‘Hoodwinked’ updates fairy tale for kids

ready”Hoodwinked” is the latest entry in the animated genre that tries to make kids laugh out loud while their parents smile. It’s an amusing farce that will entertain youngsters with short attentions spans and MTV minds. But the parents will find it falls way short of similarly styled movie hits in the mold of “Shrek,” “Toy Story” and “The Incredibles.”

The plot revolves very loosely around the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. But here, the Big Bad Wolf is a misunderstood journalist. Little Red is a trained karate expert. The tree-chopping Woodsman is an unemployed actor. Red’s grandma is a snowboarder, sky jumper and fierce fighter competing in extreme sports competitions. This is not your childhood version of the story.

The movie adds a “Law and Order” subplot. A cast of grizzly bear cops, frog detectives and squirrel informants investigate the wild events at Grandma’s house. “Hoodwinked” spends most of its time in flashback explaining the details of what occurs at the beginning of the film.

In the process, the film provides several good laughs and numerous chuckles. But in the end, it’s animated cinema junk food with a big side order of Gen X visuals and humor.

* JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office.

Humor lost in ‘Looking’

Give Albert Brooks credit for a snappy title for his latest film, “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World.” A more apt title would have been “Smart Bomb.”

It’s the tale of a comic actor named Albert Brooks who is asked by the State Department to visit India and Pakistan and find out what makes Muslims laugh. He must also write a 500-page report (brief by government standards) on his findings.

Brooks is dubious (“They must have thought they were asking Mel Brooks”), but when the prospect of the Medal of Freedom is dangled in front of him, he accepts.

What starts out as a mildly amusing premise builds slowly to a punch line that fails to be funny. Brooks’ humor has always been out of the mainstream: His smartly self-absorbed and worried persona was used to great effect in such classics as “Lost in America” and “Defending Your Life.”

In this film, it’s not clear what he’s going for -- is he trying to make a statement about tolerance or politics? Much of the movie is spent just with him fretting about how many pages will be in his write-up, like a fifth-grader stressing over a book report.

There are some mild chuckles -- Brooks’ New Delhi office is next to a call center, where you can overhear locals answer phones for the Gap and the White House. And in his meeting with executives from Al-Jazeera, he wears garish “I Dream of Jeannie” slippers that make him foolishly inappropriate next to their pinstriped suits.

When Brooks attempts to do some very lame stand-up, you can almost hear crickets chirping in the theater. The real movie audience isn’t far behind.

* SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a financial services company.

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