Over The Hedge

Disney and Pixar have both had a considerably higher average of quality work than the live-action stuff Disney grinds out, and on the whole, Dreamworks has done better with their animated films as well (though their live action track record is better than Disney). I wonder what this tells us about the adults who are in charge of so-called grownup film making in Hollywood? Whatever it tells us, it's happened again: Dreamworks' latest bit of feature-length CGI animation is more clever, inventive and just plain fun than the majority of what passes for "serious" movie making... and it even has a little bit of a serious point to it, as well!

The star of our story is R.J. (voice by Bruce Willis), a racoon who's angered a very nasty bear (voiced by Nick Nolte) by stealing his storehouse of food, and has been given just one week to make up for what he took. Impossible on his own, but not with the help of the group of forest creatures he runs into. Of course, he has to tell a tiny little lie about why he wants them to help and how he considers them his "family"... but hey, a racoon's gotta do what a racoon's gotta do, right?

The cast is perfect: Gary Shandling as the turtle who ran the group until R.J. came along, Wandy Sykes as the proud skunk, Levy and Catherine O'hara as a pair of hedge hogs, William Shatner as an over-the-top, over-acting (quite a stretch, eh?) possum & Avril Lavigne as his daughter, and perhaps the real star of the show, Steve Carrell as a squirrel who's hyper enough that if he actually added any caffeine to his system, he could probably fly (or at the very least win a cross country foot race in just a few hours). Lavigne is a little bland in her first acting role, but everyone else is positively a hoot. Not only are there plenty of laugh-getting lines, but lines that probably weren't especially hysterical on paper come across as funny they way this crew does them... particularly Carrell.
The man (or the squirrell) is genuinely insane... and I mean that in the best possible way.

But what about that serious stuff, you might wonder? Well, the forest animals have just run into a strange new obstacle in their quest to forage for their usual woodland goodies... suburbia. Urban sprawl is quickly destroying any trace of the natural environment where they have made their home, and nobody knows how to deal with an enemy... good old human greed... that's even more powerful than any grizzly bear. This doesn't by any means turn this lighthearted comedy into a somber message movie, but it does add an interesting layer of seriousness into the humor that makes the film something more than JUST a comic romp.

And on top of all that, the film features five terrific new soundtrack recordings by one of the most creative singer/songwriters in pop music today, Ben Folds, that actually don't bring the movie to a screeching halt every time one of them begins (now there really IS a switch!). The film is supposed to be based on a comic strip of the same name. Since I had never even heard of it before reading about the film on Yahoo Movies and IMDB, much less read it, I have no idea how well it translates the source material to film. But as a film, it's nearly non-stop fun that genuinely will appeal to adults and children alike (though mostly for different reasons... though Carrell's squirrel should amuse everyone). And if the comic strip is actually as funny as the movie, the folks who get it in their paper are lucky. Hmm... I wonder what it would take to persuade the Star & Tribune to carry it?