HOODWINKED! (2005)

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HOODWINKED! is among the tightest narratives that grace 3d animation--clunky and low budget enough to be stretching gracefulness here but animation's all a happy family whether TOY STORY or RAPSITTIE STREET KIDS: BELIEVE IN SANTA. Anyway I readily denounce low sweeping criticism for something as shallow as visual fidelity when HOODWINKED! still works the medium to its advantage, it being a fantastical romp in a fairy tale forest with coffee fueled squirrels zipping by and the elderly shredding ice on mountain tops. The film's first half weaves a whodunnit around its cast followed by the second delivering on what makes each player special all along a brisk pace. Perhaps the worst I can allow is not every line is a winner, some irony poisoning ahead of its time but poisoning nonetheless, and the film isn't always willing to let children connect the dots like they should be able to (and they can). Regardless, neither criticism holds HOODWINKED! back from being the sharp witted winner that it is... proving that if you're come up short in one department, you best spec all in in another. And write songs about Austrian wieners.