Review: Over the Hedge (2006)
Steve Rhodes
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
Looking in the window at a family of humans saying grace before dinner, a
bunch of the cute critters in OVER THE HEDGE decide they know what is going
on. The movie's central character, an adorable huckster of a raccoon named
RJ (voiced by Bruce Willis) explains, "That is the altar where they worship
the food."
This latest DreamWorks production features realistic looking CGI for the
animals but purposely makes the humans appear more like animated department
store mannequins. It's a blend that serves the comedy and the story well. As
co-directed by Tim Johnson, the director of ANTZ, and Karey Kirkpatrick, the
writer of CHICKEN RUN, the movie is a delightful rollercoaster of laughs.
Constantly frantic and funny, the characters rarely take time to catch their
breaths. Although there are only a few big laughs, with the extremely well
done and surprising ending having the best of them, the movie provides more
than enough chuckles to recommend it to all ages, even those without kids in
tow. Our packed audience of all ages demonstrated that the film does play
well to young and old alike. It wasn't just the little ones who were
giggling, which happens so often these days with the many subpar family
films.
The plot involves a bunch of sweet little animals from skunks to squirrels,
who fall under RJ's spell. They used to be led by the cautious and steady
Verne (voiced by Garry Shandling), a tortoise who keeps losing his shell.
But, when RJ shows up in their neck of the woods promising treats ranging
from corn chips to donuts, the animals abandon Verne and his nutritious and
fiber-filled diet of bark, bark and more bark. Steve Carell (THE 40 YEAR OLD
VIRGIN) plays Hammy, a scene stealer of a little squirrel who is like
parents' worst nightmare of a kid with a massive sugar overload. To say
Hammy bounces off walls would be a major understatement.
The story has RJ manipulating the animals to do his dirty work. After being
caught stealing and losing the junk food horde of a big bear (voiced gruffly
by Nick Nolte), RJ uses his new animal friends to gather replacement
supplies. RJ, however, tricks them into thinking that their battle of wits
with the suburban dwellers is in order to stock up on snack food for the
animals themselves and not to pay off his debt. Of course, there will be a
message in the end, but the film is never preachy and is a million miles
away from being saccharine. It's always sweet, but it's naturally sweet.
OVER THE HEDGE is one of those films that will leave you with a smile on
your face and a reflection that you did indeed have a rollicking good time.
OVER THE HEDGE runs a fast 1:26. It is rated PG for "some rude humor and
mild comic action" and would be acceptable for all ages.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, May 19, 2006. In
the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century
theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve....@InternetReviews.com
***********************************************************************
Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email?
Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
samseescinema
reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
rating: 3 out of 4
Director: Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick
Cast: Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, William Shatner,
Nick Nolte
Screenplay: Len Blum, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton, Karey Kirkpatrick
MPAA Classification: PG (some rude humor and mild comic action)
In a bout of scheduling wit, the publicity company that handles the
screenings in my area held showings of Cars and Over the Hedge on the
same day. The differences between the films are not what each
production company's filmographies reflect: Where Cars sputtered and
died in its opening act, Over the Hedge rose to the occasion and
stomped all over Pixar's pristinely held track record with bright
audacity. Both films were surprises, granted, but in an inversed
direction. Dreamworks Animation has finally found their footing, having
struggled to grasp a healthy balance between wit, digital art, and
story with their previous projects (Shrek, Shrek 2, Madagascar, Antz,
Sharktale). Over the Hedge finds firm success in each of these
categories as Pixar tumbles into a bout of nursery rhyme boredom.
Originality, however, isn't one of Over the Hedge's most prominent
features. For all intensive purposes, the story mirrors Pixar's
maiden voyage, Toy Story. RJ (Bruce Willis), the lone Raccoon, has
found himself in a bind: He's made enemies with Vincent the Bear
(Nick Nolte) and now must gather a wagon-load of junk food and a blue
cooler to replace what he's lost in a food-rummaging expedition to
the sleeping bear's cave. He has a week to replace Vince's stuff or
RJ becomes an entrée.
