Over the Hedge (2006) review

(7/10)

This is just one of those movies you can cut loose with.

PLOT:Afer RJ (Bruce Willis), a raccoon, tries to steal bear Vincent's (Nick Nolte) stash of food for the winter and loses it, he is forced to find a group of helpers to help him replace it before his week's time is up and Vincent eats him. The helpers he finds are a group of foragers who are led by a turtle named Verne (Garry Shandling). They have just come out of hibernation and are already on their mission to fill their log to the top with food for next winter, but there seems to be a problem. A large hedge has divided their woods in half with a human-infested seburbia on the other side. Now the creatures must figure out how to forage for their food. These two storylines collide when RJ comes and shows the family of foragers around town, gathering the food in the meantime for Vincent. As the popular vote would guess, this doesn't go completely well. It's a good, children's movie plot executed very well.



VOICES:The voice cast in here is all-star with the above mentioned, Steve Carell, William Shatner, Catherine O'Hara, Avril Lavigne, and even Wanda Sykes. The voice choices are comical, cartoonish, and fit for each character. The shining voices are Bruce Willis as RJ, Nick Nolte as Vincent, Garry Shandling as Verne, Steve Carell as Hammy, William Shatner as Ozzie, and Avril Lavigne as Heather. I thought Wanda Sykes voice was just as normal as usual with cartoons. Nolte's voice was dark and ominous as it should be. Willis actually has a good voice for animation; I think he should do it more often. Shatner was pretty hilarious. Honorable mentions go to Allison Janney as Gladys and Omid Djalili as Tiger.

SCORE:The score was composed of a couple themes by the great Hans Zimmerman and all songs were done cleverly and relaxedly by Ben Folds. I could just drift off to each song he sings easily. I love his style.

ANIMATION:The animation was pretty good for DreamWorks. I've seen much better, but it's not bad at all. The character faces seemed to be the most detailed.



OTHER CONTENT:This movie's just a good, little movie to cut loose and have fun with. It's nothing serious and nothing bad; it's just something to chill out to. Relax. The jokes were at some points clever, and at others stupid, but I do have to admit that that it has a little something for everybody from young child to teenager to adult.

OVERALL,a good DreamWorks movie with a good children's plot, all-star voices, great score by Zimmerman and songs by Folds, good animation, and some clever jokes with something for everything. It's a nice little movie to watch when you want to just cut loose for a little bit and relax.