'Over the Hedge' falls short on animated fun
The conflict between man and beast long has been a theme in movie cartoons, from the hunter who killed Bambi's mom, to Elmer Fudd's eternally harassing a certain Bugs, to bulldozers upending the natural order of warrendom in Watership Down. In Over the Hedge, a ho-hum adaptation of the long-running Mike Fry/T Lewis comic strip, furry, four-legged scavengers terrorize oversubscribed suburbanites and vice versa. The humans see the animals as vermin; the animals view Homo sapiens as exterminators.
The conflict between man and beast long has been a theme in movie cartoons, from the hunter who killed Bambi's mom, to Elmer Fudd's eternally harassing a certain Bugs, to bulldozers upending the natural order of warrendom in Watership Down.
In Over the Hedge, a ho-hum adaptation of the long-running Mike Fry/T Lewis comic strip, furry, four-legged scavengers terrorize oversubscribed suburbanites and vice versa. The humans see the animals as vermin; the animals view Homo sapiens as exterminators.
DreamWorks' computer-animated feature has the crisp, bright sheen of the studio's Shrek hits, but it doesn't have the same witty, multigenerational appeal. This one's strictly for kids.
The protagonist of Over the Hedge is a junk-food-fueled raccoon by the name of RJ (the voice of Bruce Willis), who, having stolen and inadvertently destroyed a hibernating bear's giant stash, has but one week to replace the wagon load of comestibles, or else.
A loner, and a liar, RJ befriends a woodland gang - Verne the turtle (Garry Shandling); Hammy the hyper-frenetic squirrel (Steve Carell); Stella the skunk (Wanda Sykes); Ozzie the possum (William Shatner); Heather, Ozzie's daughter (Avril Lavigne); and a pair of porcupines (Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy) and their wee, quilled brood.
The plan: Scale the mysterious hedge that's popped up around them and abscond with the hamburgers, nachos and sundry confections stored in the habitats of the strange humans. The two caricaturish main nemeses: a tightly wound homeowners association president (the voice of Allison Janney) and an equally wired "Verminator" (the voice of Thomas Haden Church).
With jokey jabs at runaway consumerism - gas-guzzling SUVs, lawn-gobbling McMansions, etc. - and a few life lessons about the importance of friends and telling the truth, Over the Hedge isn't by any stretch bad. It's just banal.
Songs are provided by Ben Folds, whose second album was called Rockin' the Suburbs and whose spiky, piano-driven pop gets stuck in syrupy sentiment here.
Early on in Over the Hedge, when the giant verdant barrier still poses a mystery to RJ and his cuddly crew - when what lurks on the other side is a scary unknown - thoughts of a cartoon version of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village sprang to mind. A computer-generated William Hurt, cautioning his commune about the dangers in the woods and the kooky critters that lurk within? Now that's a movie!
Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.
Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/stevenrea.
Over the Hedge ** 1/2 (out of four stars)
Produced by Bonnie Arnold, directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, written by Len Blum, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton
and Kirkpatrick, music by Rupert Gregson-Williams, songs by Ben Folds, distributed by DreamWorks Animation.
Running time: 1 hour, 27 mins.
RJ. . . Bruce Willis
Verne. . . Garry Shandling
Hammy. . . Steve Carell
Stella. . . Wanda Sykes
Ozzie. . . William Shatner
Parent's guide: PG (cartoon mayhem, rude humor, adult themes)
Playing at: area theaters