DVD Review: Shrek Forever After

Rated PG

Starring Mike Meyers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Walt Dohm

The Final Chapter, or so they say. In this 4th installment of the Shrek series Shrek, now both a father and a husband to 3 ogre babies finds himself tired of the same old day to day routine - his life isn't nearly as exciting as it once was. People are no longer afraid of ogres either. Just for one day would Shrek like things to go back to how they once were.

As it is, Rumpelstiltskin has a bone to pick with Shrek - it just so happens that as Fiona's parents were about to sign away their kingdom to Rumpel in exchange to undo Fiona's ogre curse, they received word that Shrek had rescued Fiona from her tower and called the whole deal off. Upon overhearing Shrek's frustration, Rumpel offers Shrek to have his day, the only catch is Rumple gets to choose what day Shrek is to lose.

He just so happens to choose the day Shrek was born, thus altering the franchise's timeline, putting things into an alternate universe where Rumpel is in charge and ogres are an outlawed rebel force, led by Fiona (who is now a Xena-type warrior chick) who take shelter in the woods, hiding from Rumpel's witchy guards. The only way to set things right and get out of his contract is for Shrek to get Fiona to fall in love with him again, however that is not an easy task as she's much too busy planning an upcoming attack on Rumpel's palace. Oh and he only has 1 day to do it too otherwise he is to fade from existence!

This one did have it's funny moments and elements, with Rumpelstiltskin and his witchy crew adding some fresh laughs, however unlike many critics and reviews, this installment was not as good as the original. While the story was more of a cautionary tale of "be careful what you wish for" and "you don't know how good you have it until it's gone" a 4th installment in this series really wasn't needed. Worth a rental if you're a fan of the franchise, otherwise skip it!

Tangled

Rated PG for some animated violence

Starring Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy

An old witch named Gothel finds a flower with magical power and by being near it and singing to it she is able to make herself young. When the local queen, who's pregnant, falls deathly ill the King's men search for a cure, coming across the magic flower. After making a broth from the flower, the queen gets healthy and gives birth to a baby girl with shining blonde. Gothel quickly realizes that the baby girl's hair has the same magical powers as the flower and decides to kidnap her and raise her as her own daughter in a hidden tower in order to stay looking young forever.

In rememberance of their lost daughter, every year on her birthday the king and queen light thousands of magical lanterns. The girl, Rapunzel, has seen these glowing lights from her tower and dreams of the day Gothel will let her out so she can see them in person - in fact, it's the only thing she wants for her upcoming 18th birthday. But of course Gothel says no, out of fear of losing her key to looking young.

That all changes though when the handsome young Flynn hides out in Rapunzel's tower after stealing a tiara from the kingdom and abandoning his co-conspirators. Rapunzel makes a deal with him - escort her to see the magical lights and she'll tell him where she hid his loot. Of course, in true fairytale fashion, the two begin to fall for each other as Flynn begins to drop his charming bad-boy persona. Meanwhile Gothel, furious at Rapunzel's rebellion of leaving the tower plots to get her to return.

Disney has done it again, creating a vibrant, colorful film with a cute spin on a classic fairytale much in the way they did over 20 years ago with The Little Mermaid. Another great animated film of 2010 for the whole family!

Despicable Me

Rated PG for slapstick humor and mild cartoon violence

Starring Steve Carrell, Jason Segal, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fischer, Russell Brand, Will Arnett, Julie Andrews, Kristen Wiig

Gru is the most notorious villain of all time, having stolen many famous objects, that is until a new villain in town named Vector pulls of the heist of a lifetime by stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza! In order to reclaim his title of best villain ever, Gru decides he must go into the space, shrink the moon and steal it, however, in order to pay for the materials for his minions to make his rocket, he needs to get a loan from the bank. The bank president for villains says they will not fund the project until Gru at leasts gets a shrink ray gun, which he eventually steals, however his celebration is too soon, as Vector immediately steals it from him!

When Gru spies a trio of orphaned sisters selling cookies to Vector, he hatches a plan in which he will adopt the girls and escort them back to Vector's when the cookies arrive, stealing the gun back while the girls distract him.

While Gru's plans for villainry begin to fall into place, he didn't plan for him to actually fall for the girls and begin actually caring for them. When he learns their ballet recital falls on the same day as his soon to be famous heist of the moon, Gru must decide which is more important to him!

