A remarkable paucity of fart jokes!

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 2006)

"Over the Hedge" came as a pleasant surprise both for what it was and what it was not. Dreamworks managed to put together a computer-animated feature with a name cast that largely avoided the tiresome pop-cultural references that bog down the genre and make it feel like you've taken your child to "Scary Movie 8: The Cartoon!!!". The few explicit nods to the adults in the audience--Bill Shatner's "Rosebud!" brought tears to my eyes--were restrained and well-done. Fans of Steve Carell and Allison Janney will have many reasons to smile, if not laugh out loud, and everyone else was able to be lovable without ever being cloying, a neat trick. My two-year old was as enrapt as I was: my "Wow! Nick Nolte DOES sound exactly like a bear!" vs. her "Wow! Bear is mean!" In short, a perfect distraction for a sweltering afternoon. The purveyors of "Shrek"-dreck should be taking notes. Be sure before you take the little ones that you're comfortable exposing them to the same Yosemite Sam/Tom & Jerry-level violence to which we were exposed. We turned out alright, right?