The most successful computer-animated pictures have been those that entertain children while aiming most of their humor at adults.

Whether that formula will hold up for “Hoodwinked” remains to be seen. But there’s no question that this send-up of Little Red Riding Hood aims most of its parody at adults while keeping the fractured story accessible to kids and remaining pretty fast moving.

The setup here is that a crime has been committed in Granny’s cottage. When the cops show up, the Wolf (voice of Patrick Warburton) is impersonating Granny, badly. Granny (Glenn Close) is tied up in the closet. Red (Anne Hathaway) is in a panic. And the Woodsman (James Belushi) has just come busting into the house.

The porcine police believe they’ve got an open-and-shut case. Not so fast says Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers), a detective frog who comes on like a cool Columbo, sorting out each of the character’s tales to figure out what’s really happening.

While not giving too much away — this is a mystery after all — suffice it to say that the Wolf is an investigative reporter, not the bad guy; Granny’s into extreme sports; Red is very naive, but sports a mean karate chop, and the Woodsman, well, he’s just a buffoon.

The key to the case is the disappearing goodies — shops are closing throughout the forest and Granny’s secret recipes are highly desired.

Also figuring into the wacky story crafted by writer/directors Cory Edwards and Todd Edwards are Woolworth the Sheep (Chazz Palminteri), who turns out to be a rat in a mob kind of way; Twitchy (Todd Edwards), Wolf’s photographer squirrel who talks a mile a minute; and Boingo (Andy Dick), a very curious bunny.

Like most films in the genre, this one’s a musical. It’s also got enough action, including a wild mining car ride, that it gets a PG rating. But there’s nothing too scary anywhere in the movie.

Instead, “Hoodwinked” is pretty funny, both in terms of laugh-out-loud jokes and an overall wit that manages to play off contemporary concepts and pop culture. So kids who love Little Red Riding Hood will get the joke of the rewritten stories and adults will have fun with the references.

The biggest problem with “Hoodwinked” is technological. Its 3-D computer animation doesn’t measure up to that of Pixar (“Finding Nemo”) or DreamWorks (“Shrek”). That might be a turn-off to some viewers, both older and younger, who are accustomed to more expensive, high-powered productions.

But if you give the movie a chance, the animation isn’t distracting and the rest of the story is lots of fun.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.