Over The Hedge Review

"Over The Hedge" reviews

Movie

Over The Hedge

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2009-05-20 20:55:35

Rating

3.5/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

Leave it to a bunch of hilarious woodland critters to teach us suburbia-bound humans a few things about living life Over the Hedge.

Story

If animals could indeed view their surroundings intellectually and talk to each other, it's entirely possible they'd discuss how screwed up human beings are, especially in the ridiculous way we waste food. But hey, to RJ (Bruce Willis), a wily raccoon, what we throw away today becomes lunch tomorrow. He tries to impart some of this wisdom to his newfound friends--a motley crew lead by Verne the turtle (Garry Shandling)--after they wake up after a long winter's nap and discover most of their natural habitat has been turned into a housing development, separated by a very tall hedge. Yep, these woodsy folk are sure in for an eye-opening adventure, as the manipulative RJ convinces the gang to start collecting boxes of cheese doodles, Girl Scout cookies and marshmallows, telling them there is little to fear and everything to gain from their over-indulgent new neighbors. Now, if they can only get rid of that cat...

Acting

If you're an actor these days, the chances to play a serious, Oscar-worthy role are just as great as playing a squirrel. Or a hedgehog. Or a guy called the Verminator. Over the Hedge has a fine slate of voices, starting with Willis as RJ, the raconteur raccoon, whose pretty savvy to the ways of the paved and pre-packaged world of suburbia. Shandling is the heart of the film, as the mild-mannered Verne who just wants to take care of his little woodland family. They include a couple of married-with-kids hedgehogs (pitch perfect Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara); a hyperactive but tender-hearted squirrel (a hilarious Steve Carell); an overdramatic possum (William Shatner, playing it to the hilt) and his embarrassed teenage daughter (pop star Avril Lavigne); and a snarky skunk with attitude (Wanda Sykes, who else?). As far as the humans, Allison Janney voices a shrieking but vindictive homeowner, while the Thomas Haden Church is said Verminator, a fat, balding but ruthless pest exterminator. What fun!

Direction

Over the Hedge keeps to the spirit of the popular comic strip by Michael Fry and T. Lewis, on which the film is based. The strip focuses on the travails of friends RJ and Verne, as they exploit the human world for their own personal gain while sardonically commenting on how messed up it is. Hedge sort of shows how these two might have met and is just a hoot from beginning to end. The images of woodland animal-meets-modern-day people are spot on: RJ's spiel on how humans get food ("That's the receptacle to get the food [a phone]...and that's the tone when the food comes [the doorbell]"); SUVs ("Humans are slowly phasing out walking all together"); the skunk seducing the stupid cat ("I like your smell."). The best is when Hammy the squirrel getting so hopped up on caffeinated soda the whole world comes to a stand still for him. Side-splitting stuff. Again, success in animation comes when you stick with a simple story and create characters everyone can relate to. Plus hilarious dialogue. It'll work every time.

Bottom Line

Hollywood.com rated this film 3 1/2 stars.

Movie

Over The Hedge

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-06-29 00:00:00

Provider

MyMovies

Review

With Pixar's "Cars" coming up fast on the inside lane, DreamWorks' new animated outing had best make hay while the sun shines. But the good news is that this charming backyard adventure is a significant improvement on the studios recent offerings such as "Madagascar" and "Shark Tale".

The action is set in a bright and breezy forest where a bunch of animals rouse from their hibernation only to find that humans have encroached on their land by building a new estate. Lead by a turtle named Verne (voiced by Garry Shandling), the group are keen to stay well away from their new neighbours but when fast-talking raccoon RJ (Bruce Willis) arrives, eager to teach his new 'family' how to forage in human homes, Verne finds himself out in the cold. But little do he and the rest of the clan know that RJ has his own reasons for getting them to steal as much food as possible.

Happy to take a pop at the considerable over-consumption of us humans and featuring an eclectic collection of voices (including as William Shatner, Alison Janney, Nick Nolte, Omid Dhjalili, Steve Carell and even Avril Lavigne), "Over The Hedge" not only teaches the youngsters it's aimed at a valuable conservation message but also contains enough crude gags and fun set pieces to keep viewers of pretty much any age entertained. And the soundtrack, from American singer / songwriter Ben Folds perfectly fits the animal antics.

Admittedly it's not quite as clever as some of its Pixar peers but "Over The Hedge! is a step in the right direction for DreamWorks - and that's got to be a good thing.