Hoodwinked! (lost original cast recordings of animated film; 2005)

Promotional poster for the film, featuring the replacement cast.

Status: Lost

Hoodwinked! was a CGI-animated film directed by Cory Edwards and distributed by The Weinstein Company in 2005. The film was a surprise hit, grossing $16,879,402 in its first week in theaters and capturing the number two spot on the Box Office Ranking two weeks in a row. It had a somewhat mixed reception by critics, however, often pointing out the wooden animation quality, but giving credit in other places like the writing and the voice cast.

The Original Voice Cast

Originally, Hoodwinked! had a much different cast than what was shown in theaters. The original cast had recorded all the dialogue for the film, but the crew realized how big the film could be and decided on replacing them with celebrity voice actors. The change was so far into the production of the film that the replacement voice actors had to deliver their lines in the exact same fashion the original voice actors did. The only two main cast characters to keep their roles were Patrick Warburton as The Wolf and Andy Dick as Boingo. The voices that were replaced and who they were replaced by are listed below:

• Tara Strong as Red Puckett (Replaced by Anne Hathaway). Also voiced Zorra, a member of Granny's ski team.

• David Ogden Stiers as Kirk (Replaced by Jim Belushi). Also voiced Nikki Flippers.

• Tony Leech, an associate of directors The Edwards Brothers, as Detective Stork (Replaced by Anthony Anderson).

• Sally Struthers as Granny Puckett (Replaced by Glenn Close).

• Joel McCrary as Chief Grizzly (Replaced by Xzibit).

• Tom Kenny as Woolworth the Sheep (Replaced by Chazz Palmanteri).

Benjy Gaither, who voiced Japeth the Goat in the final film, also came close to losing his role but was kept for unknown reasons.

Other Cuts to the Final Film

The Weinstein brothers also insisted on shortening the songs of the film, fearing audiences would get bored by them. However, most of the cuts were included on the DVD as a special feature. These cuts included:

• An extra verse in "Great Big World", which took place between when Red was lifted by the birds over the river and stopping on the cliff.

• A small five-second segment of "Be Prepared".

• The second verse of Kurt's "Schnitzel Song", which showed Kurt tap dancing to the children and the children throwing their schnitzel sticks in the air in celebration.

• An addition verse to "Tree Critter" before the ski race.

Availability

It is currently unknown where the original audio is today, or even if it still exists. If it's anywhere, it is probably in The Weinstein Company's vault, or with the director Cory Edwards. Although the original film was a success, the 2011 sequel Hoodwinked Two!: Hood vs. Evil bombed at the box office and was critically panned by both critics and the audience, leaving very little chance of the original version getting an official release.

Gallery

Trailer for the final film.