Sure, "Shrek" and its sequel rolled in the green: But if "Hoodwinked" co-writer/director Cory Edwards has any say in it, a little "Red" can go a long way, too.

Of course, Edwards knew going into the project that "Hoodwinked" would inevitably be compared to the "Shrek" films, and for right reason: Like "Shrek," the film is a twisted fairy tale.

The film, which turns the classic tale of "Little Red Riding Hood" into an amusing crime caper, opens Friday nationwide.

"We were painfully aware what had come before us and we didn't want to look like were imitating them," Edwards told me in a recent @ The Movies interview. "So, we went instead for a decidedly different tone, different design and look. A lot of these computer-animated films lately are a little too brightly candy-colored for my taste, so we had a little dirt rubbed into all of the colors."

For people who grew up with the Rankin-Bass stop-motion animated classics "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Here Comes Peter Cottontail," "Hoodwinked" is bound to feel familiar.

In fact, Edwards deliberately worked the look of the characters in those classics into "Hoodwinked," yet had the benefit of computer animation at his disposal. In a way, Edwards worked the best of stop-motion and computer-animation worlds into the film.

"I love stop-motion," Edwards said. "I would loved to have done the movie in that technique, but we didn't have the artists to do that type of work."

What Edwards did have, though, were producers who had worked in the field of computer animation, computer artists in the Philippines who were savvy in the field, and the tools with which to tell the story.

"We worked very hard to style it so it didn't feel like a cookie-cutter thing," Edwards said. "From the shapes of the characters' heads and the designs of the bodies, we did something that didn't cost anything extra -- we just made different choices."

While he had the power of giving the characters a unique look, Edwards knew he had to find the perfect vocal talent to fully realize the story.

For the role of Red, Edwards said "Princess Diaries" star Anne Hathaway brought something to the table that wasn't so fairy-tale sweet.

"Anne added a little edge of sarcasm to Red that wasn't there before," Edwards said. "It really woke up the character and made the character smarter."

"Hoodwinked" also gave Edwards the opportunity to work with an esteemed veteran in Glenn Close, who undoubtedly brings edge and then-some as the spry, X-treme sports-loving Granny. He admits he was a bit nervous at first to work with Close, but she immediately put him at ease.

"Her reputation is intimidating, but when she walked into the studio she was so salt-of-the-earth," Edwards recalled. "She said, 'I love the script, and you tell me what you want. I'm ready to do whatever you want to do.' She was game to do a very funny old-lady voice and that really relaxed me."

Once chilled, Edwards said he was allowed to slip into his director mode to loosen up the atmosphere even more.

"I like to kick some jokes around and use humor when I'm directing," Edwards added. "When everybody was laughing, they're going to give you their best work."

One thing Edwards said he tried to do was encourage the actors to experiment with different voices -- which explains why you might not realize right away that's it's Jim Belushi voicing the role of The Woodsman.

"This was a little bit out of his comfort zone," Edwards said. "He said, 'I don't know if I want to do an accent' and I said, 'It's going to be funny -- trust me.' We had a lot of fun with him being this big German guy, doing some yodeling and all that stuff. The longer he did the part, the more he had fun with it. By the time he was done recording it, he had us hooting and hollering."

"Hoodwinked" also gave one of the most underappreciated talents in business -- Patrick Warburton -- a chance to bare his fangs.

"He was the first real name that signed on," Edwards said. "He's been a favorite of ours as a character actor for years with roles like Puddy on 'Seinfeld,'" Edwards said. "We were thrilled when we got him. He really made that character."

"Hoodwinked" was co-written by Edwards' brother, Todd, who also wrote the songs for the movie. It gives the film more dimension in that the songs help tell the story, too, instead of the sort of background noise that's often thrown into movies to help sell soundtracks.

"He wrote 10 original songs and I got to write some rap lyrics -- I'm as proud of the soundtrack as I am of the movie -- it's such an eclectic mix because Todd was able to nail every genre," Edwards beamed. "Because he was writing the songs as we writing the script, it wasn't like he just tacked pop songs on the end of the movie. They're all integral to the style and the mood of each scene.

"If we did a rock song, we didn't want to do TV rock -- we wanted it to be legitimate," Edwards added. "Todd has a lot of legitimate influences from The Strokes to The White Stripes and Green Day -- but yet it's rock and roll for kids."