Rated PG for some mild rude humor, language and action
Starring Hayden Panettiere (voice), Glenn Close (voice), Joan Cusack (voice), Patrick Warburton (voice), Amy Poehler (voice), Bill Hader (voice) and Wayne Newton (voice)
Directed by Mike Disa (First film)
The good…the bad…the Twitchy.
The sequel finds our heroine, Red (Hayden Panettiere), training with a mysterious covert group called the Sisters of the Hood. But Red is forced to cut her training short when she gets an urgent call from Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers), who returns as head of the super-secret Happily Ever After Agency, aka the HEA. A wicked witch (Joan Cusack) has abducted two innocent children, Hansel (Bill Hader) and Gretel (Amy Poehler), and Nicky needs Red for the search-and-rescue mission.
Hoodwinked Too does a few things right. They brought back almost the entire original cast. Granny (Glenn Close), the ever-clueless Wolf (Patrick Warburton) and his over-caffeinated little partner, Twitchy (Cory Edwards), join Red to solve the forest’s latest caper. They also bring in some new characters – and of course they need to be crazier. The animation is fine and the new cast is great.
But for me the charm of the first one was the upsidedownness of everything. It was hilarious how the Big Bad Wolf was the good guy and we were suspicious of Granny right up until the end. I loved The Usual Suspects type of integration scenes and the humor was off the chart. Hoodwinked Too had none of that. I mean they tried with making Hansel and Gretel the bad guys…oops spoiler alert. Don’t worry about it…I saw that one coming way too early…and so will you.
Honestly this was a huge disappointment. Sorry, but it’s worth seeing “Only If It’s Free.”
SHOULD KIDS SEE IT
It’s fine for kids. Toilet humor is much more prevalent in this Hoodwinked sequel than in the original – again that’s just filmmakers being lazy. There are a few times that I thought they went too far, like when the goat is singing about strolling down the safe city streets and the giant falls out of the sky and sits on him. His tune trails off with, “And now I’m in a dark tunnel.” Or when the Wolf lands hard on a branch and says, “I can taste my own butt.”
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
Q: What’s the message/theme of this movie?
A: The conflict between Granny and the Witch (her old classmate) is based on the fact that Granny always came in first back in school. She has allowed her jealously to completely consume her.
Q: How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
A: As Christians we know that jealousy is very dangerous.
Let’s look at a few verses from the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 12:12 – Thieves are jealous of each other’s loot, but the godly are well rooted and bear their own fruit.
Proverbs 14:30 – A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones.
Proverbs 27:4 – Anger is cruel, and wrath is like a flood, but jealousy is even more dangerous.
Talk about a time when you were jealous of a sibling, friend or co-worker. And then ask your child/student to do the same.
Q: How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions? A: The reality is we all struggle with jealousy. So let’s look at a few things we can do this week to overcome jealousy.
The Bible says True Wisdom comes from God. So turn to James 3 and read the following verses:
13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.
What are some “good works with the humility that comes from wisdom” that you can do this week?
Do your best to live this week “full of mercy and good deeds.”
