Review: Over the Hedge

When angry grizzly bear Vincent (Nick Nolte) finds his stash of junk food raided by sneaky RJ the Racoon (Bruce Willis), he gives him one week to replace the food. So the enterprising Racoon makes friends with some woodland creatures to help find him some food, fast. However, their leader Verne the Turtle (the late Garry Shandling) rightly distrusts this new comrade, but finds himself ostracised from the group, who welcome RJ with open arms. Amongst the other creatures are the hyperactive squirrel Hammy (Steve Carell), who needs to stay the hell away from caffeinated beverages, porcupines Lou and Penny (Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy) who have adorable accents somewhat similar to the inhabitants of “Fargo” (but much less annoying, you betcha!), Ozzie and Heather (William Shatner and Avril Lavigne), an over-the-top possum and his ‘like totally annoying’ daughter, and Stella the stereotypical sassy ‘Oh, no you di’int!’ Skunk (Wanda Sykes, usually somewhat amusing, especially in small doses, but saddled with an impossible role here). Added to the mix are a Cruella-inspired snooty suburbanite human woman (Allison Janney, a fine actress given little option but to be shrill and unbearable) whose home RJ has pegged as a major source of junk food, and the exterminator (Thomas Haden Church) she hires to rid the streets of the creatures.


Decent but unremarkable DreamWorks animated film from 2006 directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, with a sometimes well-chosen voice cast (though if you’re not a fan of Sykes or Canadian pop-punk annoyance Lavigne, you might find them seriously irritating here). Willis is completely wrong for a role Jim Carrey was originally considered for (talented Haden Church is also poorly miscast as the bespectacled, overweight exterminator. Drew Carey or someone of his type would’ve been better, or at least change the character’s geeky, chubby appearance), and I would’ve preferred Steven Wright in the Shandling role, but Shatner is absolutely wonderful (and totally in his histrionic element) and there’s also fine voice work by O’Hara, Levy, Nolte (in full-on grisly, grouchy mode), Carell (though he is a tad tiresome after a while), and Omid Djalili (as a slightly pompous fat cat, leading to some cute Pepe Le Pew antics with Stella).


It’s just that the story (with a dubious, seemingly pro-junk food subtext to go with the larger messages of team work, and pro-environment stuff) and characters are pretty hackneyed (the human characters are also rather shrill) and the Ben Folds musical interludes are completely boring (it’s like Randy Newman and James Taylor somehow made a love child). Fine animation, but nothing Earth-shattering either.


Not bad, the kids will like it, and you won’t hate it either, it’s just not the equal of “Toy Story”, “Monsters Inc.”, “Finding Nemo”, “Rango”, or even “Shrek”.


Rating: C+

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