Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs Evil

This follow-up to 2005's animated Hoodwinked finds Red Riding Hood (voiced by Hayden Panettiere) in training with a mysterious, covert female-warrior group called the Sisters of the Hood. Before long, she's unexpectedly summoned by Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers), who runs the superspy Happily Ever After agency. It seems that wicked witch Verushka (Joan Cusack) has abducted two ostensibly innocent children—candy-loving Hansel (Bill Hader) and sister Gretel (Amy Poehler)—along with Red's Granny (Glenn Close), who Verushka has loathed for reasons dating back to their school days together. Also at stake is a top-secret recipe for an empowering magic truffle that grants invincibility—a power that villains shouldn't have. The agency has already dispatched operatives in the form of the Big Bad Wolf (Patrick Warburton) and his squirrelly sidekick Twitchy (Cory Edwards), but now it's up to spunky Red to save the day. Martin Short is also on hand as the voice of the Woodsman, with Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong articulating two of the Three Little Hench Pigs. Along with allusions to other fractured Grimm fairy tales, the heavy-handed, pun-filled script is crammed with references to strictly adult fare like Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs, and The Sopranos. A lame, absolutely unnecessary sequel, this is not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a segment on the voice cast (20 min.), two storyboard sequences (5 min.), three music videos (“I Can Do It Alone” by costar Hayden Panettiere, “You Know It” by Lavay Cole, and “Perfect Two” by CeeJ), a production artwork gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a bad follow-up.] (S. Granger)