Movie Review: Over the Hedge
DreamWorks Animation Film Stars Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling
May 19, 2006
Over the Hedge is Dreamworks' big summer CG offering and, overall, it works. There's a lot of talent on both sides of the lens to seal the deal, but one wishes writers Len Blume and Lorne Cameron suffered from a less overactive social conscience.
The plot: RJ (Bruce Willis), a con-artist raccoon, enlists a cadre of naïve forest creatures led by nervous turtle Verne (Garry Shandling). RJ needs their unwitting help to poach enough food from a nearby suburban tract so that he doesn't become dinner for hungry bear Vincent (Nick Nolte). However, hysterical yuppie Gladys (Alison Janney) and the paramilitary Verminator (Thomas Haden Church) stand in their way. Hijinks ensue.
Like many animated comedies, the story is mainly there to set up the gags, and the cast doesn't disappoint. Willis anchors the film with his usual brand of cocky schtick and Shandling handles the straight-man role with aplomb. The two standouts are Steve Carell as a hyperactive squirrel, and William Shatner turns in his best work in over 24 years as a histrionic possum. On the other hand, Avril Lavigne does little with her adolescent-possum-saddled-with-a-dorky-dad role and Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara are wasted as porcupine parents.
Unfortunately, Over the Hedge doesn't quite trust its basic premise, and feels a "family movie" should give important life lessons along with the guffaws. Therefore the movie screeches to a halt every so often to deliver a Ben Folds song or a heavy-handed homily on the importance of family. The cast has to work extra hard to kick the film back into high gear once the "message" has been clubbed into the audience's skull. Less compulsive moralizing would have taken Over the Hedge over the top.
Movie previews with Over the Hedge include trailers for Garfield 2, Barnyard and Flushed Away.
