(detailed information about this entry from Wikipedia)
Over the Hedge is a computer-animated film based on the United Media comic strip of the same name. Directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick and produced by Bonnie Arnold, it was released in the U.S. on May 19, 2006.
Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures (due to Viacom's acquisition of its parent company DreamWorks SKG), the film was rated PG by the MPAA for some crude humor and mild comic action.
A soundtrack, featuring music by Ben Folds, was released by Epic Records and Sony Music Soundtrack.
Plot
Racoon RJ, after unsuccessfully trying to get a snack item from a vending machine, ventures into the cave of the hibernating bear Vincent. While attempting to steal Vincent's cache of goods, as well as his red wagon and blue cooler, RJ accidentally destroys them, and the awakening bear gives RJ an ultimatum: replace everything within a week, or get eaten. RJ finds the new suburban development El Rancho Camelot Estates, where he can steal all the replacement items he needs. There, a community of foragers led by the practical turtle, Verne, awaken from hibernation. He immediately directs his charges — Hammy the screwy squirrel; Stella the attitudinal skunk; Ozzie the hambone opossum and his daughter Heather; and Minnesota-accented porcupines Lou and Penny, and their offsprings Spike, Bucky, and Quillo — to start their yearly search for food to store. To their surprise and trepidation, they discover a hedge: which they call 'Steve' until RJ directs them otherwise. RJ, coming onto the scene, prompts them to scavenge for the food treaures he promises they'll find beyond it, while Verne fears for what traps or predators also await. Yet a determined and desperate RJ gets the woodland creatures to explore. Using a combination of con artistry and caper movie antics, they successfully snatch a wagon full of Girl Scout-like cookies. Seeing this, the whole group except Verne joins in and begins to steal other foods from the neighborhood of overfed, SUV-driving humans, along with other items on the list RJ secretly keeps.
All this prompts the ire of home-owner association president Gladys Sharp, who hires a pest-control specialist Dwayne LaFontaine, who calls himself The Verminator. Seeing this, and disgraced at the other animals' behavior, Verne tries to return everything they've stolen — leading to an action set-piece involving himself and RJ, a chasing dog, a wagon piled high with goods and goodies, and a canister of barbecue propane, and a backyard slide that launches the wagon, Verne and RJ into the sky. The sequence ends with the two animals falling, unhurt, to earth, while the errant, ad hoc rocket crashes in a stylized, mushroom-cloud fireball
On the last day before Vincent comes for him, RJ stages the biggest heist yet, from the supplies of big backyard party Gladys plans for the following day. With Stella the skunk disguised as a cat, in order to distract the haughty guard-cat Tiger, the others raid her kitchen. They're almost in the clear when R.J. spies a can of Spuddies — Vincent's favorite food, and the last item on the list — and in trying to retrieve it keeps the rest of the crew in the house long enough for Gladys to spot them. The Verminator's traps catch all of the animals — all except RJ, who escapes with the wagon of Vincent's replacement goods. As the caged others are driven away, RJ meets Vincent in the woods, where the bear congratulates RJ on successfully conning the suckers and getting what he needed. He paints himself and RJ as two of a kind; which finally pushes RJ to do the right thing and turn on Vincent. Using the piled-high wagon to crash into the Verminator's van, RJ launches a rescue attempt. The enraged Vincent goes after RJ, determined to kill him.
This climactic chase scene swings back to the housing development, with Gladys, the Verminator, and a network of laser-tripwited traps on one side of the hedge, the fleeing animals and Vincent on the other, and RJ essentially in the middle. He uses a highly caffeinated cola to push the already adrenaline-rushing Hammy (notorious throughout the film for his ridiculously high levels of speed and uncontrolled energy) leading to a scene (a type used previously in U.S. TV's The Twilight Zone and with the DC Comics character The Flash) in which the world appears to stand still, while Hammy, strolling along but at super-speed, adjusts the trap controls. As he slows down back to normal speed (seen as the rest of the world gradually speeding up to him), RJ and Verne execute the final part of a plan they'd devised together, leading to Vincent getting trapped and set to be shipped to the Rockies, Gladys fighting with the authorities and being arrested, and the Verminator tiptoeing away from the scene, only to be chased by the dog from before. RJ, having redeemed himself, finds a place with his new surrogate family.
After the credits, the characters return to the vending machine RJ visited during the opening scene, now fully stocked. The entire vending machine is emptied in one shot to the delight of all, but the PUSH bar cannot be moved and no food can be retrieved. Hammy deems the scene "anti-climactic."
