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Over the Hedge Movie Review


What James Says : This weekend my whole family went to the movies. We went to see Over The Hedge,

Everybody really liked it, even my 81 year old Grandmother thought it was funny. My two little brother's favorite character was the nutty squirrel Hammy (Steve Carell). I think he was my favorite, too.

My little sister thought all the animals were cute but her favorite part of the movie was the beginning with R.J the raccoon (Bruce Willis). Dad liked the animal catcher, Dwayne "the Verminator " (Thomas Hayden Church). He said he was funny even though he is one of the bad guys (if you are rooting for the animals, anyway).

My Grandmother liked Stella (Wanda Sykes), she said she was "one spunky skunk!" My Mom liked the Daddy possum, Ozzie (William Shatner), and the Daddy porcupine, Lou (Eugene Levy). She thought they were hilarious.

The other important characters were Verne (Gary Shandling) - the turtle, leader of the animal family, Heather (Avril Lavigne) - Ozzie the possum's teenage daughter, Penny (Catherine O'Hara} - Mrs. Porcupine (Lou's wife), Bucky (Sami Kirkpatrick), Spike (Shane Baumel) and Quillo (Madison Davenport) - their three little porcupines, Gladys (Allison Janney) - the lady who lives on the other side of the hedge, and Tiger (Omid Djalili) - Gladys's house cat.

There are way too many funny things in this movie to list them all. My two favorite parts included one that my Mom was not too crazy about, when Hammy burped the alphabet! The other one was when R.J fooled Hammy into making believe he had rabies so they could swipe a wagon full of Girl Scout cookies. All the kids laughed a lot.

There were some funny things that the little kids didn't understand, they just watched the movie and didn't laugh for those parts, but I did. Two of the scenes with Vincent (Nick Nolte) the bear were a little scary, but not too scary for younger kids. It really is a funny movie and in the end the raccoon, R.J. learns a really important lesson. I think that this is a fun family movie, good for all ages.

What Mom Says : Over the Hedge, rated PG for some rude humor and mild comic action, opened in theaters on May 19th. Running time is approximately 80 minutes,

It is an adaptation from a popular comic strip called The Hedge.. Although a bit different from the comic strip, it is a fun movie to see.

It is the story of a rascally, nomad raccoon RJ ( Bruce Willis), who gets into trouble with a big old bear, Vincent (Nick Nolte). While looking for a way to get himself out of trouble he comes across this timid group of woodland animals who live together as a "family" in the woods outside suburbia. It is spring, and they have just woken up and discovered life in the woods has changed while they were asleep.

They are afraid of humans because their leader, Verne the turtle (Gary Shandling), has a terrifying encounter with human children that scares the daylights out of him. But in order for RJ to accomplish his task, he must convince these shy critters that good things lie on the other side of that hedge (that they have named Steve, "so it wouldn't seem so scary" ) that separates them from the suburban sprawl that sprang up over the winter.

At the encouragement of RJ, the animals slowly venture over the hedge to discover a whole new world of cookies, junk food, and "shiny silver cans" full of food waiting to be taken, but as they get closer to the humans, they find their comfortable, happy family life may be in jeopardy.

There was a bit of crude humor, burping, and quite a few passing gas jokes made by the skunk. along with some slapstick roughness. There was also a reference to drinking caffeine to speed you up. Add to that a couple of mildly scary parts where the raccoon is dreaming of being eaten by the bear.

In all it was a good rainy day activity, cost of the tickets aside. Most theaters offer a discounted ticket rate if you go to the early or first show. You might consider inquiring about the new reward programs many theater now have, usually free to join. It works like your grocery store discount card and it accumulates points toward free popcorn, soda, or tickets. It's worthwhile if you frequent the same theater or chain. United Artist Theaters, Regal Cinemas and Edwards Theaters have the Regal Crown Club.

The cast line up is great, the movie is fun and funny. We talked and laughed about it the whole ride home. Everyone agreed that there seemed to be something funny to everyone. We also discussed the reason that Vern seemed to be so mild-mannered and what the important message of the story really was.

About the authors: James is the oldest of 4 kids. Mom is their Mother, a children's writer, educator & photographer. They live in New York with their Dad and pet dogs, cats, geckos, and turtles.

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