Thor! Dr. Who! Little Red Riding Hood! Charlton Heston!

Yes, I saw "Thor" this weekend.

And I just watched "The Curse of the Black Spot," courtesy of iTunes.

But no, this is not a review of either.

Rather, I want to write about "Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil." I see a lot of kids movies because of my goddaughter, who is about to turn 11. Far too many of them, including this one, are in 3-D for no apparent reason other than to charge more for admission (I saw the 2D version of "Thor" and am willing to bet I did not miss a thing).



Movie makers know the real trick of a kids' flick is trying to keep the attention of the adults who have been dragged into the theater. Let's face it: The kids would watch paint dry in 3-D. So the writers toss in some jokes aimed at the adults.

In the case of "Hoodwinked Too," the choice was rather bizarre. The plot - don't worry, no major spoilers - revolves around a secret recipe. When viewers get a peek at the ingredients on the recipe card, quite clearly on the bottom are the words "soylent green." The inside joke is a reference to the 1973 science fiction movie cult classic of the same name starring Charlton Heston. In that movie, much of the population in an apocalyptic future survives on rations of soylent green. At the end of the movie - Major Spoiler, as in "I AM GIVING AWAY THE ENDING HERE" - Heston's character discovers that soylent green is made from human remains. Further emphasizing the joke, in "Hoodwinked Too," the words "soylent green" are crossed out on the recipe card and the word "people" is written in.

Is this appropriate for a children's movie? Aw, who really cares? I think I was the only one in the theater who understood the reference. It came close to making the movie bearable. That, and the "use the force, Luke" line that came out of nowhere.