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Over the Hedge
Over the Hedge poster
Directed by	Tim Johnson Karey Kirkpatrick
Produced by	Bonnie Arnold Christian Kubsch
Written by	Len Blum Karey Kirkpatrick Michael Fry T. Lewis
Starring	Bruce Willis Garry Shandling Steve Carrell William Shatner Wanda Sykes Nick Nolte Avril Lavigne
Music by	Rupert Gregson-Williams Ben Folds
Editing by	John K. Carr
Studio	DreamWorks Animation Pacific Data Images
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	May 19, 2006 (2006-05-19)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Gross revenue	$335,206,062[1]

Over the Hedge is a 2006 computer animated film based on the characters from United Media comic strip of the same name. Directed by Tim Johnson , Karey Kirkpatrick and produced by Bonnie Arnold, it was released in the United States on May 19, 2006. The film was released by DreamWorks Animation and distributed through Paramount Pictures. The film features the voices of Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, William Shatner, Wanda Sykes, Nick Nolte, and Avril Lavigne.

Plot

RJ the Raccoon, while foraging for food, encounters the hibernating bear, Vincent, and his large cache of food. RJ tries to steal it, but instead causes the food to be crushed in traffic on a nearby road when a truck crashes into it. Vincent threatens to kill RJ, but RJ quickly promises to replace Vincent's foodstocks within the week, when Vincent is fully awake from his hibernation. RJ discovers a nearby human suburban community, an optimal source for his task, and encounters a group of woodland creatures that have just woken up from their own hibernation in the only undeveloped forest that remains surrounded by the community (the urbanization was erected while in their sleep). The group is led by Verne the box turtle, and includes the hyperactive squirrel Hammy, Stella the skunk, father and daughter opossums Ozzie and Heather, and a family of porcupines, Lou and Penny and their children Spike, Bucky, and Quillo. The animals quickly find that a large hedge was put in place while they were sleeping to separate them from the rest of the human development, and are afraid to venture on the other side.

RJ uses the opportunity to introduce himself to the group and explain that they could have better food by scavenging off the humans. Though Verne is wary of RJ's plans and believes he may be using them, the group of animals quickly find that RJ is right, and begin raiding the human development repeatedly for food. The disappearance of food does not go unnoticed, and the development homeowner association president, Gladys Sharp, calls in the help of a pest control specialist, Dwayne LaFontant, aka "The Verminator", who installs an overpowered extermination system in her backyard while trying to track down all the animals in the world. Despite close calls with Dwayne, the group of animals continues to gather food from the humans, RJ secretly making sure the food collected will replace Vincent's stock exactly. RJ is brought in as part of the pack's extended family, making him feel guilty about hiding his true intent from them. When RJ tries to approach Verne about it, RJ cannot help but lie about the situation. Verne then tries to return everything back to the humans, but due to being chased by a playful rottweiler called Nugent and coming in contact with propane, all the food is destroyed.

A final raid planned by RJ before Vincent's deadline involves invading Gladys' home, which requires for someone to disarm her pest destroying security system that she bought from the Verminator, who says "it is illegal in every state, except Texas." Before they do that, they need to get someone to distract her persian cat, Tiger; Stella is quickly groomed to look like a cat to draw Tiger's attention away. Though they are able to collect most of the food in the kitchen RJ, inadvertently reveals the truth to Verne as he tries to get a can of Spuddies, which are Vincent's favorites. During their argument, RJ tells the truth about using them to get food for Vincent, and that "if these Spuddies aren't on the menu, [he] will be." The animals are soon discovered by Gladys and Dwayne, and though RJ gets away, the other animals are all captured. RJ takes the food to Vincent, but upon seeing the other animals captured, uses the food to stop Dwayne's van and knock the human unconscious, allowing RJ to free the animals. After apologizing for using the group to his own ends, RJ helps the others drive the van back to the forest, chased by Vincent who floated on balloons, a jester and a knight on a horse. The animals try to take shelter in the hedge, with Vincent trying to claw them out from one side, and Dwayne trying to shock them with a Cattle prod and Gladys trying to use a weedwhacker on them from the other side. RJ and Verne come up with a plan to give Hammy an energy drink, which makes him move at light speed and slow time. This allows him to safely activate the extermination traps while RJ uses himself as bait to lure Vincent into Gladys' backyard (and surprisingly lives because of Verne's shell). Vincent, Gladys, and Dwayne are momentarily confused just before they are seriously injured by the extermination system. Animal control is called to take Vincent to a nature preserve, while Gladys is arrested for the use of inhumane traps, Dwayne managed to slip away only to be attacked by a dog. Stella finds that Tiger still is in love with her despite knowing she is a skunk, as he has long since lost his sense of smell, and both RJ and Tiger are accepted into the group. When Verne realizes that they still need food for the winter, Hammy reveals that he stuffed their log home with nuts.

Characters

• RJ the Raccoon (Bruce Willis) - A loner raccoon and the main protagonist, who is very devious and deceptive. Despite his hard outer shell, however he is revealed to have a softer personality, falling into feelings of guilt over using his new found companions to his own ends and eventually growing to love them. He is also the responsibility for his plans they can really trust.

