Over the Hedge (Widescreen) (2006)

"...stays true to its characters and keeps the laughs coming...  Chris Kaltenbach, Baltimore Sun
"Laugh-out-loud funny.  Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight
"...genuinely witty...  Tasha Robinson, The Onion A.V. Club

Editor's Note A ragtag group of forest critters awakes from hibernation to find that their forest has been turned into a suburban housing development in this animated film co-directed by Tim Johnson (ANTZ) and first-timer Karey Kirkpatrick, and based on a comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis. Paternal turtle Verne (Gary Shandling) and his makeshift family--spunky skunk Stella (Wanda Sykes), speedy squirrel Hammy (Steve Carrell), dramatic father opossum Ozzie (William Shatner), and his perpetually embarrassed daughter Heather (Avril Lavigne)--are ready to start the annual forage for food when they discover a giant hedge where their forest used to be. Luckily, charming raccoon RJ (Bruce Willis) shows up just in time to teach them about humans and life on the other side of the hedge, and how much food there is to be had. But what Verne and his pals don't know is that RJ's intentions are not necessarily honorable: this loner needs the food they forage to pay back a large debt to Vincent, a very large, angry bear (Nick Nolte). To make matters more difficult, on the other side of the hedge is Gladys (Allison Janney), the president of the neighborhood homeowner's association, who doesn't take kindly to wild animals. When she calls in the Verminator, Dwayne (Thomas Haden Church), it's all-out war as the animals infiltrate the world of humans. Will the loving forest family emerge victorious, or will the spoils of suburbia run them out of the small patch of land they have left? And will RJ stick by his new family, or just keep looking out for himself? Songs by musician Ben Folds reflect the film's take on the perils of suburbanization without being too preachy.

	Allison Janney - Voice Of
	Bill Damaschke - Executive Producer
	Bonnie Arnold - Producer
	Bruce Willis - Voice Of
	Garry Shandling - Voice Of
	Karey Kirkpatrick - Director
	Kathy Altieri - Production Designer
	Len Blum, et. al. - Writer
	Nick Nolte - Voice Of
	Rupert Gregson-Williams - Original Music By
	Steve Carell - Voice Of
	Thomas Haden Church - Voice Of
	Tim Johnson - Director
	Wanda Sykes - Voice Of
	William Shatner - Voice Of

Box Office
3 star out of 5 -- "With so many likeable, imitable characters playing into every forest creature cliché you could think of, kids will have no trouble picking their favorites and reciting their lines....Fun and exciting to watch." 06/01/2006 p.58

USA Today
"The vividly animated film -- based on a comic strip by Michael Fry and T. Lewis -- has an appealing balance of comic bits and exhilarating action sequences..." 05/26/2006 p.5E

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he hyper-real compu-visuals are gorgeous....Any 'tooner stands or falls on its characters, and here they're an endearing, cheering bunch, larnyxed with aplomb." 06/01/2006 p.48

Sight and Sound
"[T]he lively, solid storytelling should please viewers who hanker for old-fashioned family or even children's fare." 08/01/2006 p.84

Premiere
3 stars out of 4 -- "[Hammy is] one of the funniest new stars out there and the best reason to watch this movie." 12/01/2006 p.132

ReelViews 8 of 10
Over the Hedge, a feature-length adaptation of the popular comic strip, offers further proof that the Golden Age of Digital Animation has come and gone. This is arguably the most entertaining animated film since The Incredibles, but it's not much more than an enjoyable diversion. There are cute CGI animals, clever dialogue, a satirical look at suburban America, and a preachy moral, but it doesn't amount to much. Considering how the marketplace has changed, maybe it's unfair to compare Over the Hedge with the likes of Toy Story, Shrek, and Finding Nemo, but there's a world of difference. Those films engaged audiences of all ages on a variety of levels. This one falls in their shadow in terms of both ambition and achievement. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Once again we get an animal population where all the species work together instead of eating each other, and there is even the possibility of interspecies sex, when a human's house cat falls in love with Stella the skunk (Wanda Sykes). There is also the usual speciesism; mammals and reptiles are first-class citizens, but when a dragonfly gets fried by an insect zapper, not a tear is shed...The encroachment of the forest animals and the efforts of the Verminator in "Over the Hedge" don't approach the wit and genius of a similar situation in the Academy Award-winning "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (2005), but then how could they? This movie is pitched at a different level. But the action scenes are fun, the characters are well-drawn and voiced, and I thought the film's visual look was sort of lovely. - Roger Ebert