Over the Hedge: A Must See

Simply DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge does just that: going over the deep end for hilarious events and wonderful animation. Over the Hedge starts where RJ the raccoon goes into Vincent’s cave to take some food. Or the entire stash. When RJ is caught and the food is lost, Vincent gives RJ within six days to replace everything, or he will eat RJ. As RJ tries to conjure up a plan to escape the bear’s jaws, he stumbles onto a group of critters with a problem of their own. It is time to find food, but half the forest is gone due to suburban construction while the critters were hibernating. Also a hedge was put up during that time period. This leads RJ to get his plans rolling, and where the fun begins.

Since DreamWorks’ Shrek, the animation studio had troubles to provide good storylines and strong plots. In observation, the studio has failed to come up with projects that would not resemble a likeness or a mock of Pixar (A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo). For those movies that did ended up as distasteful ideas with multiple pop culture jokes and huge named stars to save them. However, that does not seem to work for computer animation. Other than Shrek, Shrek 2, and Madagascar, DreamWorks tend to miss. With Over the Hedge, they were able to score a hit.

Based off some characters of the popular syndicated comic strip, Over the Hedge provided animation that tends to show growth from DreamWorks’ previous movies. Including Shrek. The detail work for the animals was greatly visibly. The fur for Vincent and RJ, as well as for Stella the skunk. Also the needles for the porcupine family were well done. The lighting and shading brought realism to the characters for both animals and humans in the film. However, I felt that the humans could have been done a little better. DreamWorks tended to focus more on the animals and the main two human characters than focus on the others.

Another good thing for this movie was the voice actors. DreamWorks has always gotten big named entertainment stars to do the voices . . . hoping to get more involvement from the audience. The characters in the movie actually work along side with the voice actors. When Jim Carrey did not fulfill the role for RJ, Bruce Willis stepped in to give a raccoon a scheming charm. This is good because Willis has done voice acting in his career (Rugrats Go Wild, Bruno the Kid). Another good fit was Steve Carrell for Hammy the squirrel. The character needed zaniness and humor, and Carrell delivered with every syllable spoken. Other actors and actresses that completed the cast made the movie more enjoyable and humorous. Especially Wanda Sykes playing Stella. Every time she started to talk in her sassy tone I could not stop laughing.

Not many pop culture jokes were provided in this movie compared to the previous ones. This was definitely a big plus for DreamWorks to not rely on multiple populated things to make a movie hilarious or great. A lot of work went into the script for this to go well.

The dialogue was truly a delight to listen and watch. Tensions flared amongst the animals closer to the end of the movie, giving something for the audiences to relate. Plus, unlike Shark Tale, this plot has depth and motive. RJ continues to tell the animals that the humans revolve around food in every way. Exercising to lose weight to eat more food, worshiping food (prayer before eating), using vehicles to deliver food, and disposing food by throwing it away. A lesson being taught to the audience that over eating and an unhealthy diet can cause some problems. This was not said generally in the film, but the movie does point out that more people are continue to eat unhealthy, or that people eat too much. It reminds me of Too Much by Dave Matthews Band.

Over the Hedge is a step further for DreamWorks to explore making great animated films. This film was better than Shrek in many different ways and levels. Not much songs being played in the movie to promote the soundtrack, and it is finally a movie where both adults and children could actually enjoy and understand. My rating for this movie would be 3 �½ out of 4 stars. It is truly a must see film.