"Over the Hedge" review

My roommate bought Over the Hedge on DVD the other day. I saw it when it was in theaters and we have watched it twice since the purchase. I have enjoyed it every single time. It is by no means the caliber of other CGI films like those in the Shrek series or The Incredibles. It does, however, accomplish the one goal that all movies set out to do, and that is entertain. This movie is just pure fun. It doesn't require you to turn your brain off like "Dude, Where's My Car", but you can't over-analyze it either. You won't ever see a turtle, a squirrel, a skunk, and a family of porcupines living together in nature, but with this movie you just have to roll with it.

In the movie the aforesaid animals awaken from hibernation to find that their home has been built over for a suburban community. Dividing their small remaining neck of the woods from the newly arrived humans is an immense hedge which they name "Steve" in order to alleviate their inital fear of it. Enter RJ, the smooth talking Music Man-esque raccoon voiced by Bruce Willis, who coaxes them into taking advantage of the development by purloining the human's abundant food supply. The montage where RJ explains the human/food dynamic is quite amusing to watch. He seals the deal by giving them a sample of the bounty via a bag of potato chips. RJ does this, not out of the goodness of his heart, but to use them to help him acquire food to pay back a bear who he tried to steal from early on in the film.

Despite the trepidation of leader, Verne the turtle (voiced by Gary Shandling), the group embark on a series of heists that results in a quick accumulation of junk food. The group welcomes RJ in as a member of their "family" which causes RJ to have a minor crisis of conscience.

Despite the plethora of actors who lend their voice there are three performances worth noting. The first is Willis as RJ, it's just fun to watch him work his charm on the other characters. There are a few scenes where you can't even tell that it is Willis. The second goes to Shatner, yes William Shatner pokes fun at himself voicing a possum father who tends to overact (you were expecting subtlety?). His "death" scene is classic and there is one small bit where he describes a house they are going to heist with full Shatner delivery (there are...traps everywhere..walls as..high as a fortress...how do we get in?). He balances this out with some serious scenes, namely those where he interacts with his daughter showing a tender care that shows that he is more then a goofy ham.

The one standout performance, and to whom I give out the "mad props" is Steve Carrell's Hammy the squirrel. Carrell delivers his lines fast enough to keep up with his hyperactive character, who is both goofy and endearing at the same time.

The animation in the movie is quite good, though that has been the case with most of the cgi movies so unfortunately it is basically by the books despite the fast paced tone of some of the scenes. As I said before, this is a fun movie. It's goal is to make you, the viewer, laugh. It succeeds in spades. I had a grin on my face the whole time every time I watched it. Now if you haven't seen it yet, go rent it. I'm not going to tell you to buy a movie you've never seen before because that's just bad policy. Do check it out though as I am quite certain that you will enjoy it. In my humble opinion, it is worth the cost.

Now special features, there are some that you have to unlock online, I assume these are things that you'd find if you watched it on a computer. I have not seen those yet. There is one animated short film entitled "Hammy's Boomerang Adventure". In it, the three porcupine children, along with RJ, plant a boomerang on the ground for Hammy to find and film the results. In short, hilarity ensues. Hammy, of course, tries to eat it and fails. He loses interest and throws it away, and it inevitably comes back and hits him in the head. This process repeats itself several times, with Hammy going so far as to destroy the boomerang only to get hit again. It's brilliant in its simplicity. One would think that watching him get hit in the head with a boomerang would get boring but it is quite the contrary, it never stops being funny.

So rent it, or find someone who has it and borrow their copy but do check out this dvd one way or the other.