Directors:
Tim Johnson
Karey Kirkpatrick
Starring:
Bruce Willis ………. RJ (voice)
Garry Shandling ………. Verne (voice)
Steve Carell ………. Hammy (voice)
Wanda Sykes ………. Stella (voice)
William Shatner ………. Ozzie (voice)
Nick Nolte ………. Vincent (voice)
Thomas Haden Church ………. Dwayne (voice)
Allison Janney ………. Gladys (voice)
Eugene Levy ………. Lou (voice)
Catherine O’Hara ………. Penny (voice)
Avril Lavigne ………. Heather (voice)
The Movie
In the 21st century, the world of computer-animated movies has exploded in popularity. This kind of movie first became popular back in 1995 with the success of Toy Story, which was created by Pixar Animation Studios. The release was for the larger, more nameworthy entity known as Walt Disney Pictures and the rest was history as they say. Not exactly. Pixar continued to release new movies that kids flocked to see with their parents. There seemed to be no competition for Pixar. That was until DreamWorks created Shrek. A movie that found immediate and long-lasting success at the box office and DVD sales. From then, it was Pixar vs. DreamWorks. A battle for children’s hearts and their parents’ money.
Over the Hedge is just another movie from DreamWorks after the success of the first and second “green ogre” movies. You know any movie from DreamWorks is going to get compared to Shrek. So the big question here is can Over the Hedge be an equal success and ride along with a trusty donkey as its sidekick? Or will this movie just be stuck in the shadow of the big, green ogre?
This DreamWorks release is mainly about a scheming raccoon named RJ (Voiced by Bruce Willis). Like most raccoons, he’s hungry and wants some food. He can’t get it from the vending machines as they always seem to get stuck. So the next best thing is to steal the food from a hibernating bear, of course. RJ knows he’s asking for trouble when he steals this food, and even more when he accidently destroys this massive surplus without eating any of it, but he is blinded by his hunger pains. The bear named Vincent (Voiced by Nick Nolte) wakes up and instead of tearing RJ apart right then and there, he gives RJ a week to replace the food he destroyed.
RJ doesn’t think he can do it. That is until he meets a odd group of forest animals not too far away. The animals include Verne the Turtle (Voiced by Gary Shandling), Hammy the Squirrel (Voiced by Steve Carell), Stella the Skunk (Voiced by Wanda Sykes), a father and daughter pair of opossums (Voiced by William Shatner and Avril Lavigne), and a family of porcupines that includes Lou (Voiced by Eugene Levy) and Penny (Voiced by Catherine O’Hara) as the parents. RJ loves humans for their “trash”, which he eats, while this group is terrified of them since Verne, their leader, had a bad experience one time. Somehow RJ still manages to convince them to travel “over the hedge”, which had suddenly popped up over the winter while they were all sleeping, and get the food he needs to give to the bear. He doesn’t tell them the real reason, though. But, of course, these animals have more obstacles in their way to the food, which include a nasty woman named Gladys (Voiced by Allison Janey) and an exterminator named Dwayne (Voiced by Thomas Haden Church), who actually calls himself “The Verminator”!
What usually makes an animated film good or not is the voice cast that is used in the film? They usually get big-name celebrities to do the voices for these characters. Sometimes that works and sometimes he doesn’t work. It really depends on how well the celebrity voices work together or really how much chemistry these characters have together on the screem, if that makes any sense at all. On paper, Bruce Willis looked like an odd choice for the lead part, since this is a comedy and he is not known for comedies. He was in the TV show Moonlighting, so he is no stranger to that genre. He pulls off the character fairly well, though. Gary Shandling is great as the leader of the forest creatures. It’s a nice contrast between Verne and RJ. Steve Carell’s voice as the squirrel can get annoying, but that’s the character, so it works. Wanda Sykes is fantastic as the skunk. And everyone else is good at what they are given. There just isn’t enough time in the film to devote to every character and every voice. As a whole, though, it’s an “A+” voice cast.
The visuals of the film are top-notch as well. The animals really come to life on the screen. But that is to be expected from DreamWorks. The music in the film is typical “kids movie” style. The soundtrack was all done by Ben Folds, so that’s pretty unique as there is only one voice for every song in the movie. None of the songs are memorable, but none of them are annoying, which is always good.
The downside to this movie is that adults can’t enjoy it on a different level than their kids like Shrek. While this is a kid’s movie, it’s always nice to have little “inside jokes” that adults can laugh at, besides the stuff that their kids are supposed to laugh at. There’s not much of that in Over the Hedge. There are some great “action” scenes that are hilarious, but there is not enough of them to put the film on equal footing as Shrek.
Basically, this movie is fun to watch; kids will enjoy it. Their parents may not watch it many times without them, but there are definitely more annoying “kid’s movies” out there that could be on your TV. In the end, though, Over the Hedge is another DreamWorks film that is still stuck in the shadow of that smelly, green ogre.
The Video:
The video is given in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen color. It’s pretty standard quality for animated films these days. No real problems at all.
The Audio:
The audio included is available in either English Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound, English DTS 5.1 sound, French Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, or Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. There are subtitles available in English, Spanish, and French. No problems here either. The songs aren’t memorable, but they are not annoying either.
The Extras:
Audio Commentary – This is a full-length feature commentary with the directors of the film, Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, and producer, Bonnie Arnold. The usual stuff here. They explain how they did certain things in the movie and why they did them. Pretty informative stuff as you might expect.
Bonus Animated Short “Hammy’s Boomerang Adventure” – This is an extra animated short film that lasts four minutes. It features the hyper-active squirrel Hammy. It is shot like a home movie; they use a hand-held camera that is “held” by RJ and the kid porcupines. They play a trick on Hammy and give him a Boomerang to play with. It’s funny in parts, but nothing to go seek out and watch right away. There is also an option to listen to commentary during this short from the director, Will Finn.
Verm-Tech Institute Infomercial with Dwayne LaFontant – This is a “mock” infomercial for “The Verminator” and his pest removal services. It’s nothing special and it lasts only a few minutes.
Behind the Hedge Featurette – This featurette is about how they came up with the story and everything about the movie, without going into too much detail about the technical aspects of the movie. That comes later. Pretty informative as well.
Meet the Cast Featurette – Here is the featurette where we meet the voice cast used in the film. There is a large and diverse cast and it’s neat to hear their take on the characters, since we don’t have time to focus on all of them in the movie.
The Tech of Over the Hedge Featurette – This is the featurette where they get into the technical aspects of the movie. They tell you how they created the animals and the inspirations behind them along with everything else you want to know about the computers involved in making the movie.
DreamWorks Kids (DWK): This Way to Play – This is all of games and activities kids can play on this DVD. The games include “Animal Fun Facts: Critter 411”, “Animator 101: Learn to Draw Hammy”, “Favorite Scenes”, and “Set-Top Games”. I suppose the games are fun for kids to play, but they are pretty much all trial-and-error-type of games. They can be frustrating to play at times. The activities are pretty cool as they teach you a lot of stuff, but they will probably only be entertaining to kids, as you might expect.
This is a good animated movie, but not a great one. Not one that will make us forget all about Shrek. Whether you have kids or not, I think it’s worth at least a rental, if you have enjoyed any of animated films from DreamWorks before. It’s definitely a good addition to their lineup, at the very least.