Kids will love all the slapstick comedy and humorous antics of the girls and the minions, while parents will have their hearts warmed watching Gru go from from Super Villain to Super Dad. While the film has a strong message of family (which it seems like many animated films lately do!), it also has a message to not give up on your dreams, as we see that as a child Gru always wanted to go into space but his mother told him it would never happen - despite her, Gru still always held onto that dream.

While there is quite a bit of slapstick in the film, it's nothing more than 3 Stooges or Looney Toons type of slapstick. There are a few tense moments at the end, but nothing a kid can't handle!

Be sure to check out this cute, silly family film that both kids and adults will enjoy.

On a sidenote, Best Buy has a "Movie Mode" app for smartphones that is supposed to translate what the minions are saying during their antics in the end credits. While you're more than welcome to try it, there has been many complaints about the Android app not always working, as you're supposed to turn the app on prior the beginning of the movie (during the trailers) and it's supposed to vibrate when the credits start (it also automatically puts your phone in silent mode) - some complain it never vibrates for them and doesn't come out of the standby screen ("Enjoy the movie"), some complain it vibrates and starts translating about 20 minutes early, others have complained that it leaves your screen on the entire movie, thus draining your battery. While it says in the commercial it's for the 3D version, there have been plenty that have verified it works for the 2D version as well. User beware and good luck if you can get it to work for you (I couldn't), as I hear the translation really enhances it and it's pretty funny!

Toy Story 3

Rated G
Starring Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Blake Clark, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Jeff Pidgeon, Jodi Benson, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, and Laurie Metcalf

Our story picks up shortly after the 2nd movie - Buzz, Woody, Jessie and the rest of the gang of Andy's toys are playing together in Andy's wild imagination adventures. Due to a montage via home video footage, we see Andy beginning to grow up and fast forward and he's now 17 and getting ready to go off to college. Stuck in the old forgotten toy chest for so long, the toys make a few last attempts to get Andy's attention, in hopes of one more rendez-vous with him, but with no such luck.

Andy's mom tells her son to go through his toys and everything else in his room and decide what he's taking to college, what can go in the attic, what can get donated to the daycare and what should be thrown out. While he decides to take his old pal Woody to college with him, the rest of the toys he puts in a trash bag to take up to the attic... however mom mistakes the bag for trash and promptly places it on the curb. In an attempt to rescue his friends, Woody dashes out to save them, in which they all wind up being donated to the local daycare.

While the rest of the gang is thrilled to be welcomed by the rest of the daycare toys and are thrilled to learn that there's no owners and always kids who'll play with them, Woody insists they all go back to Andy's as they're still Andy's toys and he didn't mean for them to get thrown out or donated. Wanting a second chance to get played with, the gang decides to stay so Woody sets out for home on his own. Soon after he leaves though, him and the rest of the gang learn that Sunnyside Daycare isn't all it's cracked up to be - the new toys get stuck in the Caterpillar room with the toddlers who don't know how to properly play with toys and strawberry smelling leader Lots'o Huggins Bear isn't the gentle old sweet wise bear they first thought he was!

Woody has to go back and rescue his friends before things get much worse!

Once again, Disney and Pixar have done it again - creating a wonderful family film that all can enjoy. It's got hilarious moments and pop culture references, homage to a lot of the previous Pixar films, excitement, thrills and even touching moments that really pull at you - everyone I know that's seen it has sad they teared up during the movie at one point or another (I know I did at one part in particular near the end).

Kids will love all the excitement and adventure that this one continues to offer in the same fashion as the previous installments, and parents will be laughing at all humor thrown in that kids might not get (the scenes with Ken doll are pretty hilarious, as he's very metro-sexual despite repeatedly refusing to admit and comes to terms with being a girl's toy!).

Also, keep your eyes open for all the "easter eggs" in the film - there's references GALORE (here's a link of ones just seen in the trailers)! In one scene the Pizza Planet truck makes an appearance, as well as other toys and versions of characters from other Pixar movies (there's quite a bit of toy cars resembling the vehicles from Cars). There's also a rumor going around online that one of the little girls seen in the daycare is a slightly older Boo from the upcoming Monsters Inc 2, as Pixar likes to sneak in a character from an upcoming movie as a teaser. And keep your eyes open during the scenes with the garbage men - one of them is actually the neighbor boy Sid from the first movie, all grown up but still wearing his skull t-shirt!

