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73 of 85 found the following review helpful:
 Pure Summer Fun May 20, 2006
By A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com
"What should I review next?"
"Over the Hedge" is funny. Pure summer fun, the kind of movie a car full of seventh grade boys see with a car full of seventh grade girls. While it was only released in May, it has all the makings of a summer movie, like the old Peanuts movies. Nothing here is too complicated to understand, most of it is pretty silly, and all of it is safe for the entire family.
When movies are made, they intend an audience, and an audience reaction. Here, the bar was not set to be compared to the sentimental depth of "Finding Nemo," or the abject, hyperactive hilarity of "Aladdin." Here, "Over the Hedge" has a basic plot, and a basic conflict, and does the job it sets out to do.
RJ the Raccoon owes a very angry bear a wagon load of snacks, and realizes the new human suburb is packed with these snacks. He meets up with a friendly, but not too smart neighborhood of small forest animals, led by a careful-thinking turtle named Vern.
The characters are strong, each is distinguished from the other, with distinctive personalities, unlike the overblown homogeny found in some cartoons. This matters especially here, as there are more animals than some younger children will be familiar with.
Can RJ persuade the animals to help him steal the snacks from the humans? Will Vern remain the sensible leader, and help them avoid the 'Verminator' and his viscous animal killing tools?
For me, the funniest scene is an almost Matrix-like action sequence when the ordinarily hyper Hammy drinks a caffeine drink and goes in on a mission. Time stops, but not for Hammy.
The animation is good enough, and the story is told straight-ahead, without catchy songs. No one will leave the theater thinking, "That's incredible production value!" They will leave laughing, with an original story.
The structure of the movie is the reverse of Man vs his environment. As the humans take over former forest, there are fewer places for the animals to find food. Naturally, the animals smell potato chips and want more. Naturally, also, the humans want to retain a hedge between the woods and their home.
Messages about Man encroaching on his environment are throughout, but these do not overtake the movie. It might leave a few suburban moms and dads feeling a little sheepish, but everyone will laugh too much to really have a guilt trip.
I fully recommend "Over the Hedge."
Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com
53 of 63 found the following review helpful:
 Over the hedge is over the top Aug 11, 2006
By Daniel Lee Taylor
"dan57"
A very funny and well executed new animated feature. The story is well written and the voices are well cast. The script is full of fun poking at current day society. When asked how many people normally travel in a SUV, Bruce Willis replies one. There are swipes at video games and high end consumer goods. The most fun is poked at food and the eating habits of the average American. The kids should like the animals and the grown ups should like the humor. There is something here for everybody. This is fun, try it.
17 of 19 found the following review helpful:
FANTASTIC............. Aug 20, 2006
This movie was very very funny. The Story was great, how the animals worked together even were they where being decieved. The kids in the movie were very well done, so were the animals. I do not think that they could have done a better job!!! I highly recommend this movie to everyone. Well Done.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Hilarious Family Comedy Jun 07, 2006
By K. Fontenot
"Prairie Cajun Lives!"
I rarely laugh hard enough to bring tears to my eyes in a flick, especially a kiddie flick, but "Over The Hedge" managed to make me laugh until I cried in the climax of the film. This movie is just funny. Sure, it has the token moral message that is expected of children's fare these days, but comedy takes center stage.
The story is rather simple: R.J. Raccoon (Bruce Willis), owes a stockpile of food to a very angry bear named Vincent (hilariously pulled off by Nick Nolte) after he's caught stealing Vincent's stash and eventually losing it. If he doesn't get the food, ice chest, red wagon, etc. back, Vincent is going to kill him. Luckily, R.J. stumbles upon a hapless group of small woodland pals who've awakened to a brand new suburb which has literally grown up around them during their winter hibernation. The group is headed up by Garry Shandling's funny turtle, Verne. He heads up an all-star group of voices such as William Shatner, Wanda Sykes, and Eugene Levy, among others. Steve Carell steals the show as Hamilton, a very "Hoodwinked"-like squirrel who's very, very high-strung.