• Verne the Turtle (Garry Shandling) - A "naturally tentative" box turtle, who is the leader of the foragers. He has his own ways of doing the daily tasks which everyone else goes for, but his world is turned upside down when RJ introduces his chaotic lifestyle into the mix. He is genuinely caring for his family and will do anything to protect them. He is best known for his "tingling" tail when a situation is not right, he uses that as a sign to back off. After RJ saves them at the end, he gives up his place as leader to RJ whom he has finally accepted into their family.

• Hammy the Squirrel (Steve Carell) - A hyperactive squirrel, whose mouth moves as fast as his feet. He is naive and very childish in nature with an extremely short attention span. He often gets on the nerves of those around him, but endears himself to them at the same time, as long as he stays away from the super energy drinks anyway.

• Stella the Skunk (Wanda Sykes) - A short-tempered, sassy Striped Skunk who is constantly being told by the other foragers that she needs a man in her life at the beginning of the film, which she angrily disagrees to. At the end of the film, she and Tiger, Gladys Sharp's pet Persian cat, fall in love.

• Ozzie and Heather (William Shatner, Avril Lavigne) - A possum father and daughter who see the world from different points of view. Ozzie is often embarrassing Heather when he feigns death to get away from danger. Heather proves to be much like her father when she pretends to die in front of Gladys, fooling even him.

• Lou (Eugene Levy) - A father porcupine and family patriarch with an over talkative and optimistic attitude. He is very observant, and along with his wife Penny, try to keep their children and the other animals in line.

• Penny (Catherine O'Hara) - The porcupine matriarch and optimistic mother who shoulders the weight of a family with her husband. She serves as a ground between their family and the other animals. Penny is known for saying "Jeepers!".

• Spike, Bucky and Quillo (Shane Baumel, Sami Kirkpatrick, Madison Davenport) - Lou and Penny's three identical sons. They are big on video games and the most enthusiastic about encountering the world beyond the hedge. They often catch even their parents by surprise with their talents and their tenacity to have fun. When they get in the house, one of these kids accidentally jumps on the remote turning on the TV screen that first reveals the THX logo with a blue background and its noise blowing his quills away and the other two activate the camera to veiw Gladys' bedroom.

• Tiger (Omid Djalili) - A Persian feline whose sense of smell has eventually faded to nothing after years of his "beautiful" evolution, allowing him to be near Stella without smelling her. His name, he states means "I am Persian" in its full translation. Tiger was born "Prince Tigerius Mahmoud Shaboz." He is lovestruck when Stella stands up to him, as he had never been spoken to in such a manner. He acts tough, but he's a regular pussy cat around his friends. He joins Stella and the others in the "Outdoor Woods" at the end.

• Vincent the Bear (Nick Nolte) - A massive black bear and the main antagonist from whom RJ attempts to steal his food stock. He uses his intimidation and nasty behavior to scare RJ into gathering his stocked food back for him and calls RJ just as vicious as he is. Like RJ he is a loner, but does not open the opportunity to care for others, unlike RJ. When tortured in a cage with his fur burnt, he is being sent to the Rocky Mountains.

• Gladys Sharp (Allison Janney) - The leader of the Camelot Estates Home Owners Association. She is disgusted by animals, is very strict on HOA rules. She hires an exterminator to eliminate the pests that have overrun her neighborhood, and is well noted for using a giant SUV only for herself. She appears (not surprisingly) to be a single business woman. She is one of the main antagonists of the film.

• Dwayne LaFontant (Thomas Haden Church) - An overweight, overly zealous pest exterminator who works for Gladys Sharp. He is often fooled by garden flamingos when he jumps out and shoots a net at them but their heads crack and he gets disapointed, but has innate sense of the animals surrounding him. By smelling he can detect the species and sex of all animals that have recently been in the area. Despite all that he is rather dull witted and loves his job (almost as much as Gladys Sharp does).

Two minor human characters, appearing during the dog chase scene, were voiced by Lee Bienstock and Sean Yazbeck, two participants on The Apprentice 5 as part of a reward for winning a task.

Reception

The film was screened out of competition at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.^[2] The film's opening weekend grossed $38,457,003 in 4,093 theaters. As of February 25, 2007, the film had earned $335,204,526 worldwide.^[3] Critical reaction was mostly positive with the film being rated 74% on the Rotten Tomatoes movie review aggregate site. 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"^[4] 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".^[5] Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper of Ebert & Roeper gave the animated movie a "two thumbs up".^[6][7]

DVD

A short film titled "Hammy's Boomerang Adventure" was released with the Over the Hedge DVD. Over the Hedge was released on DVD October 17, 2006.

Soundtrack

The official soundtrack album of the film was released in 2006.

Videogame

References

External links

• Official website
• Over the Hedge at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Over the Hedge at Allmovie
• Over the Hedge at the Internet Movie Database
• Over the Hedge at Rotten Tomatoes