This was definitely a great way to tie up the Toy Story franchise and while they could have ended it on a sad, emotional note, I'm glad they didn't - like one teen sitting further down the row from us commented at the end, ending it that way could have scarred the little kids that were watching (it was pretty emotional!). Not to give away the ending, but I'm pleased with how this part of the Toy Story turned out.

DVD Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

Rated PG for slapstick humor

Starring Jason Lee, Zachary Levi, Wendie Malick, and David Cross, with the voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Christina Applegate, Anna Faris, and Amy Poehler

Everyone's favorite singing animated Chipmunks are back in this sequel to the 2007 movie.

After a freak onstage accident that lands Dave in the hospital for awhile, he orders Alvin, Simon and Theodore to go home, obey Aunt Jackie who will be watching them, and go to school. Well, Aunt Jackie gets injured soon after the Chipmunks meet her and her slacker grandson Toby at the airport, leaving Toby in charge.

Between playing video games, eating all the food and trashing the house, Toby makes sure the boys go to school, where they first have trouble adjusting - all the girls think they're cute and so naturally all the other guys get jealous of them. Being able to shoot baskets across the cafeteria, Alvin is quickly brought into the "jock" circle and learns how to play sports like football (where he becomes the team's secret weapon), however his increase in popularity soon goes to head and like the other jocks, he begins to pick on Simon and Theodore.

After the 3 get in trouble, they are told their punishment is to compete at a local school talent competition on behalf of the school, as the winning school will win a large money prize.

However, the Chipmunks aren't the only new students at school - ex-music mogel Ian (from the first movie) is back, this time with an innocent group of singing girl chipmunks who call themselves the Chipettes and admire and look up to the Chipmunks. Determined to get back at the top of the business, Ian manipulates the girls into thinking he was a victim of the Chipmunks and decides to have the Chipettes face-off against each them for the school's representation at the talent competition.

While this movie was pretty cute, especially with the introduction of the Chipettes, it didn't seem nearly as good or as clever as the first movie. While the lesson of family and sticking together is a good one, the jokes and the laughs just seemed like more of the same from the first movie, not really improving in quality or substance.

Kids will enjoy it, and like I said, the Chipettes were a pretty cute new addition, however unless you have kids that really want to see this one, you can probably just skip this chapter of the Chipmunks and watch the original or the classic animated episodes instead.

DVD Review: Coraline

Rated PG for some scary scenes

Starring Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher

Coraline Jones has just moved to the Pink Palace Apartments in Oregon from her home in Michigan. It's always rainy, making it so she can't play outside as much as she'd like (her mother detests mud), she misses her friends from back home, and her parents are both too absorbed with their work to pay her any attention (they are working from home on a garden catalog). Out of boredom, she befriends her neighbors - the man upstairs is an acrobat whom her mother deems is drunk, and the two elderly sisters downstairs who are former actresses who can read tea leaves (they tell Coraline that danger is headed her way). Out of loneliness, she also befriends the landlady's grandson, Wybie who gives her a strange doll he found that eerily looks like Coraline, but she gets frustrated that he talks too much.

One day, while exploring the house, she comes across a strange door that is sealed up. After tearing away the wallpaper and unlocking it, she learns that there is nothing but a brick wall underneath, until later that night when she follows a small mouse to the door and finds that it is a doorway to another "other" world. In this world, despite everyone having buttons for eyes, her "other" mother dotes on her and makes delicious meals, her father pays attention to her and her neighbors put on fascinating performances. And other Wybie doesn't talk at all! Coraline continues to visit this "other" world nightly, but soon, what seemed like a dream come true begins to turn into a nightmare!

Brought to us by the director of Nightmare Before Christmas (no, not Tim Burton - the other guy) and based on the novel by Neil Gaiman we are given a fantasy story that soon becomes a bit of a horror. While it starts off a little slow, by the time Coraline visits the "other" world we're on the edge of our seats to see what happens and how she gets herself out of this strange predicament!

To be honest, I had no interest in seeing this movie until I learned it was based on a novel by Gaiman, and now I'm glad I did! Being an adult, and a fan of Gaiman's other full feature film Stardust, I hope to someday read the novel, as I hear it's even scarier than the film. Despite this being animated (it's the first stop-motion film filmed exclusively with 3D in mind), I would not recommend it for young children, as the film is pretty dark and the idea behind the story will definitely scare them!

