Release Date: May 19, 2006
MPAA Rating: PG for some rude humor and mild comic action
Directed by: Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick
Starring: Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, William Shatner, Avril Lavigne, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Wanda Sykes, Nick Nolte, Omid Djalili, Allison Janney, Thomas Haden Church
Plot:
Spring has sprung, and Verne and his woodland friends awaken from their long winter's nap to discover that a tall, green "thing" has mysteriously cropped up right through the middle of their home. Enter RJ, an opportunistic raccoon, who explains that the world beyond the hedge is the "gateway to the good life" where peculiar creatures called humans live to eat, rather than eat to live. Suspicious and even a little jealous of RJ, the ever-cautious Verne wants to keep his blended family safely on their side of the hedge. But, proving the adage that one man's garbage is another man's--or rather animal's--treasure, the manipulative RJ tries to convince the woodland band that there is little to fear and everything to gain from their over-indulgent new neighbors. Eventually, RJ and Verne form an unlikely friendship as they learn to co-exist with--and even exploit--this strange new world called suburbia.
Review:
Over the Hedge is a perfect example of solid family entertainment. Whether you are a child, a teenager, a parent or a grandparent, there is plenty of things to indulge here. First off, its been a while since I have laughed this much with any film. Over the Hedge is a very funny film, continuously entertaining and very intelligent. The smart part of this film comes when the dialogue is uttered by the raccoon, RJ, where he knows many different things about human beings. He mainly knows why they love food and tells us in a laughable fashion. However, RJ isn't the funniest character because that definitely goes to the squirrel, Hammy, who is voiced by Steve Carell.
Besides those two characters, Over the Hedge has two possums, four porcupines and a turtle. Its a group of animals united as a family, because of course thats whats most important. RJ joins this family because he needs them to help him gather food and items that a bear once had. RJ must gather all the items within a week or else the bear will kill him. Verne, the turtle has a bad idea about this and his tail wiggles because of it. Either way, the others want to get food because they are starving after hibernating. So the hunt begins and all of them join the pack.
Over the Hedges runs on a simple storyline. With its thin story, it more than makes up for it with its beautiful animation, smart dialogue and hilarious situations. Dreamworks delivers smooth animation here, while its not on par with Pixar, Dreamworks is showing that they will be competitive. Over the Hedge is one of the funniest animated films from Dreamworks and the laughter is at most times consistent. This film only runs only eight three minutes, so its fast paced doesn't let us down in the entertainment section.
It helps the film that all the characters are cute and cuddly, but they also each have their own personality. The possums have a thing for playing dead, the squirrel has an incredible amount of energy, the porcupines are very aware of their surrounding and the turtle is always has doubts. The raccoon is the leader of the pack and the most experienced. The title over the hedge comes out of what they must do and that is to cross the hedge into the streets of human life. The animals begin to gather food and explore the possibilities of delicious cuisine, but this is not without trouble.
Its always interesting to watch these characters fall into life or death situations. The humans are scared and want them out of the neighborhood, but they are too quick. These harmless animals simply want to survive and like one of the lines delivered by RJ in the film, they eat to live while humans live to eat. In many ways Over the Hedge is true to its word and makes one wonder and laugh at the same time. This film isn’t always innocent because it uses words that should not be recommended for small children to hear. There is no profanity, but words such as kill and situations that involve fights occur.
When animated films work for everyone, its a treat to behold. Over the Hedge is not too kiddy to bore adults and instead adults are bound to enjoy every minute of it. Its a wonder though to see if children will have as much fun as adults do. I say this because the dialogue in this film is written with vocabulary that will have small children lost. However, still the children can laugh from the action happening in the film. For the animation genre, Over the Hedge hardly steps foot into the wrong direction.
From the animated films released this year, Over the Hedge is so far the best from the bunch. In just a few weeks Pixar will release their next installment, Cars. Pixar has done great animated films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredible, but the question is will Cars be as great. Will Cars even be better than Over the Hedge, thats something that only time will tell once the film is released. Comparisons aside, on a standalone point, Over the Hedge is surprisingly funny, entertaining and even sends a message in its final scenes. For eighty three minutes of fun, Over the Hedge would be a good choice.
