Over the Hedge

November 14, 2006

The Bruce Willis Raccoon tries to steal food from the Nick Nolte Bear, but gets caught in the act and the food gets destroyed. Nick Nolte Bear demands replacement in a week or he’ll eat Bruce Willis Raccoon. Bruce Willis Raccoon encounters a family of forest critters led by the Garry Shandling Turtle. Bruce Willis Raccoon introduces the critters to suburbia and they invade homes to collect food. Garry Shandling Turtle has a bad feeling about this, but of course, no one listens to him – not even the William Shatner Possum. The Allison Janney President of the Homeowners’ Association is grossed out by the critter invasion, so she calls the Thomas Haden Church Exterminator. The critters go on one last mission to get food, which involves a reverse Pepe Le Pew type seduction by the Wanda Sykes Skunk. (Although this is purportedly a family film, be warned that she deposits a cork in her anus.) Hilarity ensues and all of the critters get captured – except for the Bruce Willis Raccoon. Fortunately, the Bruce Willis Raccoon has a change of heart and rescues the critter family, but the real hero is the Steve Carell Squirrel, all hopped up on an energy drink. They all live happily ever after in the forest, feasting on Steve Carell’s nuts. (I ask again – this is a family film?)

All of the actors are just playing animated critter versions of themselves, with the notable exception of Steve Carell. I wasn’t even wowed by Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara. It’s possible that Avril Lavigne is illiterate and had to learn her lines phonetically. Voice-wise, the whole thing felt phoned in. The animation was the standard Dreamworks computer animation, nothing special. My expectations were not high for a movie based on a comic strip that I’ve never read…or never even heard of, yet Dreamworks still managed to disappoint me.