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Fun enough for all

The Brothers Grimm may roll in their graves. But that’s no reason not to take the kids to see Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil. There’s a lot for adults to enjoy as well.
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Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil Two and a half stars (out of 4)

Rated: G

The Brothers Grimm may roll in their graves. But that’s no reason not to take the kids to see Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil. There’s a lot for adults to enjoy as well.

Like the original, Hoodwinked Too delights in taking a slew of traditional fairy tales — Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, The Three Little Pigs — and mashing them together with a number of modern influences such as Star Wars, Die Hard 2 and, improbably, Starsky and Hutch.

The results are irreverent, fast, funky and funny. And hey, there may be a lesson or two in there for youngsters — especially girls — to pick up along the way.

To wit: “A person can never really fail unless they give up.” Also, “Never run away from home” and “Never eat a cookie house.”

The story opens with the gang from the Happily Ever After Agency — Wolfy, Twitchy, Nicky Flippers and Granny — trying to avert the imminent immolation of Hansel and Gretel at the hands of Verushka the Witch.

But things may not be all they’re baked up to be. The villains, it seems, are after a secret recipe for truffles that will give its owners supersized powers.

Red Riding Hood is away studying at the far-off Sisterhood of Kung Fu Bakers, but is quickly called upon to return to the fray.

Typically, the sequel is presented in 3-D, which doesn’t have a huge impact on the visual experience.

What’s fun is the word play and the jokey dialogue.

“Chicken tastes just like children,” observes Verushka at one point.

The voices help a great deal in fleshing out the characters, especially Glenn Close as a kick-ass granny, Patrick Warburton as a droll Big Bad Wolf and David Ogden Stiers as the epitome of officious authority as Nicky Flippers.

The pace is quick and the mood is light in a film that will keep the youngsters engaged while giving adults some reasons to smile.

Bruce DeMara is a syndicated movie critic for the Toronto Star.