Hoodwinked

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Hoodwinked's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Hoodwinkedcompleted by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 5 August 2006.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Hoodwinked contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

The story starts with the classic Red-Riding Hood scene, in which Red-Riding Hood walks into Granny’s house, the wolf jumps out at her, Red Riding hood defends herself, Granny jumps out of the cupboard and the woodcutter flies through the window with his axe to save Granny and Red-Riding Hood from the wolf.

A Police Bear turns up and it is revealed that a ‘goody bandit’ has been stealing everyone’s recipes. As Granny still has her recipes, Police Bear decides that either she, Red-Riding Hood, the wolf or the woodcutter must be guilty and is determined to find evidence to prove his theory. Detective Flipper the frog also arrives and decides that to get to the truth, further investigation is needed. He therefore decides to sit each of them down and they all tell their stories up to that point.

In the meantime, the recipe thief makes off with Granny’s recipe book and everyone pulls together to save the forest from the thief’s dastardly plan.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

None of concern.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is one violent scene in which helpers tie up Red Riding Hood and put her in a cable car full of dynamite.

Material that may scare children

Under five

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

There are two scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb some children under the age of five:

• the Police Bear shouts and behaves in a threatening manner towards the four suspects.
  
• Red Riding Hood falls out of a cable car into the forest, The forest is dark and scary and she sees a pair of eyes looking at her through the bush. The eyes belong to the wolf who threatens her, then growls and chases her.

Over the age of five

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

It is unlikely that the content of this movie would scare or disturb children over the age of five.

Product placement

None

Sexual references

None

Nudity and sexual activity

None

Use of substances

None

Coarse language

None

The movie's message

The main messages of Hoodwinked are that it is best not to make judgements based on appearances, and that lying can lead to a loss of trust.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• telling the truth
  
• tolerance
  
• teamwork.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of getting to know the truth before making judgements.