Up!

Rated G

Starring Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, and Jordan Nagai

Everyone wonders why Carl Fredrickson is a grouchy old man. Not many know that he lost his wife, who was the love of his life.

Ellie and Carl met when they were just kids. They shared a love for adventure and exploration and both want to growup and explore the world like the famous explorer Charles Muntz. They made a pact to someday move their clubhouse (an abandoned home in their neighborhood) to Paradise Falls, a mysterious place in South America where Muntz is rumored to live. Carl and Ellie get married and they moved into the old abandoned home, making it theirs for good. As the years go by, they try to save for their trip to Paradise Falls, but different financial hardships come to them. On the eve of presenting Ellie with their travel tickets, she gets sick and passes, leaving Carl alone.

Years go by and the city begins to grow up around Carl and the house. After getting into a fight with a nearby construction worker, Carl is required to move into Shady Oaks Retirement Home. But he has other plans for himself and his house. Just as the orderlies are about to take him to the rest home, Carl launches thousands of balloons out his chimney and the house takes off into the air towards Paradise Falls, in an attempt to keep his promise to Ellie. Only Carl didn't plan on the neighbor Wilderness Explorer, Russell, to be hiding out on his front porch when the house took off!

On a course for getting the house to the perfect location in Paradise Falls before all the balloons pop, Carl and Russell encounter a "talking" dog named Dug, a colorful tropical bird Russell names Kevin, and Charles Muntz himself. However Carl learns various life lessons on their short journey and realizes that sometimes the people you idolize may not always be who you think they are.

Disney and Pixar have done it again, with their 10th film together, creating another heartwarming story that both kids and adults can enjoy. Adults will be moved by Carl's undying devotion to Ellie and his promise to her, while kids will love Russell, Dug and Kevin.

Bolt

Rated G
Starring John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Malcolm McDowell, Susie Essman, Mark Walton, Diedrich Bader

Disney's latest animated holiday flick is about a dog named Bolt and his owner Penny. Bolt can save the world with his lazer vision, super strength fast speed, high jumps, and loud bark while rescuing Penny. What he doesn't know is that he's the star of a popular tv show and all his powers are just special effects. In an attempt to boost ratings, they end in the latest episode in a cliffhanger, with Penny being kidnapped. Bolt is desperate to save her and so he escapes, out in to the real world, where he starts to realize, with the help of a stray cat and a hamster in a ball, that the world he thought he knew wasn't reality.

It was really cute - kids will love it, as will anyone who's an animal lover. It does get a little sad, but as with all Disney movies, it does have a happy ending, so nightmares here!

Wall-E

Rated G

Starring Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Fred Willard, Sigourney Weaver, John Ratzemberger

In the future, earth because has become covered with trash from products sold by the Buy N Large corporation (think Walmart). In an effort to clean up it's mess, the corporation creates a space hub for earth's inhabitants to live, while hundreds of WALL-E's a garbage collecting robots, have been left to clean up the mess. Years pass, and only WALL-E remains, still working hard to clean up the mess, while collecting trinkets and treasures out of the mess. One day, another robot, named Eve shows up, on quest to find proof that life is once again sustainable. WALL-E falls in love with her and shows her all his findings.

Upon seeing a plant WALL-E's kept alive, Eve takes it and goes into standby mode, where days later she is wisked away by a giant space ship. WALL-E, thinking she is in danger, latches onto the ship and gets taken into space and the space hub, where humans have turned into obese blobs have had computers dictate their entire lives for over 700 years, never needing to leave their mobilized chairs. When the auto-pilot computer, acting on secret instructions given many years before by the corporation, tries to prevent the people from returning by stealing the plant, WALL-E, Eve, the portly captain, and a band of broken robots stage a mutiny to regain control and go home.

It was really really cute! There's not much dialogue, but with the animation and interaction of the robots, it doesn't need it. The robot relationship between Eve and Wall-E is really cute and Wall-E's way of living on a deserted earth is clever as well. Pixar goes the extra mile in a few of the space scenes just to show off how visually amazing they can be, but it's well deserved!

The satire messages of what happens when big corporations take over the world and people relying on technology too much are also pretty clever.

This definitely a good, harmless film to take the kids too, and if you're a fan of the Disney/Pixar films, you'll like this one just as much as the others.

