Hoodwinked!

2005. Written by Cory Edwards and Todd Edwards. Animated. Featuring the voices of Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, James Belushi, Patrick Warburton, David Ogden Stiers, Chazz Palminteri, and Andy Dick.

As Hoodwinked! - a Rashomon-style look at "The Little Red Riding Hood" story - begins, the police bursts into Granny's house at what would be the end of the story. The wolf is apprehended, granny is rescued from the closet, and this strange Woodsman is encouraged to stop swinging his ax. A frog detective is determined to get to the bottom of the story and interviews each suspect in turn trying to make sense of what each person is saying. We listen to Red's account, followed by the Woodsman's, the Wolf's, and Granny's. Hoodwinked! is filled with creativity and wit. The animation is low-budget but still of good quality. One of my favorite parts is when Red runs into Japeth the Mountain Goat (voiced by Benjy Gaither). A witch cast a spell on Japeth and he cannot talk without singing. Hoodwinked! is so brilliant in some stretches but unfortunately it is fairly mediocre in other places. You should thoroughly enjoy it and I highly recommend it, but if the less interesting moments didn't drag it down, it could have been a must-own for me.

My grade: B+

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2004: Disc 3

It has been way too long. I've so little time to even watch movies right now, let alone write about them, but here's one I've been needing to add.

Disc 3 of Indecision 2004 was, to my surprise, a bonus feature disc (I'm renting from Netflix so I don't have the box cover to tell me about each disc). It is divided into four sections that give additional "reporting" from the correspondents. Stephen Colbert's "Minority Retort" is the highlight of the disc and one I clearly remembered from watching it when it was first aired. There are two episodes included on this disc: Election Night '04, where they wait and wonder, and The Squabble in Coral Gables, covering a Bush/Kerry debate. It is quality stuff for those of you who like the Daily Show (and why wouldn't you).

My grade: B+
My review of Disc 2
My review of Disc 1