Over the Hedge (2006)

• Review: *** (out of ****)
• Starring: Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, Nick Nolte, Thomas Haden Church, Allison Janney, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Avril Lavigne, Omid Djalili
• Director: Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick
• Screenplay: Len Blum, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton, Karey Kirkpatrick, Michael Fry, T. Lewis
• Length: 83 min.
• MPAA Rating: PG (For some rude humor and mild comic action)

Churning out a dozen computer animated projects a year,production companies have begun relying heavily on the medium to prop up itsbox office. With such a trend comes an obvious erosion of quality that hascharacterized most of this year’s productions. One of the minor exceptions tothis trend is DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge,a simple comedy about the encroachment of human civilization on the forest andhow its denizens must adapt.

The impetus for this story is a frustrated raccoon named RJ(Bruce Willis) who, in his hunger, attempted to steal food from the maniacalbear Vincent (Nick Nolte). In the ensuing conflict, Vincent’s entire winter’sstash is decimated by a semi. RJ must replace everything lost before the fullmoon or RJ will become the food.

Wandering about trying to decide how to proceed, RJ uncoversa group of gathering animals whose home has been isolated into a small tract ofland cut off from the rest of the forest by a massive development that poppedup over the winter. He uses them to secretly help recuperate the losses in theguise of helping them forage for the next winter.

As is wont to happen in these kinds of situations, RJ’s liessoon begin to backfire on him and reveal him for the phony he is.

Over the Hedge features a stereotypical array of animal characters whose originality issteeped in the vocal talents of their portrayers. Garry Shandling tones downhis typical self-centered neuroticism to voice the patriarchal Verne, a turtlewhose tail tingles when bad things are happening. He and RJ are the only leadcharacters in the production, the rest relegated to bit parts that, whilehumorous serve only niche segments of the plot.

The most memorable of the characters is the hyperactivesquirrel Hammy (Steve Carell). Carell’s vocal talents are perfect, and afterhearing him here, I realize that it’s his physical humor that frustrates me. Noone in the pic fails to stand out. William Shatner fits the role of theoverly-dramatic play-dead possum well and Wanda Sykes is captivating as themalcontent skunk Stella (and no, the film can’t avoid the clichéd howl).

Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara are, as always, in thebackground as loving porcupine parents. Still, their distinctive vocal stylesare easily recognized. Even the frustratingly timeworn villain played by NickNolte can be identified. There is no stretch of talent here and there is nostretch of originality.

Nonethless, Over theHedge is a great deal of fun and rarely stops in its parody of humanity.One particularly outstanding segment involves RJ describing the human obsessionwith food. Explaining to his compeers how human lives revolve around food,brings to the forefront a staggeringly succinct appraisal of Homo sapiens. It just goes to show thatthere are still aspects of society that deserve ridicule.

Rarely does animation branch out and tackle overly politicaltopics. The main reason is that the target demographic for this type offilmmaking is children. Nevertheless, adults are a byproduct target of thegenre, often having to accompany their kids to the movies. Thus it is that mostanimated films must provide material for adults to digest. Over the Hedge has a great deal of humor that adults can respond toas long as they retain their child-at-heart. There isn’t much of a social commentaryhere but one can easily enjoy the fun and diversion that the film has to offer.

-Wesley Lovell (September 15, 2006)