Just waking from their winter slumber, a motley crew of forest animals
emerges from their log to greet the spring. Vern the Turtle (Garry
Shandling) leads the crew that includes Ozzie and Heather the Possums
(William Shatner and Avril Lavigne), Stella the Skunk (Wanda Sykes),
Lou and Gladys the Porcupines (Eugene Levy and Allison Janney), their
three Porcupine children, and finally Hammy the Squirrel (Steve
Carell). Being gathering creatures, they're main objective for the
Spring, Summer, and Fall is to gather enough food to last through the
next hibernation. Problem is, where there used to fifty acres of forest
is now fifty acres of suburban development. Vern, acting as Over the
Hedge's Woody from Toy Story, decides they'll just have to make due
and gather as much as their besieged forest can provide. RJ drops in to
visit, acting as the film's Buzz Lightyear, and assumes control of
the group's gathering, showing them the resplendent wonders suburbia
offers in the way of animal dining. Vern's skeptical of RJ, and
rightfully so; the raccoon is only looking to use Vern's group to
gather food to repay Vincent. Over the Hedge carries on with this
tug-of-war power struggle between Buzz and Woo-err...RJ and Vern, but
still finds room to work in some well-deserved jibes at the
middle-class American phenomenon.
These days it seems any fool with a computer can paint pixels into
digital artwork. And now computer animated films don't strive for
realism, but instead look for style. Madagascar, for instance, seemed
strongly influenced by the pesky cartoons found causing trouble in your
child's picture-book. Over the Hedge takes Toy Story's approach in
settling for a slightly off-kilter realism. There's enough room for
error here to let Hammy the Squirrel jolt back and forth in a frenzy of
motion, forming a visual counterpiece to Carell's crazed
voice-acting. And the funniest moment in the film is a neatly wrapped
gift of the animation: Vern simply chewing on a piece of bark. It had
me embarrassed to be laughing so loudly.
But computer animated films have the tendency to over-indulge in their
visual quirks, relying on the art's hilarity to carry an otherwise
moot tale. Over the Hedge avoids such a pitfall with a twist of satire.
Suburbia is observed from the animals' perspective, where our many
comforts are put into brutally simplified focus. Food, to the animals,
is our only interest. We have gadgets to order it, places to worship
it, pills to counteract it, machines to eliminate the guilt surrounding
it, and shiny trashcans to throw the gluttonous excess away. And along
with satirizing our obsession with food, Over the Hedge takes jabs at
the Home Owners Association, Girl Scouts and SUVs; all indulgences of
our suburban living. Satire, however, takes a backseat to a gleeful wed
between characters and animation; the best of which are RJ's many
missions into the neighborhood for food. An intricately planned attack
on a pair of Girl Scouts to steal their cart of cookies is one of the
funniest.
Attacking Girl Scouts, seducing French dogs, monitoring security
cameras, and sidestepping an extermination device illegal in every
state in the continental United States makes the creatures of Over the
Hedge into regular Ethan Hunts. But the film is sharp and delectably
charming, filling the hole that will be gaping from Cars' upcoming
monumental letdown.
johnny...@hotmail.com
and movie entertainment:
Over the Hedge
http://www.themoviemark.com/moviereviews/overthehedge.asp
PLOT
When RJ the raccoon's plan to steal Vincent the Bear's food goes awry,
RJ has to replace everything or he'll be the bear's main course for
dinner. RJ makes his way to a small patch of woods near a new
subdivision of homes that seem to be stacked with plenty of food.
RJ meets a group of animals (led by a turtle that sounds a lot like
Garry Shandling), and he does his best to convince them that he can
help them store as much food in a week that it normally takes a year to
accumulate. But first they must overcome their fear of what's on the
other side of the hedge. Will plans go as smoothly as they hope? Not if
this movie is to be dragged out for 90 minutes they won't! My favorite
DreamWorks animated film ensues.
JOHNNY'S TAKE
I'm always more than willing to carry the "DreamWorks ain't got nothing
on Pixar!" banner when it comes to the issue of comparing their
CGI-animated films. All you have to do is watch Shark Tale (though I
don't recommend it) and then compare it to Finding Nemo to understand
why.
Is it really that hard to find writers that can figure out how to
appeal to both adults and children? Anybody can take a big budget and
put a lot of impressive CGI on screen (well, except for you, A Sound of
Thunder!), but I want something that I actually care to follow. Give me
a story that will at least keep my interest, not a bunch of lame puns
and outdated M.C. Hammer references that wouldn't have even been funny
15 years ago.
Well, you know what?
"What?"
DreamWorks has finally done it! Call the neighbors and wake the kids
because Over the Hedge kept me consistently entertained. No, it's still
not in Toy Story's league, but doggone it they gave it the ol' college
try, and I appreciate the solid effort.
