Hoodwinked: The Modern Rendition of Little Red Riding Hood

Hoodwinked is a 2005 computer animated movie that retells the folktale of Little Red Riding Hood, but as a police investigation, using flashbacks to show multiple characters' points of view. Even the word “hoodwink” means to deceive or trick someone which is the whole plot of the movie. I remember watching this movie when it came out and I thought it was weird but funny with a low budget animation. Other than that, the movie does do a great job in describing the story of Little Red Riding Hood in a new way. The movie is mostly a family comedy directed toward children around 5 to 9 years old. While the Brothers Grimm’s version seems to have a darker plot to it and is meant towards an older audience. Also, it seems to be as like other stories having the same plot and message. Both stories keep some of the key aspect of Little Red Riding Hood, but with some big differences. One tries to be unique and gives the audience a fresh take on the story where the other one tries to be more identical to the original.

The main plot of the movie revolves around each character being prime suspect of numerous robberies that are happening involving goodies recipes. The ones being question are Little Red, The Wolf, The Woodmen, and Granny. The movie also adds new characters such as Rabbit and reference other fair tales’ characters. Since the movie is more than an hour long, they had to add more stuff to the plot in order to make the movie longer. Each character from the original story have their own version on how the incident went. The movie started at the part where Little Red Riding Hood entering the house and discovers that the Big Bad Wolf dress up as her grandma. Little Red ask the Wolf the same question as all the other retelling, but then out of nowhere Granny jumps out of the closet tied up. Then the woodsman bursts through the window holding an axe, which shocked everyone. The police quickly arrive at the scene of the crime, and the four are all questioned by a frog detective with an accent about the events leading towards the incident.

The audience get to witness Little Red’s point of view first while she tries to explain that she was delivering goodies to her grandmother until she encounters a threat from the Goodie Bandit. Wanting to protect the recipes, Little Red decides to travel to her grandmother’s house in order to keep them safe. During her journey, she stumbled upon the Wolf, who asked her a whole bunch of suspicious questions. Felling terrified she managed to trick the Wolf and escape, then eventually Red made it her grandmother house. She however notices that her grandmother seems a bit off and she found out that it was the Wolf wearing a disguise. In the Brothers Grimm’s version had Little Red’s mother in the story and that the grandma was sick. The both talk about the part where there encounter the Wolf but with a different reaction. For example, in the Brother Grim’s Little Red didn’t seem scared by the Wolf and wasn’t caution with him. Although, in Hoodwinked! she seems to get a bad vibe and tried to escape from him.

One main difference in the movie that other retelling has was the fact that the Wolf wasn’t the bad guy in the movie. He was quickly named the number one suspect because he was a wolf. It first gives the impression that the Wolf did it since Little Red describes how he seem creepy at first. Then they all became confused once they learned that the Wolf is an investigative reporter. The Wolf describes how he was investigating leads to find out who was the Goodie Bandit and had a hunch that Little Red and Granny were the ones responsible for all the thief’s that were happening. He came across Little Red and tries to question her to try to solve the mystery. During this encounter Little Red escaped, then proceeded to head for her grandmother’s house. The Wolf was able to arrive first and dressed up as Little Red grandmother in order to get information to prove that they are guilting. This was a big plot twist because in almost every retelling of Little Red Riding Hood portrays the Wolf as the bad guy. In this case he was one of the good guys that was trying to find out who was the Goodie Bandit.

The Brothers Grimm’s version descried the Wolf as a sneaky and deceiving character. While Little Red Cap and the Wolf first encounter, it was determined that he was automatically the bad guy in the story. At least the movie version gives the audience a chance to get to see the Wolf’s prospective of the invent than just to have it as an open and shut case. In most cases in fairy tales the wolves are described as evil maniacal villains as seen in “The Three Little Pigs” and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. According to the article “Understanding Fairy Tales” by Alison Davies “It’s true that the big bad wolf appears like a dark shadow lurking in the forest of fairy tales, his character cries out to our psyche on a deep level but it’s not just because of his evil intentions….He represents fear in its purest form. It doesn’t matter what that fear is or how it’s made manifest, his presence is there, always watching and waiting for the opportunity to pounce”. In other words, wolves were given this bad reputation because menacing appearance.

Another character that was mention in both incarnations was the Woodsmen and how he came toward the end. In Hoodwinked! you get to see he personally background, it’s revealed that he was not a woodsman at all but a struggling actor that is trying to make a name for himself. His biggest gig he was able to score was for a commercial for a foot cream. Feeling devastated that he didn’t do as well as he expected we back to his work on the schnitzel truck. Selling schnitzel to children gave the Woodsman great joy that he ended up going into a song about the joys of schnitzel. During this his schnitzel truck was robbed, making Woodsman felt horrible, but then he got a called back form the commercial. This made him so much happier but his agent to him he should be more woodmen like. Eager to do his best resulted in him chopping several trees, until one tipped over and started rolling towards him. He ended up landed in Granny’s home while everything is taking place.

In the Grimm’s adaptation they have the Woodmen is a huntsmen hat come right after the Wolf had already consume both Little Red and her grandmother. He was hunting for the wolf and notice that he was at the house. About to shoot the wolf he notices that he just ate them so there a chance they might still be alive. The Huntsmen cut open the wolf and saves the both from boing digested. At the ended he made a pelt out of the wolf’s skin as to show the reader that he was punish for his acts. Compared to the film this version was much darker and mad this character the hero of the story.

The last character that was being question by the police was the grandmother. This version has her portrayed way different than the other rendering of the tales. Hoodwinked! Made the grandmother very hardcore, she not like any other grandmother who love to bake cookies and knitted sweater but in fact she loved to do extreme sports. Ones that involve high demand of great physical endurance. She lived a double life where she kept it as a secret from her family, who would be worried that she might hurt herself. She was never eaten but was tied up, but not by the Wolf but by her parachute she used to escape from the real bad guys. In the Brothers Grimm, not a lot of her personal live was illustrated, and she was mentioned to be a sick weak old woman. I think this is one of the biggest different in the whole movie and it does a good job showing that you’re never to old to stay active.

Towards the ended of the films everyone is puzzled in trying to find out who was the Goodie Bandit. Then they all realized that all their story had one thing in common. Throughout all their story was a mention of this rabbit appearing when everything bad happen. The piece everything together and concluded that it was the rabbit who was responsible for all the goodie recipes be stolen. He reveals that his evil scheme was to put everyone out of business and make him in charge of his new big goodie factor. Also, he wanted to blow up the forest in order to make room for his new factor. While everyone was telling the detective, their story saw the rabbit as a nice and eager animal. He knew everyone in the forest which he uses to his advantage to obtain everyone’s goodie recipes. This was a huge plot twist because most people will see rabbits as cute innocent creatures and not an evil mastermind. Most would expect the Wolf to be the main corporate, but he was actually one of the ones that tried to stop the rabbit’s plans and he ended up becoming good friends with Little Red at the end. All four of the suspected ended up working together and became the hero of the movie.

The moral of the story is basically can judge a book by its cover kind of ironic since it's a movie and not a book. In addition, it can also put read the message then nobody says who they seem and that you just can trust anyone just because they seem nice and innocent. In the Grimm’s telling their message is that don’t stray away from the path and to not trust anyone so easily. Both the film and the short story have same message at the end, and did a good job describing their interpretation of the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. The movie tries to be unique by making it alike a crime drama, it tells several stories of each characters and gives the viewers a new take on the story. Maybe it can be interpreted as the Pulp Fiction of fairy tales in a way. The other try to keep it simple and original, which keeps integrity of the store. Keep it strong messages that well follow the next generation and onward.