{"id":3771,"date":"2006-05-28T16:21:41","date_gmt":"2006-05-28T20:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinemacrazed.wordpress.com\/?p=3771"},"modified":"2006-05-28T16:21:41","modified_gmt":"2006-05-28T20:21:41","slug":"over-the-hedge-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2006\/05\/28\/over-the-hedge-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"Over the Hedge (2006)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MPW-25443\"<\/a>Little known fact for you which is sure to make you popular at parties: Before I knew this was based on an online comic, I thought this was a remake of \u201cPom Poko\u201d. You can see my confusion with these stories if you knew film. \u201cPom Poko\u201d is basically an Asian animated film about a group of animals living among a wilderness who discover that the nature they love is being devoured by houses, cities, and human residents. So, now you\u2019re a better person for knowing that useless trivia. Moving on, I expected nothing from \u201cOver the Hedge\u201d and basically I received more than nothing. I received much of something that came from nothing\u2026 what was I talking about?<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the Hedge\u201d is yet another fun film from Dreamworks that, though many will compare to Pixar, is really of its own breed. Dreamworks aren\u2019t as technically advanced as Pixar, but when they want to entertain they sure can. With films like \u201cShrek\u201d, and now this, their studio really breeds films that are hit or miss (Shrek 2, A Shark Tale). \u201cOver the Hedge\u201d is a hit, and I really liked it. Based on the online comic strip, the film adaptation is a less weighty more childish approach from the comic which is said to be a more subversive cartoon talking about politics and environment. The folks at Dreamworksm though, don\u2019t go through the film without not talking about environment. \u201cOver the Hedge\u201d has ripe commentary about human consumption and our obsession with devouring everything in sight. In one scene RJ tells his friends all about how with humans enough is never enough, and the outside world is depicted as crowded, artificial and shallow. And rightly so.<\/p>\n

After hibernating, the animals in their forest awake to discover that their home has been mowed down and formed in to a suburb with only a hedge separating them. \u201cSteve\u201d as Hammy suggests calling it, separates the group of animals from the world of suburbia. What\u2019s most appealing about \u201cOver the Hedge\u201d is that its cast is perfect. There wasn\u2019t one actor in this that I felt was just collecting a paycheck (ahem\u2014Shark Tale), and they all have their time in the spotlight. Bruce Willis stars as RJ, a selfish raccoon, who despite the warnings of the group leader Verne (Gary Shandling giving a wonderful performance), gets them hooked on junk food and manipulates them into going outside and collecting food. The film is filled with great voice work by Wanda Sykes as an angry skunk, and Eugene Levy and Catherine O\u2019Hara as sweet porcupine parents.<\/p>\n

But the characters who stuck out with me the most were William Shatner who is hilarious as the melodramatic Possum, whose put upon daughter, played by Avril Lavigne, puts up with him and his antics. And then there\u2019s Hammy. Hammy is my favorite. And it\u2019s helped by the fact that Steve Carrell voices him. Carrell\u2019s career has really come into bloom despite some bumps and bruises, but Hammy is a character he embodies and just has a lot of fun with. Hammy, the hyper squirrel is just a laugh riot, and shows that you can be formulaic while being original, and that\u2019s all thanks to Carrell who voices Hammy with intense enthusiasm and makes even the wildest innuendos (\u201cWill you help me find my nuts?!\u201d) into a hell of a catchphrase. But I know the kids will be saying \u201cBut I like the cookie\u201d long after the movie is over. It\u2019s a guarantee.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the Hedge\u201d is such a simple unspectacular film that doesn\u2019t feel bloated with a big budget, and the story and characters are just so much fun to watch. I laughed out loud, I had a lot of fun, and I\u2019m surprised. One caveat towards \u201cOver the Hedge\u201d though, is that beyond the three main characters Verne, RJ, or Hammy, the rest of the cast of characters remain only concepts with vague characterization. The porcupine parents really just stay one note characters, while the father and daughter possum are also relegated to a running gags throughout the film. They\u2019re never focused on beyond their purpose, thus only the three main stars really feel like well fleshed out characters. Though the characterization beyond the main cast is vague, \u201cOver the Hedge\u201d is a surprisingly very good animated adventure that relishes in simplicity, yet is really very entertaining. With a great cast, a fun story, and gags that will have the adults and children in tears, I highly suggest this. Here I thought I was tired of talking animal cartoons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Little known fact for you which is sure to make you popular at parties: Before I knew this was based on an online comic, I thought this was a remake of \u201cPom Poko\u201d. You can see my confusion with these stories if you knew film. \u201cPom Poko\u201d is basically an Asian animated film about a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[71,99,219,340,580,744],"class_list":["post-3771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-adventure","tag-animation","tag-comedy","tag-family","tag-kids","tag-o"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}