Over The Hedge

Over The Hedge

A Cute Family Movie

It’s not a good time to be RJ the raccoon (Bruce Willis). When he tries to steal a hidden stash of food from his friend, a bear named Vincent (Nick Nolte), RJ has a week to replace everything that’s missing or it’s curtains for him!

Just when he’s thinking all may be lost, RJ happens across a small group of animals: Hammy the Squirrel (Steve Carell), Ozzie (William Shatner) and his daughter Heather (Avril Lavigne) who are possums, Stella the Skunk (Wanda Sykes), a family of porcupines that include Lou (Eugene Levy) and Penny (Catherine O’Hara) and the group’s leader, a turtle named Verne (Garry Shandling). The group of animals has just awakened from hibernation and is surprised to find an overgrown hedge (which they nickname “Steve”) that separates the area they live in from suburbia.

RJ sees an opportunity to get free help in gathering the food for Vincent by tricking the other animals into stealing food from the humans nearby. The animals, who have never had nacho chips or cookies before, are amazed. RJ’s plans go awry when Gladys (Allison Janney), the president of the local home owner’s association, calls in Dwayne a.k.a. “The Verminator” (Thomas Haden Church) to take care of the “pests”. He also has his hands full with an increasingly suspicious Verne, who suspects things just aren’t right. Will the animals and suburbia live happily ever after or will they be terminated by the Verminator?

“Over the Hedge” was another movie I was a little wary to see. But I was pleasantly surprised by this one. While the movie is geared towards children, it does have a few elements that adults will appreciate. I especially liked the homage to “Citizen Kane” in the “rosebud” scene with Ozzie. There was also the “Stella!” scene with Gladys’ cat which was reminiscent of “A Streetcar Named Desire”.

I also thought the story was good. The plot was unique and well paced. As far as characters go, I think that Hammy almost stole the show but there are things to like about each character, even the Verminator.

The only downside to the movie could be predictability. It may be easy to figure out where the whole story is going. But, part of the fun is seeing how things unfold in order to get to a happy ending.

“Over the Hedge” is a fun, animated film. It’s a movie that will be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Over The Hedge Movie Mistakes