Over The Hedge

Over The Hedge, directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirk Patrick


Over The Hedge is another Dreamworks picture, released in 2006 and seeing as I am a big fan of animation films I was looking forward to this being shown in the Aberystwyth Students Union in early 2007.

The plot centres around Rj who is a racoon (voiced by Bruce Willis) who gets into trouble with a bear and in order to repay his debt he must get certain items for the bear. So he comes across a family of creatures such as Verne the tortoise (voiced by Garry Shandling), Hammy the squirrel (voiced by Steve Carell) and Stella the skunk (voiced by Wanda Sykes), amongst others. He tricks them into helping him go over the hedge and into surburbian human surroundings in order to get the items, however Verne is suspicious of Rjs intentions whilst everyone else is oblivious.

I would have to say that this movie is very funny from start to finish and the voices of the characters are brilliant with a particular mention of Steve Carell, who plays Hammy. Hammy is crazy and even the slightest energy drink will make him hyper, in addition Bruce Willis is ever reliable and he plays the voice of RJ who is sneaky and clever.

The animation is of a high quality and is visually impressive, one scene that stood out was the actual breaking into a house like a 'mission impossible', and a memorable moment is where Stella has to disguise herself as a cat and has to flirt with Tiger (a cat who is guarding the house). After the actual breaking in of the house, RJ eventually gets found out and learns the meaning of friendship and family because he realises that he belongs with them. He feels deep sorrow and tries to save one of the creatures who tried to scam their way to gettin food from the humans.

So the moral messages for children are firmly established, the ideal of family values and how you should stick together, protecting one another but at the same time it is one for the adults as well with more grown up humour. A definite hit and uncontrollable laughs throughout makes this a must see film for people of all ages.