Voice cast
Crew
Critics' response
Critical reaction was mostly positive. Film critic Michael Medved gave the film three stars (out of four) and said even though "...the P.C. messages that families come in all shapes and sizes is a bit gratuitous and heavy-handed...." Overall he found the movie "...surprisingly satisfying...." [1] Critic Frank Lovece of Film Journal International found that, "DreamWorks' slapstick animated adaptation of the philosophically satiric comic strip ... is a lot of laughs and boasts a much tighter story than most animated features" [2]. Ken Fox of TVGuide.com called it "a sly satire of American 'enough is never enough' consumerism and blind progress at the expense of the environment. It's also very funny, and the little woodland critters that make up the cast are a kiddie-pleasing bunch" Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper of "Ebert & Roeper" gave the animated movie a "two thumbs up".[3].
Box Office
The film's opening weekend grossed $38,457,003 in 4,093 theaters. As of June 21, 2006, the film had earned $158,358,946 worldwide.[4]
Trivia
- The film was originally announced for a November 2005 release.
- Ben Folds re-wrote the lyrics to the closing song "Rockin' the Suburbs", replacing the teenage angst and nu-metal parodies with a more child-friendly attack on Suburbia. [5]
- The film is the first from DreamWorks Animation SKG to be based on a comic strip.
- Pan-Asian star BoA will debut in the big screen as the voice of Heather in the Korean and Japanese-dubbed versions of the movie.
- Pop star Avril Lavigne debuts in her first film role playing a character and not herself.
- The accompanying video game was released May 9, 2006.
- Jim Carrey was originally announced to voice RJ.
- The stackable potato chips branded Spuddies in the film is a spoof of Pringles chips. In an early trailer, the chip brand was known as Jingles and featured the Pringles logo with a court jester's cap on.
- The film has certain similarities to the Isao Takahata movie Pom Poko. Over the Hedge does not, however, develop the themes of environmentalism or anti-urbanization, and focuses on the animals' harmless preying on the bumbling humans, making the similarities between the two films contextual rather than substantive. As the critic for Film Journal International suggested (link under "References"), a closer comparison might be to Meredith Wilson's The Music Man, which also centers on a slick con artist redeemed by his marks, and finding a surrogate family,
- Two-thirds of the movie's final script were actually written by the strip's creators. However, they had their names removed from the screenplay credit out of protest of the studio's decision to use the film's release in a Wal-Mart cross-promotion, citing Wal-Mart's anti-environmental activities as the reason.[citation needed]
- After winning a Wal-Mart and Microsoft Xbox 360 task on The Apprentice 5, eventual Final Two Sean Yazbeck (eventual winner) and Lee Bienstock (You're Fired #17) have cameos in the film as BBQ Barry and Lunchtable Larry.
- Among the TV series spoofed in the scene of R.J. flipping TV channels in the forest are Dr. Phil and All My Children.
- After the TV parody scene, RJ can be seen huffing out of a bag of OH-NO's brand chips to quell his anxiety. "OH NOES!" is a sarcastic expression of despair in internet slang.
- Hammy said to call the hedge Steve. The voice of Hammy is provided by Steve Carell.
- The lovestruck house cat Tiger yells after a departing Stella, "Stella!!" This is a parody of the famous scene in Tennessee Williams' play, "A Streetcar Named Desire," in which the character Stanley yells for his wife Stella in a similar fashion.
- The video game that the children porcupine play, Auto Homicide 3 is a parody of the Grand Theft Auto series. They play it on a handheld gaming device reminisncent of a PSP.
- During the scene where Ozzie plays dead, he spies a rose bush and mutters, "Rosebud". That is a reference to Citizen Kane in which Charles Foster Kane mutters a cryptic "Rosebud" before he passes away.
- When Verne the turtle is in his shell, he has a short, stubby tail. However, when out of his shell, he has human-style buttocks. This continuity flub is necessitated by two sight-gags involving buttocks, as well as dialogue referencing the tail.
- The logo of Dwayne LaFontaine, the Verminator's pest and vermin control company, featuring a man resembling himself hitting a rabbit with a hammer, is a spoof of a pest control company in California, Nevada, and Arizona; namely one Western Extermination Company, whose logo features a man named Kernel Kleenup with a top hat and suit about to squash a rat with his hammer.[6]
- Hammy uses innuendo when saying "has anyone seen my nuts?" and "I found my nuts!".
- During the rolling end credits, original comics can be seen (e.g., Penny and Lou reading a comic to the porcupine triplets.) Also during the credits, Hammy references Khan Noonien Singh's plot against Captain Kirk in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (which was also distributed by Paramount Pictures and also stars William Shatner, as Kirk).
- The person who plays one of the porcupine triplets, Bucky, is Sami Kirkpatrick, is the kid of Karey Kirkpatrick, one of the directors of the film.
- Both Eugene Levy (Lou) and Catherine O'Hara (Penny) were once regulars on SCTV.
- An Over the Hedge comic strip can be seen in the novelization of this movie.
- While Verne appears in both the movie and comic strip Velma & Plushie don't appear in the film
References
External links
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Over the Hedge (2006) 
Over the Hedge (2006)
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Za živo mejo (2006) (Slovenia)
