OVER THE HEDGE : Formulaic, But The Comedy Is Still Worth It...

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2006)

OVER THE HEDGE
Dreamworks' latest computer-animated release OVER THE HEDGE is a truly polished film told in the typical formula. That formula - taking cute(or really ugly) characters, placing them in outlandish situations, have the villain be some stupid human, and sprinkle lots of adult humor and pop-culture references to make it's comedy more edgy. The thing with OVER THE HEDGE is, it manages to take that formula and keep it lively... unfortunately it still can't avoid the label of being a "formulaic" movie.
OVER THE HEDGE tells the story of RJ (Bruce Willis), a scavenger raccoon who lives on his own off of other people's food. However, he makes the mistake of trying to rob Vincent the bear (voiced by an enjoyably evil Nick Nolte) of all his food during hibernation. When Vincent catches RJ in the act, RJ is forced to regather that much food in one weeks time or else he will be "offed" (sound like A BUG'S much?). To save his life, RJ sets out to con a loving family of forest animals led by Verne the Turtle (Garry Shandling) into robbing the local humans of all their food.
OVER THE HEDGE excels at infusing it's story with laugh-out-loud comedy. Even though the storyline is familiar and the characters seem like characteristics, the jokes are fresh and elicits genuine laughter. Also, despite the familiarity of the "cute characters", some of them have such inspired voice work that they manage to stand out. Steve Carrel proves that he is the master of evoking comedy out of any and all situations... his character of Hammy the Squirell is a riot.
The storyline, though familiar & lacking in substance is handled with a brisk and lighthearted pace that makes the film fly by. It even manages to get in some environmental commentary on America in without being too heavy-handed (though at times the whole "people are lazy" bit goes a little too far... don't insult your audience Dreamworks!).
However, the film has some distinct flaws too. Aside from the inspired voice work of Mr. Carrell and serviceable performances from the rest of the cast... this film also features some of the worst voice-over work I've ever heard. Whichever casting agent thought that by casting Avril Lavinge was a good idea should be fired... asap. Sorry Avril, stick to the songwriting cuz this performance was awful. What might have been a better idea was simply hiring her to write the music... b/c whoever they did hire to write the songs was terrible as well. For some reason OVER THE HEDGE felt the need to include 3 musical montages all set to some of the corniest music I've ever heard. All of these montages proved pointless and they brought what is essentially a funny, fast-paced comedy to a screeching halt.
Overall, the good-intentions and genuine laughs won me over. Despite the two major flaws in Lavigne's voice-work and the craptastic music... OVER THE HEDGE remains one of the funniest comedies I've seen in theaters for a while. At this point it's still okay for a Dreamworks' animated movie to fly-by on sheer comedy and joy alone. However, as a warning to Dreamworks, the formula will get old soon and it's time the powers that be over there start to improve and differentiate their animated films... b/c soon enough, genuine laughs won't be enough anymore.
... B ...