Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Hoodwinked' Blu-ray/DVD Combo

This week, the most interesting DVD to appear on release lists is:

“Hoodwinked” Blu-ray/DVD Combo

With feature animation becoming ubiquitous and nearly every major studio entering the game, it’s a good time to revisit one of the first modestly budgeted, off-Hollywood cartoon films to lend an irreverent, independent sass to the genre. The 2005 computer-generated feature “Hoodwinked” is due out Tuesday in a Blu-ray/DVD combo.

Dreamed up by an inventive crew of young filmmakers, this cheeky blush on the fairy tale “Red Riding Hood” is the work of brothers Cory and Todd Edwards and Preston Stutzman and Tony Leech, who learned their chops while making low-budget movies in Tulsa in the 1990s under the umbrella of Blue Yonder Films.

Their own cinema fairy tale took them to Hollywood where they cast around and eventually teamed up with former Disney animation exec (and Tulsa native) Sue Bea Montgomery, who took their project to Kanbar Entertainment (founded by inventor and downtown Tulsa investor Maurice Kanbar). By outsourcing their computer animation to the Philippines and India, the producers were able to make the film for a modest budget of $15-20 million.

“Hoodwinked” recasts the story as an antic, high-energy crime caper with Little Red Riding Hood, known as Red (voiced by Anne Hathaway), setting out to solve the mystery of the notorious Goody Bandit, who has been filching the cookie recipes of various woodland bakers.