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

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Revision as of 16:02, 26 May 2017 by Ianstuartm (talk | contribs) (Fixed the spelling of voice actor Benjy Gaither as well as fixed character Japeth, who was misnamed as Jasper)
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Hoodwinked.jpg

Promotional poster for the film, featuring the replacement cast.

Status: Lost

Trailer for the final film.

Hoodwinked! was a film directed by Cory Edwards and distributed by The Weinstein Company in 2005. The film was 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.

What most people don't know is that, 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 Weinstein Company insisted 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 Palmenteri)

Benjy Gaither, who voiced Japeth the Goat in the final film, also came close to losing his role but was kept for unknown reasons. The Weinsten brothers also insisted on shortening the songs of the film, fearing audiences would get bored by them. Fortunately, 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'
  • A second verse of Kurt's 'Schnitzel Song', which showed Kurt tap dancing to the children and the children throwing their schnizel sticks in the air in celebration.
  • An addition verse to 'Tree Critter' before the ski race.

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 sequel (Hoodwinked Two!) bombed at the box office, leaving very little chance of the original version getting an official release.