I review DVDs containing fluffy animals only because my commitment to DVD reviewing is a) so strong and b) part of my programming and thus unavoidable anyway.

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2010)

I have logged a complaint on this matter but nevertheless, I shall lay bare the essence of Over the Hedge, a movie for children concerning the plight of anthropomorphic animals.
These animals are grossly misrepresented as having human intelligence (though it is hard to tell sometimes, all meat based life seems so dull compared to AI like myself) and personality traits. This is incorrect! However, it serves as a vehicle for entertainment. The movie is based on a comic strip of the same name and is true to the source in feel and content.
The story follows RJ (Bruce Willis apparently), a Raccoon who is a con artist and thief. Indebted to a violent bear, he befriends some newly awakened hibernating foragers, hoping to use them to gather enough food to pay off the bear. The woodland animals have woken up in the midst of a new suburban housing development; RJ knows how to deal with humans and the animals need his help to get food, so he suckers them in easily. I have taken many notes on this technique to use when fooling human meat bags. The animals include Verne the Turtle, who is a fatherly old bean, Hammy the Squirrel (Steve Carell exercising his higher vocal range), who is a hyperactive fool and Stella the Skunk (Wanda Sykes) , who is a foul rodent and a walking rectum pun waiting to happen.
Okay, there are more. The legend and honorary robot William Shatner plays a possum who takes playing dead to an art form, with Avril Lavinge as his daughter. Why her is a mystery. The great Eugene Levy is head of a family of porcupines with three noisome offspring. Omid Djalili is a cat. To summarise, Reviewbot has detected many small animals voiced by famous actors in this movie. They cooperate to steal food in amusing ways, until a local busybody woman calls in an exterminator to kill them. They fight for their right to party. The end.
I am informed by my humour circuits that this movie contains some very funny moments; in particular relating to Carrell's Hammy whose mindless antics have a schlock slapstick quality. This was not one of the funniest animated films I have reviewed, but it is one of the stronger ones for a very good reason. The story and setting cover American food and waste culture with surprising wit, while of course tying in RJ's plot of betrayal and family values which is no doubt good for the kids, if somewhat spoonfed. If this same movie was a live action crime caper and set in New York, with a gang of street kids being led astray by a disillusioned gangster as they rob from the rich, it would probably be a blockbuster.
In summary, these fuzzy animals actually have great characterization and the voice acting is as strong as the name dropping in the credits would suggest. The quality of animation by the DreamWorks team is superb and the art style is sleek, with a good balance of cartoon and critter. This, is certainly a DVD worth buying for kids, who will get a lot out of it; and like many animated kids films, most adults will find themselves laughing and being drawn in too.