A typical animated family film.

Rating: 6/10 (15 November 2006)

Over the Hedge tells the story of a rogue raccoon that has to gather food for a vicious bear, but he only has a week to do it. He stumbles upon a group of animals living in a park surrounded by a suburban area, and he tells them he can find them food. However, he is actually gathering food for the bear. As the animals befriend him, he ends up getting them into trouble with an exterminator and a woman who lives in the neighbourhood. When the animals find out what he's really up to, they all leave him, but now it's up to him to save them from the lethal exterminator. This movie is entertaining, but compared to all the other animated animal movies for kids, it's nothing special.
Lately an abundance of animated films featuring cute fluffy animals have been released. I remember back in the early 90's when computer animated films with fluffy animals were something new and different. Now these movies just don't seem to have a soul anymore. They're all exactly the same and they follow the same formula. There's always a character that everybody likes, but then they find out that character's a liar or something, and then the character has a change of heart at the end. It always happens. It's the same with this film. It has some really funny moments and a few entertaining scenes, but overall, it's not that impressive because we've seen it all before.
This movie has a great cast. Every voice you hear belongs to a talented actor or actress (except for Avril Lavigne of course), and it makes the movie just a bit more entertaining. The best voice work comes from Bruce Willis and Steve Carell, who do good in their roles.
Overall, this movie has it's moments, but it's nothing new and exciting.
6/10