Undaunted by ever-flashier CG toons coming out of the Hollywood mainstream, indie filmmakers Cory Edwards, Tony Leech and Todd Edwards made Hoodwinked on a shoestring. Thankfully their no-frills take on the Red Riding Hood myth is "good for a few laughs" and certainly put more bums on seats than industry watchers expected, ie $50m against a $15m budget. (Kerching.)

Down In The Hood

It's a shame that the British Bats didn't make it to the final cut, but they do get their moment in the spotlight (albeit in storyboard form) in one of five deleted scenes. There's a lot of "fancy that" and "what a nice bloke" which is charming in a Dick Van Dyke-playing-the-chimneysweep kind of way. In fact, in his optional commentary, Cory Edwards reveals that the bats were named Mary and Poppins. Fancy that... The remainder of the scenes are actually extended versions of all the big musical numbers. You gotta love The Schnitzel Song.

A featurette on How To Make An Animated Film assures us, "You don't have to be a fine artist", but it helps. Edwards along with producers Sue Bea Montgomery and David Lovegren reveal how each character evolved from simple shapes, eg grandma was conceived as "a potato face" (charming) and the Woodsman as a "moon face". The story was developed through multiple script recordings, which Montgomery used to regale the neighbourhood kids in exchange for feedback. Fortunately, the budget stretched enough to include some A-List voice talent. We see Anne Hathaway in the sound booth delivering lines to grandma with a little nod to the Bill & Ted generation - "Whoa! What big hands you have..."

My, What Big Teeth You Have...

In the main commentary, Edwards and his fellow filmmakers Tony Leech and Todd Edwards talk more about the getting the tone of the film just right. "We didn't want to scare the kids," says Leech about the shadowy film noir feel, "but at the same time you wanted there to be some mystery and intrigue." Edwards reveals that there were many "debates" over this issue. "I wanted to scare the kids just a little bit," he says, "but not too much." Using "the language of film" was one way that Edwards and co. lightened the tone, eg recreating moments from Kill Bill (as Red and The Wolf eyeball each other).

Rounding off the bonus features is the animated music video for Critters Have Feelings Too. What's missing is a nuts-and-bolts look at how Edwards and co. created this fairytale world using readily available computer software. Overall though, this DVD is fair enough entertainment for carpet crawling critters.

EXTRA FEATURES

World Trade Center: Commemorative Edition DVD is released on Monday 29th January 2007.