"Hedge Is Better Then The Recent Flood Of Animated Films"

Rating: 7/10 (17 August 2006)

RJ the raccoon must repay a food debt to a grumpy old bear, Vincent. On his quest for food, he comes across a small family of animals living on the side of a hedge. With no food but tree bark and twigs for the group of animals, RJ takes charge as he cons them into gathering food for hi to give to Vincent.
I expected Over The Hedge to join the list of Valiant, Shark Tale and Madagascar as animated films that come and go. While Hedge does take a while to get to the laughs, it's the second half of the film that saves it from being added to that list. It seems that after the success of Toy Story back in the day and Shrek being noticed as a film to bring the animated films out of the closet, many actors are jumping at the chance to add their voices to the colourful characters of animation. Hedge is packed with many big names, who's voices all work perfectly with the characters. Carell is perfect as the always on the go squirrel and Shanter is genius as the always playing dead possum.
The animation is better then expected, with the fur on the tails and the blades of grass all looking very impressive. The only downfall lies within the humans. Much like Toy Story, they humans in this film look amateurish to me. Dwayne, the verminator, looks like he should be voiced by someone like Patrick Warburton, but Church did an honest job at it.
Running under 90 minutes, the film does come and go pretty quickly. It leaves one to think that they could have done so much more with the film. With a slow start, it would seem that Hedge is not really going anywhere, but with the second half of the film, mainly the house raid, Hedge is able to move ahead of the pack. I was surprised by the amount of laughs it got out of me. Hedge is definitely better then the recent flood of animated films, and you'll be glad you gave it a chance.