Investor Maurice Kanbar’s trust in the filmmakers helped make the production run smoothly.

Also, whereas a studio might demand that every creature have displacement fur, Cory stated, “we’re going for a variety of looks so that every animal does not have to have the same 100% thick fur that is going to bog us down and we won’t be able to finish.” Slajer added, “We’re ranging all the way from wind-blown dynamic fur to fairly, what I call clumped fur, which won’t have any wind dynamic because it really wouldn’t be perceptible.”

So what exactly is Cory going after? “I’ve really directed this thing looking at it as an action/comedy first and an animated film second. I know kids will love it because it has animated animals, but we’ve written it to [have] a wider appeal. I like comedy and animation that is really fast, really zippy [like the old Bugs Bunny cartoons]. One of my pet peeves with animation is how slow some of it goes, especially computer animation. For some reason, it treats the audience like we’re all in slow motion.

“We’ve written this to be as funny as it can possibly be for even people our age. At the outset, it may look like just a children’s film, but, like many of the Pixar films or the best of the Disney films, it spreads all the way up to an older age bracket.”

Hoodwinked, meanwhile, features the veteran voice talents of Tara Strong (Ice Age), Patrick Warburton (The Emperor’s New Groove), Andy Dick (Dr. Doolittle 2), Sally Struthers (The New Adventures of Mother Goose) and David Ogden Stiers (Lilo & Stitch).

Of course, Disney and Pixar have their own marketing and distribution machines. What about Hoodwinked? “Domestically,” said Lovegren, “we’ve had great luck through our personal contacts, getting the major studios to screen the film for possible distribution.” Internationally, Kanbar has hired Edward Noeltner’s Cinema Management Group LLC, who has already received firm distribution offers from more than 10 territories, including Spain (Manga Films), Portugal (LNK Audiovisuais), Benelux (Les Films de L’Elysee), Israel (Shani Films) and the Middle East (Italia Films). Noeltner is finalizing a number of those agreements before leaving for Cannes, where CMG will screen an in-progress version of Hoodwinked on May 14 and 16. Final completion is on target for August.

J. Paul Peszko is a freelance writer and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. He writes various features and reviews as well as short fiction. He currently has a feature comedy in development and has just completed his second novel. When he isn’t writing, he teaches communications courses.