BLU-RAY REVIEW

Hoodwinked Too!: Hood Vs. Evil 3D

Featured In Issue 159, September 2011

3D Picture4
Picture4
Sound4
WSR Score3.5
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Anchor Bay Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
BD23890
(MPAA Rating):
PG
(Rating Reason):
Some mild rude humor, language and action
(Retail Price):
$39.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
87
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
A
(Theatrical Year):
2011
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
08/16/11
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Mike Disa
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
DTS HD Lossless 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

The sequel Hoodwinked Too!: Hood Vs. Evil finds our heroine, Red (Panettiere) training with a mysterious covert group called the Sisters of the Hood. But Red is forced to cut her training short when she gets an urgent call from Nicky Flippers (Stiers), the head of the super secret Happily Ever After Agency, aka the HEA. A wicked witch (Cusack) has abducted two innocent children, Hansel (Hader) and Gretel (Poehler), and Nicky needs the whole Hoodwinked gang—Red, Granny (Close), the ever-clueless Wolf (Warburton), and his over-caffeinated little partner, Twitchy (Cory Edwards)—for the search and rescue mission. (Gary Reber)

Special features include the music videos "I Can't Do It Alone" by Hayden Panettiere (SD 03:34), "You Know It" by Lavay Cole (SD 03:02), and "Perfect Too" by Ceej (SD 03:13); The Voices Of Hoodwinked Too! featurette (SD 19:13); production artwork; and video game teasers.

The 1.78:1 1080p AVC picture is colorful throughout, but resolution appears a bit soft overall. As such, the imagery is unspectacular. The 2D-to-3D stereoscopic conversion was done by Stereo Pictures Dynamic 3D in Korea with additional conversion done by MG Studios and Cubist Studios. Evidently the original animation was not rendered with 3-D cameras. Still, the 3-D treatment is excellent and really enhances the storytelling. Depth perception is impressive throughout, with a comfortable positive parallax perspective. Some slight, but infrequent, crosstalk ghosting is at times apparent. Colors are richly saturated, with excellent shading. Blacks are deep and solid and shadow delineation is revealing. Still, there is a softness that restrains the minimalist imagery from really popping and revealing nuanced detail. Overall, the picture is pleasing, with terrific colors, but does not attain a reference-quality position when measured against other intricately and realistically detailed animated imagery. The 3D is preferred to the 2-D presentation, with a far greater engaging result. (Gary Reber)

Unfortunately, the DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack does not have any .1 LFE signal, except for an explosion, and lacks dynamic punch. The sound level is reserved and below reference. The music score, while recorded well, is essentially buried in the mix, and the dialogue is front and center with wanting spatial integration. Most of the track is frontal focused, with occasional surround energy that envelops. So much was missed and overlooked in this soundtrack presentation. (Gary Reber)