Over The Hedge

Released: 05/19/06

Viewed: 11:20pm 05/20/06

Starring: Bruce Willis Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, Nick Nolte, Thomas Haden Church, Allison Janney, Aviril Lavigne, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’hara

Directed by: Tim Johnson, Kare Kirkpatrick

Dream Works Official Site of the movie

As soon as I heard about Over The Hedge my reaction was as lackluster as that of the gruesome twosome in today’s comic. I don’t know if it’s just the jaded moviegoer in me, still bitter at Hollywood because the wave in Poseidon was only “kinda big�, that is just tired of the whole talking animal movie, but I have a feeling there are other’s like me out there. Others saying: “Enough is enough! I don’t care how cute and cuddly you are with your giant eyes and nonsensical catch phrases, I refuse to support your machine of consumerism!� You can keep your action figures, plush dolls, and clothing deals with K-Mart. I’m willing to be that K-Mart (or whoever) is still up to their ears in t-shirts featuring the cast of the The Wild, but that their also blissfully selling out of all their Ice Age 2 crap.

It used to be that the animated films paced themselves. 3 or 4 a year. Now it’s at least one a month, and for ever y Ice Age 2 there is another The Wild that gets lost in the shuffle or buried in the rushed DVD of Doogal (or whatever). It’s too much. Give us a chance to want and see an animated movie again.

The timing on Hedge actually seemed to work out as it raked in more than 35 million this past weekend. Were people really ready for another animated film? Are naked turtles that irresistible? Is this the work of the Catholic Church trying to take diminish The Da Vinci Code box office? I actually read an article about a nun trying to convince families to go see Over the Hedge so that Da Vinci wouldn’t do as well. My first thought was that she was working for Dream Works. Joe Dunn – Jaded moviegoer!

Despite my anger at animation overload and cute talking animals, I really enjoyed Over the Hedge. It’s a simple tale told with a quick pacing, a sharp animation style, and a lot of fun. It’s safe for the family and fun for adults, the story doesn’t take any real chances, but I think they make up for it with some clever action and great characterization. It’s not the next big franchise but if it were I wouldn’t be complaining.

The quick pacing is a godsend. So many kid’s movies have a period of downtime where it’s so easy to slip out of the moment and lose interest completely. Hedge has a couple of those moments but their brief enough that the quick return to action and story keeps you interested.

I had high hopes for the voice actors and they didn’t let me down. Bruce Willis is a pro. It’s easy to forget that he helped pave the way for big name actors as voice talent in the Look Whose Talking films. He’s so natural and so casual and it works so well. I was really impressed with Garry Shandling whose cast perfectly as the neurotic worrying turtle Verne. I thought he’d be a token voice but the character becomes so much more because of the uncertainty and vulnerability that Shandling’s nervous whine brings to the role.

The supporting voices are all strong. Each has a great moment (even singer Aviril Lavigne who makes her debut as a teen possum). I especially loved William Shatner’s overly dramatic death scene (don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler. He’s the daddy possum just doing what he does best). It’s Shatner doing what only Shatner can do. It’s a beautiful thing.

The voice performance lined up perfectly with the design and animation of the characters. Really solid animation that wasn’t too stylized or unnecessarily complicated. More to the point the animation style was never distracting. Most people don’t really care how good or bad the animation is but it make s a big difference to me. A movie like Hoodwinked, which had a brilliant story, lost me a couple of times because of its in and out animation. Hedge never comes close to that and actually impressed me with a few sequences. The hair and water are dead on, and there’s this car chase that looked outstanding.

That car chase is part of the final 20 minutes, which had me laughing with delight and marveling at how well they were wrapping up this little tale. The goal of a good animated film, or any story for that matter, should be to establish character, establish problem, and to use what the audience has learned about the character to solve the problem. Over the Hedge does this perfectly as they call back to previous jokes, previous experiences to add extra impact to the climax of the story. Those twenty minutes made the movie for me. For those of you who have seen it, I know you’ll nod in agreement when I mention the caffeine educed fit of Steve Carell’s Hammy the squirrel. Just fantastic.

