Dwayne LaFontant

**Dwayne LaFontant** (also known as the **Verminator**) is the tertiary antagonist of Dreamworks' 12th full-length animated film Over the Hedge (which is based off a comic strip of the same name).

He is an exterminator hired by Gladys Sharp as her henchman in order to get rid of RJ and his friends who are trying to find food.

He is voiced by Thomas Haden Church.

## Over the Hedge

In the film, Dwayne is hired by Gladys to exterminate RJ and his friends.

He is first seen when arrives to get rid of Ozzie (who fake dying in order for RJ and his friends to steal the food), but the possum got away and fled into to the hedge. Dwayne then smells the other animals and also bends over to catch Verne (who is under Debbie's car), but Verne escaped back into the hedge.

Dwayne then gave traps for Gladys which prevents animals from going into her backyard or house including the Depelter Turbo despite that is illegal in every state expect Texas.

Dwayne then tries to capture a flamingo but turns out to be just a plastic flamingo in which angers Dwayne himself. Dwayne then leaves unaware that RJ and the gang are planning to sneak inside Gladys' house.

Later in the morning, Gladys notices the animals in her house and calls Dwayne about it. Dwayne arrives with his gas mask to avoid odors and capture all the animals expect RJ. After that, Dwayne mockingly tells Verne that he has just been "verminated" as well as Gladys getting angry at him and also blames him for the animals sneaking into her house. Dwayne then puts the animals in his van.

But when RJ sees Dwayne driving away with his caged friends. The raccoon decides to save his friends by having the wagon with a bunch of food he already collect. Meanwhile during that, Vincent chases RJ during the van chase. Verne tried to tell everyone that RJ came back, and he is just trying to help which the animals let RJ and defend him from Vincent. When they arrived at their home, the animals crashed into Gladys' house and went back into the hedge, but the three villains tried to kill the animals as revenge but however Hammy drinks an energy drink which freeze the world and cause him to turn on the Depelter Turbo which defeated the villains.

Dwayne is then arrested alongside Gladys by the police and while the latter fight the cops and beat them up. Dwayne sneaky escapes over a fence, only to be bitten by Nugent after stepping one of the dog's toys. It's unknown what happened to Dwayne after this, but it is possible that he was found by the police.

## Personality

Dwayne is evocative, articulate, intelligent, conniving, pertinacious and overzealous man who takes his job seriously and will stop at nothing to exterminate RJ and his friends. He is very intelligent and savvy about wild animals, having graduated with an associate degree from Verm-Tech (where he is employed). He knows animals so much that he's able to pick up scent and identify them even from long distances which is shown when he smells RJ and his friends. Despite doing his job, he is shown to be sadistic toward animals and enjoy ending their lives, such as shown when he evilly laughs when prepares to grab Ozzie with one of his tools (in which shocked Gladys and Janis as the former says to the latter that she certainly hopes that the possum is not in any pain).

Being this profound of his job, he's naturally overzealous and hilariously invested in his character as "The Verminator", acting professionally but throwing rude comments now and then as if he's always speaking his thoughts, like when Gladys asks him about his whereabouts and claiming that she has a party the next day and Debbie's car is killing more animals than him, only for Dwayne to tell her to stand down while referring to her as "sister". Despite his professionally, Dwayne refers Gladys by many nicknames and can sound sarcastic, as shown when Debbie points out the seemingly dead possum Ozzie, he asks her if she had an associate degree from Verm-Tech before pointing out that Ozzie is pretending to be dead and basically wants her to think he's dead.

Despite being intelligent, Dwayne does have some dimwitted and clumsy moments, such as when he mistakes a plastic flamingo for a real one and him mistaking Gladys' bunny slippers for real bunnies as well as also the scene, where he mistakes Vincent for the small animals after getting slapped by the bear.

Despite this, like his boss Gladys, Dwayne also has some redeeming qualities such as him seemingly to love Gladys, despite Gladys not loving him back. Dwayne is also shown to affable, as shown when he was nice to Gladys and the other neighborhood people. Dwayne has shown to have standards which is killing the animals in a humane way (despite Gladys ordering Dwayne to kill the animals in an inhumane way).