It helps that Bruce Willis, William Shatner, and Steve Carrell all lend
their highly entertaining voices and styles to give us characters that
I actually cared about (awww!) and wasn't annoyed by. Granted, Eugene
Levy and Wanda Sykes have voices that could inspire me to poke my ear
drums out with a kitchen utensil, but thankfully they're not overused,
making them surprisingly tolerable.
I would warn you not to set your hopes too high though. While there are
a handful of laugh-out-loud moments, I was never rolling in the aisles
with crazy Benny Hinn-esque fits of laughter. For the most part this is
just a pleasantly amusing film that will make the kids giggle, keep the
adults smiling, and keep DreamWorks' pockets heavier than I could ever
dream mine to be.
THE GIST
DreamWorks finally gives us an animated film that doesn't feature heavy
amounts of animal flatulence. Thank you, DW, thank you very much. Kids
will love Over the Hedge, and there are enough likable characters and
adult-targeted jokes to keep the older folks happy. There's no need to
dread this one if your kid is begging you to take him to see it.
Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)
Johnny Betts
The Movie Mark
http://www.themoviemark.com
Jerry Saravia
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Viewed on May 19th, 2006
RATING: Three stars and a half
I approach current animated films with trepidation. After all,
I grew up with Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons and,
putting it mildly, I favor the old more than the new. Still,
2004's "The Incredibles" was an amazing achievement and
the best superhero movie in many moons. "Over the Hedge"
is the latest from Dreamworks and what a fun time I had.
It is far from greatness but any person aged 7 to 70 will
enjoy it (though I suspect the tykes will enjoy it the most).
In the opening sequence, a raccoon named RJ (voiced by
Bruce Willis) is trying to get a bag of nacho chips from a
vending machine. We know the feeling when a bag of chips
get stuck in the machine and we bang the dang thing
mercilessly to no avail. RJ's fruitless attempts lead to a
wagon of food that belongs to a giant bear named Vincent
(voiced appropriately by Nick Nolte). RJ takes the food
but it ends up on the main highway and trashed to smithereens
by a truck. He has to get all this food back to Vincent
or else he'll be eaten. This takes RJ to a small critter
family consisting of a turtle named Verne (voiced by
Garry Shandling) whose tail tingles when trouble is nigh,
a highly caffeinated squirrel named Hammy (voiced by Steve
Carell), a skunk with a low opinion of herself named
Stella (Wanda Sykes), a family of possums led by the
papa possum (voiced by William Shatner) and his
daughter (Avril Lavigne), and finally a porcupine family
led by the father, Lou (voiced by Eugene Levy), and
the mother, Penny (voiced by Catherine O'Hara).
Don't expect a return of Mitch and Mickey.
Based on a comic strip, the plot has to do with an
oversized hedge, nicknamed Steve by the critters, that
has been built during the winter season, the time of their
hibernation. Now the critters have no chance of getting
any decent food, only some tree bark. RJ needs help to
get the wagon of food back to Vincent so he hoodwinks
the furry creatures into stealing food from the humans.
Along the way, there are some pointed jabs at the unhealthy
junk food diet, the tossing of welcome amounts of food
in trash receptacles, the enormity of SUV's, THX
sound systems (perhaps a little jab there at George
Lucas), the fixation on modern technological devices, and
much more. To top it all off, we have a hysterical and
truly EVIL woman with a cell phone attached to her ear
(voiced by Allison Janney) who wants those critters
decimated as "inhumanely as possible." Enter the
Verminator (voiced by Thomas Haden Church) whose job
is to do just that, not to mention devise contraptions to
trap the critters if they ever enter her backyard.
"Over the Hedge" is a partly satiric tale of suburban
encroachment, though it never truly dwells on the evils
of suburban development. The movie seems to say that
junk food and technology is evil because the humans
consume both, and largely because both do a disservice
to nature. But the critters enjoy both equally, including
gorging on junk food and watching cable and DVD's
in their own land, so I am unclear on what the message
is. Perhaps it is an anti-deforestation tale but the
filmmakers lose any real focus.
None of this matters in hindsight because "Over the
Hedge" is dazzling to watch with some eye-opening
visuals and lots of laughs. The critters are all fun
personalities and, well, what can I say, Bruce Willis,
William Shatner, Wanda Sykes and Nick Nolte's
booming voice lend greatly to the film's success. The
tykes will love it and will want to see it again and again
on DVD. Whatever message is delivered will surely
fly over their heads.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at:
http://www.jerryatthemovies.com/
BIO on the author of this page at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/index.html
Email me at Faus...@msn.com or at
faustu...@yahoo.com
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com