Red Riding Hood handcuffed in Hoodwinked
By Daniel E. dercksen

Daniel E. Dercksen shares a few thoughts with writer-director Cory Edwards, whose funtastic animated feature Hoodwinked is now showing on circuit.

Hoodwinked turns the fairytale world of Red Hiding Hood into a Crime Scene Investigation, and proves that there is hope for independent animated films in a world dominated by mega-budget studio releases.
The little caped heroine has indeed grown up and gets caught up in a world of crime and misdemeanours, forming part of o police enquiry in Granny's cottage, with the other unusual suspects being the wolf, a woodsman and her sporty Granny.
This vibrant and wacky creation is the brainchild of Cory Edwards, who conceived the project with his brother Todd.
With the spate of animated films that have recently surfaced, Hoodwinked is indeed fresh and original, with a wicked sense of humour, turning the fable info a who dunnit fantasy.
"As far as being a fresh source of entertainment I think that we hoped that it would be very successful and people would like it," says Cory Edwards. "I think the reason it is fresh is because I'm tired of certain things and I think the audience is too. We tried to write something people haven't seen before."
What makes Hoodwinked remarkable is that it was made independently outside the major studio system.  It also breaks the mould of animation production, becoming an example of the new boom in a more iconoclastic, independent digital animation. 
Although it had a smaller budget, it most definitely did not mean that it had a smaller imagination.
It marks the first film from the brand new Kanbar Animation Studio, a joint effort between entrepreneur and inventor Maurice Kanbar (inventor of SKYY Vodka, among others) and animation veteran Sue Montgomery.  Kanbar and Montgomery launched their new company specifically to provide highly creative, story-focused, computer-generated films for increasingly sophisticated family audiences. 
"A lot of the time smaller independently funded films are able to have a style all of their own, so you're always going to get something a little more unique when you're outside of the big machine," says Cory. "That's just the nature of independent films, it gives you something a little fresher with newer perspective."
"The other freshness I hope people see is that because we didn't have a budget to compete with Pixar or Dreamworks we couldn't make something as detailed as Shrek but we made something work that was very unique, we also tried to make our characters not look as real as possible but to look like little dolls that were on a miniature set."
Cory Edwards wrote the script for Hoodwinked with his brother Todd (who also co-directs the film), and Tony Leech.  Cory and Todd have shared a passion for "home-hobby filmmaking" since they were 8 years old, and have been friends with Leech for 15 years, who also edited Hoodwinked.
"There is so much details and so much debate that we all worked closely on the film and there are so many working parts in that machine and it takes a long period of time," says Cory, who spent three and a half years writing the script.
"The three of us became like a three headed monster, we shared the same brain in regards to what kind of movie we were making. It was a film made from one vision."
Cory's inspiration for Hoodwinked stems from his passion for animation.
"We looked at a long list of fairytales. My brother came up with the idea of telling the story from multiple perspectives as a crime story and that's when I got really excited and I thought this could be not just another kids film but something I could get excited about."
"Our take was that, thanks to music videos, commercials and especially video games, kids are now quite used to non-linear stories - what we call 3D storytelling.  So, we thought they'd have a lot of fun going back in time to learn how these four classic characters they thought they knew so well - Red Riding Hood, Granny, the Wolf and the Woodsman - all ended up in the cottage on that fateful night in the first place.  Anybody who thought they knew the story of Red Riding Hood is bound to be in for some surprises." 
Cory Edwards was fortunate to work with top-notch actors, with Anne Hathaway as Red Riding Hood, a teenaged rebel with her own hopes, dreams and tough-as-nails attitude, Jim Belushi as the Woodsman, a happy go lucky oversensitive tree-chopper with a big axe, and Glen Close as the zany Granny who is fond of extreme sports.   
Did the actors have an influence on the script?
"It's interesting because I've heard once you get an actor reading your script he or she will make it their own and it was exciting to watch that actually happen. The best example I can give is Andy Diggs who plays the part of the bunny. We had written what we thought we very funny lines, and then Andy would come in turn the bunny into a kind of odd schizophrenic character. "
"It was a very exciting process and because it was my first big film I was very nervous of people like Anne and Glen Close just walking into the studio, but it was like getting the best tools in the tool shed to build your house I ended up getting the best resources and they were very exciting about t he film, they had read the script they had seen some scenes so they were already on board and we got along quite nicely once they got into the studio and I think also the top people have a great work ethic and they were ready to really deliver. So that was fun once I got over my nerves!"
Does Cory have any advice for young South African filmmakers who would like to explore the world of animation?
"I think the encouraging thing is that it is a different kind of world now than when I grew up making movies and because of the internet there are so many networks and so many avenues for you to get your product out it's an exciting time for kids to get camera and there's different ways to show people things all over the world, so that's really exciting, but on the flip side because any one with a camcorder can now make something and sell it I think that now there will be more pressure to make something good.
He believes that the key to becoming a successful animation filmmaker is to "learn from the best and watch a lot of movies and read a lot of screenplays,"
"At the end of the day Hoodwinked was more successful than films that were on much bigger budgets because we worked very hard on the script, very hard on the dialogue and very hard on the characters to make the story fresh and unique and that at the end of the day is what is either going to make your film a success or not."
His favourite characters in the film are the over-caffeinated squirrel Twitchy, for which he does the voice over, and the Big Bad Wolf.
"I guess a lot of people want twitchy because Twitchy's loveable and I guess it's just funny to hear anything being said fast. I think that the three of us who wrote on this we all loved to come up with lines for the wolf because he has the cleverest things you could say. He is the closest thing to Bugs Bunny and any of those characters who have that great line in any scene and that cynical humour. I feel like the wolf and I can hang out together. This probably doesn't sound like being a single favourite character but I like how the wolf and Twitchy work together I kind of see it like Laurel and Hardy and they're a great team I like to see them get their own show or something because one's a ball of energy and one's so laid back and ready to fall asleep!" 

COPYRIGHT © 2006 Daniel E. Dercksen
Published with permission in the Sunday Tribune, August 27, 2006


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