Horton Hears a Who

Rated G

Starring Jim Carrey, Steve Carell

It’s been a long time since I read or watched the original Dr. Seuss story of Horton the elephant and the tiny speck he finds, in which Whoville is located, but I must say, I enjoyed this one much better than I enjoyed the Grinch remake (note - How the Grinch Stole Christmas was one of my favorite Christmas shows growing up and I hated how much they changed the simple story in the big screen adaption).

Jim Carrey as the voice of Horton really makes this film, as he plays the role so well. The anime-type scene in the middle was woot as well.

This definitely a good one to take the family to, as it’s geared towards kids (and kids at heart) of all ages.

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Rated PG

Starring Jason Lee, David Cross, Justin Long, Jesse McCartney

In this big screen version of everyone's favorite chipmunks, Alvin, Simon and Theodore are whisked out of their woodland home and find themselves and their tree in the middle of an office building. In their quick escape, they end up in Dave Seville's basket. Dave is a struggling songwriter tried to get a break in the music industry. After coming to terms with his new furry houseguests he learns of their singing talent and writes the infamous Chipmunk christmas song we all know of. Wanting to get in on the action, "Uncle Ian" (Dave's record producer friend from college) tries to convince the chipmunks that Dave is holding them back, with rules among other things and tells them that they're superstars now - they can do whatever they want! In the end, Dave must come to terms with himself and the chipmunks must choose between a life of fastpaced fame with Uncle Ian or a structured life with Dave.

It was a good family feel-good movie with silly humor and the chipmunks were cute too!

Beowulf in Digital 3D

Rated PG13 for violence, nudity

Starring Ray Winstone, Robin Wright Penn, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, John Malcovich, and Alison Lohman

The movie in general was pretty neat - the 3D animated renderings of the live actors was a really cool idea (supposidly, I'm told, the entire movie was shot using the actors and blue screens, and then they went back and computer animated everything). I recall there was one scene where you could literally see the strands of Robin Wright Penn's hair in the detail that you would a real person.

I never read the classic story of Beowulf in high school - while it's usually taught in Brit Lit, I opted to take English 101 and 102 that year for college credit. If you're not familar with the story, a Danish kingdom has a curse, in the form of Grendal - a hideous monster that comes out of hiding every so often to terrorize the residents of the kingdom, killing and destroying anything and anyone that approaches him, minus the king (Anthony Hopkins). So far, no one has been able to slay the Grendal and so the king declares throughout the lands that whoever can kill the monster will be entitled to half the king's fortune. In steps Beowulf (Ray Winstone) and his crew, who easily rid the kingdom of the monster, only to upset the creature's mother (Angelina Jolie). Beowulf soon learns of the secret the king and queen posess, as well as the curse of Grendal's mother, which both, in time, become his own.

Neil Gaiman, known most recently for his novel "Stardust" also wrote this screenplay, giving him the current lead on fantasy tales in Hollywood. Although it is animated, this is definately not a movie for kids, as it's full of sexual innuendo and lots of blood, guts, and violence. I'm actually surprised it's PG13, considering Angelina Jolie is pretty much fully nude in at least one scene (metallic 'paint' covers certain areas, but it leaves nothing to the imagination).

Ratatouille

very very cute! disney and pixar have done it again!

the characters are very 3 dimension too and not just static like most animated films have been lately. sadly though, with all the blockbusters coming out this summer, it's likely to get swallowed up.

but it's a really good movie for the whole family - i highly recommend going to this one.

Shrek the Third

Shrek the Third is Dreamworks latest installment of their Shrek series.

In this one, Fiona's dad, the king of Far Far Away, is dying. Shrek is the next in line for the throne, but really doesnt feel an ogre king would be a good idea, not to mention he's missing his swamp, so him, Donkey and Puss in Boots go off in search of Fiona's cousin, Arthur, who's 2nd in line for the throne.

Meanwhile, Charming is determined to get his revenge on Shrek and talks the rest of the storybook villains into helping him out. Fiona and her band of princess, including her mother, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and Cinderella with ugly stepsister Doris as well as Pinocchio, the 3 little pigs, the big bad wolf and Gingy (the gingerbread man) and Dragon (Donkey's wife) do their best to protect the kingdom while Shrek is away.

This one is shorter than the others, as Jeny pointed out, and doesnt really have a big obstacle in the middle of the movie like the other 2 did, not to mention less singing as well. It sticks to the main plotline and gets to the point.

