What the Schnitzel?

I just finished watching the movie "Hoodwinked" for the second time. The first time was about four hours ago. It's not that it's that amazing (though it is quite good), but I like to watch movies with the commentary, and since it was just a two-day release I decided to watch it twice in a row. I have a confession to make. I didn't like the movie too much the first time, and I may not have enjoyed it too much if I hadn't seen the commentary because I missed the styling choices and thought that it was just poorly done.
When I was watching for the first time I was a little disappointed in the animation (it's a computer animated movie). After watching The Incredibles or Finding Nemo, I've just come to expect a certain level of computer animation, and nothing else will do. The funny thing is, I tend to appreciate a plethora of different styles of live-action movies, and even traditional animation is farily wide open for how much I like different styles. But I completely failed to appreciate what they had done with this movie because I focussed too much on the style. I felt that the animation was a bit too static, a bit too stiff, a bit too poorly animated.
And then, about five minutes into the commentary, the director mentioned that because they didn't have the budget of, say, a Pixar studios, that they had to make their movie a different style, that the animation was based very heavily on stop-animation, a la Wallace and Grommit. As soon as he said that everything clicked. I realised that I had noticed that it was almost like stop-animation the first time I saw it, but because it was a computer animated movie I didn't like it. But when I realised it was a purposeful stylistic choice I suddenly connected with the story in a different way and noticed things about it that I had overlooked before.
Computer animation has come along far enough that it is possible to tell stories within the medium, rather than exploring and stretching the limits of the medium by telling a story. It seems like almost every computer animated movie that comes out spends most of its time trying to push the bounds with what they can do using the computers. This movie, on the other hand, had limits set that weren't even close to the bounds, so they were forced to make more stylistic choices and focus on the story. As soon as I realised that I appreciated the movie much more. It almost irritates me that I didn't pick up on that right away.
As for the contents of the movie, I'd have to say that I am pleased. Patrick Warburton does the voice, and frankly I think he should be in every cartoon. He is just that awesome. The songs are good, and plentiful, almost like an old-style Disney cartoon where the music told half of the story. The characters were wonderfully zany. And the singing goat was played by a son of Bill Gaither. I don't know his name off-hand, and frankly I'm just refusing to look it up. He did a good job. I would recommend it, especially if you're looking for a kids movie.
Seriously, Patrick Warburton needs to be in more things. Very funny guy.