Over the Hedge Review
by samseescinema (sammeriam AT comcast DOT net)May 19th, 2006
Over the Hedge
reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
rating: 3 out of 4
Director: Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick
Cast: Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, William Shatner, Nick Nolte
Screenplay: Len Blum, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton, Karey Kirkpatrick MPAA Classification: PG (some rude humor and mild comic action)
In a bout of scheduling wit, the publicity company that handles the screenings in my area held showings of Cars and Over the Hedge on the same day. The differences between the films are not what each production company's filmographies reflect: Where Cars sputtered and died in its opening act, Over the Hedge rose to the occasion and stomped all over Pixar's pristinely held track record with bright audacity. Both films were surprises, granted, but in an inversed direction. Dreamworks Animation has finally found their footing, having struggled to grasp a healthy balance between wit, digital art, and story with their previous projects (Shrek, Shrek 2, Madagascar, Antz, Sharktale). Over the Hedge finds firm success in each of these categories as Pixar tumbles into a bout of nursery rhyme boredom.
Originality, however, isn't one of Over the Hedge's most prominent features. For all intensive purposes, the story mirrors Pixar's maiden voyage, Toy Story. RJ (Bruce Willis), the lone Raccoon, has found himself in a bind: He's made enemies with Vincent the Bear (Nick Nolte) and now must gather a wagon-load of junk food and a blue cooler to replace what he's lost in a food-rummaging expedition to the sleeping bear's cave. He has a week to replace Vince's stuff or RJ becomes an entrée.
Just waking from their winter slumber, a motley crew of forest animals emerges from their log to greet the spring. Vern the Turtle (Garry Shandling) leads the crew that includes Ozzie and Heather the Possums (William Shatner and Avril Lavigne), Stella the Skunk (Wanda Sykes), Lou and Gladys the Porcupines (Eugene Levy and Allison Janney), their three Porcupine children, and finally Hammy the Squirrel (Steve Carell). Being gathering creatures, they're main objective for the Spring, Summer, and Fall is to gather enough food to last through the next hibernation. Problem is, where there used to fifty acres of forest is now fifty acres of suburban development. Vern, acting as Over the Hedge's Woody from Toy Story, decides they'll just have to make due and gather as much as their besieged forest can provide. RJ drops in to visit, acting as the film's Buzz Lightyear, and assumes control of the group's gathering, showing them the resplendent wonders suburbia offers in the way of animal dining. Vern's skeptical of RJ, and rightfully so; the raccoon is only looking to use Vern's group to gather food to repay Vincent. Over the Hedge carries on with this tug-of-war power struggle between Buzz and Woo-err...RJ and Vern, but still finds room to work in some well-deserved jibes at the middle-class American phenomenon.
These days it seems any fool with a computer can paint pixels into digital artwork. And now computer animated films don't strive for realism, but instead look for style. Madagascar, for instance, seemed strongly influenced by the pesky cartoons found causing trouble in your child's picture-book. Over the Hedge takes Toy Story's approach in settling for a slightly off-kilter realism. There's enough room for error here to let Hammy the Squirrel jolt back and forth in a frenzy of motion, forming a visual counterpiece to Carell's crazed voice-acting. And the funniest moment in the film is a neatly wrapped gift of the animation: Vern simply chewing on a piece of bark. It had me embarrassed to be laughing so loudly.
But computer animated films have the tendency to over-indulge in their visual quirks, relying on the art's hilarity to carry an otherwise moot tale. Over the Hedge avoids such a pitfall with a twist of satire. Suburbia is observed from the animals' perspective, where our many comforts are put into brutally simplified focus. Food, to the animals, is our only interest. We have gadgets to order it, places to worship it, pills to counteract it, machines to eliminate the guilt surrounding it, and shiny trashcans to throw the gluttonous excess away. And along with satirizing our obsession with food, Over the Hedge takes jabs at the Home Owners Association, Girl Scouts and SUVs; all indulgences of our suburban living. Satire, however, takes a backseat to a gleeful wed between characters and animation; the best of which are RJ's many missions into the neighborhood for food. An intricately planned attack on a pair of Girl Scouts to steal their cart of cookies is one of the funniest.
Attacking Girl Scouts, seducing French dogs, monitoring security cameras, and sidestepping an extermination device illegal in every state in the continental United States makes the creatures of Over the Hedge into regular Ethan Hunts. But the film is sharp and delectably charming, filling the hole that will be gaping from Cars' upcoming monumental letdown.
-www.samseescinema.com
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