Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011)

(On Cable TV, March 2012)  The original Hoodwinked! was charming in part because its B-grade low-budget computer animation reveled in its lack of over-production.  The sequel is very similar: The computer animation is a perceptible notch or two underneath the Pixar/Dreamworks standard –but that may better show how visually sophisticated Pixar/Dreamworks movies actually are.  Still, it looks fine, and the creature design isn’t too bad.  As for the story itself, well, what can I say –humor is subjective, which serves to explain why I chuckled myself silly over the pop-culture references, dumb puns, lame gags and overdone comic mugging.  I thought the original film was a lot of fun as well, so take this with a grain of salt: Hoodwinked Too! was savaged by critics, and while I can’t disagree with the substance of some of the harsher reviews (it’s truly not as charming as Hoodwinked!), I had a reasonable amount of fun watching the film given how it meets its own comedy goals.  Still, given its terrible box-office results, I don’t think we’ll ever see a third entry in the series… and that’s almost too bad.  There are many worse satires, worse comedies, worse films out there than this one.  How is it possible to hate something that makes you smile?  Oh, right… if it doesn’t.