. I have a question-panopoly?