The filmmakers gave Red four fingers to make her look more like a doll. Hoodwinked resisted using CG for a realistic look. Instead, it takes things back to where CG looks a lot more like a cartoon.

TE: They’re not all rock songs — about half. The mountain goat sings one that’s an O, Brother, Where Art Thou? type of song. The Schnitzel Song is a wacky German Ren & Stimpy-type of song. A Great Big World — the song Red sings at the beginning of the film, at first that was a more kidsy type of song called Woods Go-Round, a little more in the vein of Saturday morning cartoons. Towards the end of the production we thought that it didn’t really fit with what we had. I wrote a new song, and it turned out that we had to re-animate the scene and then re-cut it.

We had a great score that John Mark Painter had recorded with an orchestra in Nashville. We replaced maybe half a dozen of the cues with contemporary rock, because we didn’t want it to be just for the six year olds. We wanted a sound for all ages. And it really changed the mood. There’s a scene where Red is setting off on her adventure, and we originally had a very Saturday morning-type score with these little drums and a little flute; in the finished version it sounds like The Cars. When Granny is hang-gliding through the clouds, I replaced the mellow music we had with a John Lennon-styled song. We tried to get outside of a certain version we had lived with for about a year and decided to re-think it again: Is there a way to make the music more contemporary?

DT: What are some of the animated films and TV shows you grew up with that you thought were classic, or that had an influence on the making of Hoodwinked?

CE: Bugs Bunny. The Golden Age of Bugs Bunny. We went back to that a lot, with the same kind of world where people and animals co-exist. A rabbit can take a taxicab somewhere, and you never question that Bugs Bunny can talk to Elmer Fudd. We had to differentiate ourselves from Shrek and some of the other recent movies; there’s no magic in our world, no wizards or fairies. We treat Hoodwinked like a crime story, a cop drama, only with little critters in the woods. And Bugs Bunny cartoons could do that. You’d have Clancy the Irish cop show up and question some chipmunk. And Rocky and Bullwinkle, I’ve been mentioning them lately as an influence.

Todd Edwards wrote nine songs for this film, including an O, Brother, Where Art Thou? type of piece sung by the mountain goat.

PS: Road Runner for me. There are some Road Runner moments in the film.

KH: I remember going to see Aladdin when I was in high school, and I was floored. I was amazed with what they were doing with the animation, especially with how long it takes do animation. Robin Williams just took over and I thought, “This is full of comedy, this just isn’t a cartoon.” I remember thinking, “The Black Cauldron days are over! Disney’s back!”

CE: We definitely focused on making an action comedy, not necessarily an animated film. There’s a lot of Muppets in there too — which aren’t really cartoons, but we put in a lot of Muppet-y moments.

DT: So… are we going to see Hoodwinked 2?

CR: Yes. We are already writing the sequel.

DT: You heard it here first, folks! (All laugh)

CE: Tell the world! Todd, Tony and I are writing it. We’ve been commissioned by the Wensteins and the investor. We’re not directing it — we’re looking for a director, but we’re very excited to be continuing the lives of those characters. The ending of Hoodwinked is just the tip of the iceberg, where Red and her gang are going to become a Mission: Impossible organization that helps other stories to have happy endings. So, we’re really going to expand the world. It’s going to be a bigger leap.

DT: Since we actually have Twitchy here with us, Cory, how would he like to wrap up this interview?

CE: (as Twitchy): “Can we eat? Time to go to lunch! I’m bored, gimme some coffee!” Then he would run out and jump through the window!

DT: Have you ever thought of switching to decaffeinated coffee?

Martin “Dr. Toon” Goodman is a longtime student and fan of animation. He lives in Anderson, Indiana.