lively and endearing

Rating: 7/10 (20 March 2007)

"Over the Hedge" is a high-spirited, fast-paced addition to all those talking-animal animation movies that have flooded the multiplexes over the past several years.
In terms of its setup, "Over the Hedge" provides the flipside to the earlier "Madgascar," in which a bevy of zoo animals traveled out of the city and back to the wilds from which they - or at least their ancestors - had originally come. In "Over the Hedge," the animals are already living in the country, only this time civilization has come to them in the form of a brand new suburban housing tract that has sprung up in their vicinity while the denizens snoozed away through winter hibernation (that's one fast-growing housing development, I must say). Despite the dangers inherent in crossing over into human territory, the animals decide that the abundance of conveniently pre-packaged snack food to be gotten there is just too good to resist and that the benefit to be derived from such foraging expeditions is well worth the risk posed by any irascible, irate humans.
"Over the Hedge" benefits from clever, well-delineated characters, cute facial expressions on the part of the animals, fine voice work from the likes of Bruce Willis, Gary Shandling, Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, Nick Nolte and Allison Janney, and a storyline that moves along at a brisk, action-packed pace, well-suited to the often wavering attention spans of children and adult viewers alike. The jokes are marginal but occasionally witty, and the suburban setting has been lovingly captured in all its spanking-new colorfulness and sparkle.
As animated-animal movies go, "Over the Hedge" is better than most.