I liked it. If you're a fan of the first 2 you'll like the 3rd installment as well and if you like silly animated movies with subtle adult humor, but laughs for the kids as well, be sure to check it out!

TMNT

TMNT
Screened TMNT last night.

We learn our favorite Turtles have defeated Shredder and in an effort to become an even better leader, Master Splinter has sent eldest son Leondaro on a sort of sabatical in Central America. During his year long absense, the others are at their wits end at trying to stay occupied. Donatello takes a job as a 24/7 computer help programer, Michaelangelo has taken a job as Cowabunga Carl, making appearances in a cartoonish turtle suit at birthday parties, and Raphael, well he sleeps all day, but at night becomes the Ghost Rider/Batman-esque Nightwatcher, catching the bad guys on his own - he states that even though Leo and their team took a break, the criminals did not.

Leo eventually makes his return after being found by April O'Neil, and while most are pleased to see him, Raphael still has a chip on his shoulder and makes it almost impossible for Leo continue to lead them.

In the meanwhile, we learn of an ancient prophecy that is about to become real with an immortal warrior and his 4 generals that were turned to stone after he opened a portal to other dimensions 3000 years ago, unleashing 13 monsters on the earth. the time has come for the portal to open again, but this time, the warrior enlists the help of the Foot with new clan leader Karai.

The end gives way to a sequel.

The CGI animation is pretty cool and very video game-esque.

The love connection between April and Casey Jones is completely obvious. April is now more of a history curator rather than a reporter in a yellow jumpsuit and actually gets involved in the action rather than being the damsel in distress like she was in the original series. She's also voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar which drove me nuts the whole time.

Casey Jones is portayed as a more surfer Kenau Reeves type slacker who uses baseball bats - we only see him use his signature hockey stick at the end.

The rest of the turtles seem right on though and the Foot clan looks really cool too! There's also plenty of funny Mikey jokes as well.

If ya grew up with the original cartoon series and movies, you'll think this adaption is just ok, nothing great, but not bad either. It just doesn't feel the same. The beginning sequence about the prophecy reminds ya of 300 which opened 2 weeks ago.

Laurence Fisbourne narrates, Patrick Stewart and the late Mako lend their voices, and Kevin Smith makes a cameo as a scared diner owner. The Gym Class Heroes provide the end credit song "Shell Shocked"

and for those wondering, it's called TMNT because this one was done by Warner Bros, wheras the first 3 films, listed as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was done by New Line Cinema.

Over the Hedge

If you like animated films or are looking for a good movie to watch with your kids, be sure to check this one out. Also, if you're into Ben Folds, you'll love the soundtrack, as he did nearly every song you hear in the movie.

It starts out with us meeting RJ, a raccoon with a knack for stealing food, whether it be from campers, trash cans or vending machines. his antics go a bit too far when he attempts to steal a wagon full of junkfood from a bear, a week prior to his hibernation wake up call. the bear decides that instead of eating RJ right away, he'll give him 1 week to regather all the food that he lost. in his efforts to run away, RJ comes across a community of forest critters, such as a skunk, some hedgehogs, porcupines, a turtle and an ADD squirrel, who, just coming out of hibernation themselves, find a giant hedge built just outside their woods with an entire subdivision on the otherside. in an attempt to help them gather food faster, RJ uses them to get the items he needs to give to the bear to save his own skin, but in the process learns about family and having a home.

features the voices of Bruce Willis, William Shatner, Wanda Sykes, and Steve Carrell.

it was cute.

Hoodwinked

It starts out at the part where little red riding hood gets to grannys house and has a confrontation with the wolf. right as he's about to get her granny pops out of the closet, all tied up and a crazy woodsman comes crashing thru the window, axe in hand!

the rest is treated as a crime story - each of the characters tells their side of the story to the cops and theres also a bigger mystery - someone's been stealing all the forest goodie recipes and putting all the goodie makers in the forest out of business! the cops hope that maybe the goodie thief is in their midst.

My boyfriend was entertained cause of the fact that the guy that played Puddy in Seinfied and Kronch in Emperor's New Groove was the voice of the Wolf (Emperor's new grove is his one of his favorite movies).

Definately a kids movie, but had the same affect as Shrek did - slapstick comedy for kids, subtle humor and jokes that only adults would get. It was cute though. I'd recommend it, especially for those of ya with kids.