R.J. plans to use the groups gathering skills to collect everything he needs to pay Vincent back. Of course, the suburbs are full of dangers for any small creature. From Girl Scouts to a very aggressive exterminator to a playful pup, the gang faces all of these problems with funny outcomes. Along the way, R.J. realizes that his selfish motives are wrong, and he decides to make things as right as possible between the group and Vincent.
This is a wonderful tale for the entire family to see. It includes plenty of adult "inside" jokes that the kids won't catch onto and plenty of slapstick humor for the kids and parents alike. It's heartwarming at times and laugh-out-loud funny at others.
I highly recommend this flick. It's the funniest movie I've seen in quite a long time.
16 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 DREAMWORKS HEDGES THEIR BETS with GOOD, but SAFE screen version of popular comic strip May 18, 2006
By Kevin J. Loria
From TIM JOHNSON, the Director who brought you ANTZ, oh maybe I shouldn't have started that way...
...DreamWorks' animated film, "Over the Hedge," is a backyard ecological comedy outfitted with some fine, silly slapstick and clever animal characters. This one is aimed more at a younger audience than other DW efforts like "Shrek" but has plenty of entertainment value for the rest of the fam. Unlike Pixar, DreamWorks isn't pushing the envelope with their animation. DW is playing it safe here with a PC comedy that delivers an ecological message while pitching family values to the extreme. The CG animation is routine, but writer Len Blum (Pink Panther) along with Lorne Cameron, working from the popular comic strip and character animators under the supervision of directors Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick do a crackerjack job of filling the screen with lively, ingratiating creatures. The comic strip Created by Michael Fry and T Lewis, OVER the HEDGE takes a quirky view of suburban living from the perspective of the animals who lived there first. The comic strip, like the movie, stars RJ, a mischievous raccoon, and Verne, his sensitive best-buddy turtle. Together they ponder life and adapt their natural habitat to incorporate all the "unnatural" creature comforts that suburbia has to offer. Fry & Lewis have written an original screenplay for the film.
RJ (voiced perfectly by Bruce Willis, why hasn't he done this before, oh yeah the "Look Who's Talking" movies count), arrives in a woods outside a midwest town, excited about the wonders that living near humans can bring. He finds instead a community of porcupines, possums, a squirrel, skunk and chipmunks that is deathly afraid of humans, after their leader, Vern (Gary Shandling), has had a BAD EXPERIENCE with human boys. As they get closer and closer to humans, however, their comfortable lives in the woods appears to be at an end. Motivated by RJ, however, the animals slowly breech the hedge that separates them from the brand new housing development that has destroyed their food source over the winter while they were sleeping, and RJ shows them is a world where humans throw all sorts of food away in big metal canisters, ripe for the taking. By combining RJ plans and the family's foraging talents, maybe they can fill next winter's larder in time to meet the deadline imposed by grizzly bear (Nick Nolte). When the family makes it over THE HEDGE -- well, through it -- they pilfer, led by Hammy, an overcaffeinated squirrel (Steve Carell) who is fightingly similar to the Hoodwinked overcaffeinated squirrel not voiced by Steve Carell. This leads the humans to call pest control: Dwayne the Verminator (Thomas Haden Church).
This story sets in motion more than enough comic action sequences to fill the movie's 84 minutes. The final caper mimics and rivals the "Mission: Impossible" films' derring-do to hilarious results.
Character animators beautifully marry their creatures to the voice actors' individual eccentricities. Especially noteworthy are William Shatner (that's Capt. Kirk kids) uses his panache for dieing as Ozzie the possum, Wanda Sykes' slinky skunk, Carell (the Office, 40 yr Old Virgin) is always brilliant and his hyperactive Hammy is no exception , Omid Djalili's Persian housecat, SCTV alums Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as Lou & Penny.
Fans of the original comic strip as well as animation devotees will appreciate this film more than the average moviegoer, but overall OVER the HEDGE is an okay effort. Rated PG and runs under 90 mins.
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