The Little Engine That Could: Blue Yonder Films has independently produced a feature that gets a nationwide release this weekend and Oscar screenings to boot. All images ©2005, The Weinstein Co. All rights reserved.

Back in April 2004, I wrote an article on a fledgling group of independent animators trying to do the impossible — produce a feature-length animated film that would gain wide release. The company was Blue Yonder Films and the feature was entitled Hoodwinked. And guess what? They did the nearly impossible. On Jan. 13, 2006, the Weinstein Co. releases Hoodwinked across the U.S. There was also a limited release in Los Angeles before the end of 2005 for Academy Award consideration.

The film had been scheduled for general release on Christmas Day, but the distributors decided to move the date back to January to give the film a better spotlight rather than have it tossed amid the jumble of features trying to garner a share of holiday moviegoers.

I caught up with Cory Edwards, who, along with his brother, Todd, and long-time friend, Preston Stutzman, started Blue Yonder Films. Cory was in the midst of a dreary cold wave on his way from Toronto to Philadelphia, winding down a cross-country trek to screen Hoodwinked, a tongue-in-cheek view of Little Red Riding Hood set up like CSI meets Rashomon. I asked Cory what he had learned from the screening process.

Director/co-writer Cory Edwards learned a lot from a cross-country screening trek for Hoodwinked. Audiences differed on their favorite characters and parts of the movie they loved.

“I’ve learned that I can’t trust anybody’s individual criticism, because they’re always different. Everybody always has a different favorite character. Every screening I hear something different. I will hear: ‘I didn’t really care for the songs. That was a weak spot for me.’ Then I’ll hear somebody else go, ‘The songs we’re the best part.’ Or, ‘I didn’t really care for the Wolf.’ Then somebody else will say, ‘The Wolf was my favorite character in all of animation history’.”

So, did he gain anything positive from all of this? Cory believes he did. “There are so many working parts that everybody has a different favorite part. So hopefully everybody will find something they love (about the film), but we haven’t had a bad screening yet.”

The producers have an all-star cast doing the voice-overs, including Anne Hathaway from Ella Enchantedas Red Riding Hood, Glenn Close as Granny, James Belushi as the Woodsman, Tara Strong as Zorra, Chazz Palminteri as Woolworth the Sheep and rapper Xzibit as Chief Grizzly. I asked Cory how that came about.

“Some of the voices, like Patrick Harburton (as the Wolf), came on in the beginning just from reading the script. Then, with the more animation we got done, we were able to get bigger voices. As the scope of the movie got bigger and bigger, more of them (name actors) jumped on board. Then when the Weinsteins (Bob and Harvey, the distributors) came on board that got us Glenn Close.”

Speaking of the Weinsteins, I asked Cory about the changes or compromises that he and his co-producers were forced to make. Overall, he feels he has had a very satisfying experience working with the Weinsteins.

“He (Harvey Weinstein) made a few edit suggestions that, frankly, were good ideas because the first 20 minutes was dragging. There has not been anything (suggested) that I have felt like they’re ruining the original vision of the movie. It was 80% done when they looked at it. And so far they have been championing what they saw, giving it that kind of Toy Story treatment as far as the marketing campaign goes.”