It was a special surprise to find that Ben Folds wrote the music for the movie. I’m a Folds fan and he has one of those voices that is instantly recognizable. It was a treat to keeping hearing it return. However it was shocking during the closing credits to hear a clean version of his hit Rockin’ the Suburbs. I say “clean� because he changed every lyric in the song accept “Rockin’ the Suburbs�. I instantly thought of that scene with the Red Hot Chili Peppers on The Simpsons where they were asked to change their lyrics for TV.

“There’s no way we’re changing the lyrics. Yeah, man. Our lyrics are like our children.�

“We were just hoping you could change ‘What I got I gotta get it put it in you.’ To ‘What I want is I want to hug and kiss you’.�

“Oh, that’s something everyone can enjoy!�

I’m sure it went slightly differently then that in Fold’s case, and I have very little room to complain because this safe version is funny and still sounds great.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Even though it’s not amazing it was still a whole lot of fun. Fantastic characters that are voiced to perfection and clean animation could lead Hedge to a sequel. I’m just not sure that the thin story of animals digging through garbage was strong enough for one movie let alone two. I’d be happy to be proven wrong though and would gladly buy a ticket opening night to another romp in the garbage with the Dream Works crew.

DVD Worthy?:

Probably not, but I’m so jaded with animated movies these days that the movie would really have to be amazing to make me want to own it. Hedge is definitely above average, but I’m just not that into it.

If you liked this movie check out: Toy Story

There’s more than a few similarities between Over the Hedge and Toy Story. Both have the same vibe of family coming together to achieve a common goal. Both feature a new comer that dethrones a current leader only to learn a lesson and become friends with the former leader. Shandling’s Verne and Willis’ RJ definitely had this whole Woody/Buzz vibe going on. Both movies also feature a cast of very different characters that have special talents, which are used to help accomplish the different tasks. I always think that’s a lot of fun to bring together creatures and characters form different walks of life, and to have them use what they know to help the whole group. There’s some sort of grand lesson in that, and it always makes the animated family a lot more fun.

Toy Story is funnier with stronger animation and more emotion. In the long run that makes for a better film but sometimes, especially with an animated movies, lighter subject matter can go a long way. Hedge is easy and fun. That’s not a big compliment, but it’s not exactly an insult either.

Trailer Hitch: The Santa Clause 3

I was completely shocked to see this movie being made. I think somewhere deep in the back of my mind I knew that it was in production but to see an actual trailer for it was a wake up bomb. Why is it being made? Did the second one really do that well? I guess 140 million is sequel worthy, but I’d really like to see Tim Allen get out of family comedy limbo and start making some real movies again.

My frustration stems from Galaxy Quest, a movie Allen did in 1999, which was absolutely amazing. Smart and funny and an instant classic in my mind. I’m always looking for Allen to come back to movies like this, but I guess in the meanwhile having him do movies like The Shaggy Dog and Christmas with the Kranks will at the very least keep him in the public eye.

Having said all that, it REALLY pains me to say that the 3rd film doesn’t look half bad. Plot wise I think it’s a really fine idea. A nifty dose of time travel finds an evil Jack Frost intercepting the original Santa’s death, and taking the mantel before Allen has a chance. It reminded me of Futurama when Fry travels back to the first scene of the series to find out that his future self was partly responsible for his trip into the future. It’s this whole “your friend form the future is really your father/Terminator/time travel ball of fun. I’m really into that so I instantly perked up.

Down side? Martin Short as Jack Frost. I’m not a Martin Short fan. I’ve always thought that he goes too big. Too over the top, like Robin Williams on speed. I’m NOT into that. I’ll see it for sure though because it will undoubtedly be huge and the chances for it actually being entertaining are good.

Vote incentive:

Vote today to see a continuation of today’s comics. Did you think those terrible twins would actually have a good time at the ice cream parlor? Honestly?

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Non Movie Related Stuff.

I teased over the weekend that I would update today with the best movie of the weekend. Hedge won out, but I’m not saying that The Da Vinci Code was bad. In all honesty it was probably a better all around film then anything else that came out this week, but there’s so much more involved for me to just say: “Oh, this movies better than this movie because of XY and Z.� It’s too complicated. I’ll explore that more in the review, which should be up by Wednesday. Thanks for reading guys.

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