May. 17, 2006 - Issue #552: Just the Facts?

Animated film takes familiar genre funnily Over the Hedge

On paper, Over the Hedge—loosely based on the eponymous comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis—has all the trappings of a generic computer-animated feature destined for a short-lived excursion to the eight-dollar rubbish bin.

It’s a subliminal critter’s-eye-view critique of humankind’s environmental footprint. It’s a buddy comedy that reconciles a traditionalist head-of-the-family with the free-ranging, tech-savvy newcomer who steals his thunder. It’s a showpiece for a supporting cast of one-joke anthropomorphisms headlined by a hyperactive sidekick. Yawn.

But don’t let any of this deter you from seeing the film. While it is unapologetically founded on once-reliable kid-flick clichés that have long worn out their welcome, Over the Hedge is the most refreshing feature from the DreamWorks stable since its infancy.

This time, the victims are not clownfish in captivity or domesticated lions too cosy in a zoo, but foragers who come out of hibernation and face-to-face with suburban sprawl. The leads are the turtle Verne (Garry Shandling) and the raccoon RJ (Bruce Willis), who fill the shoes of a cowboy and a diminutive spaceman. The ADD squirrel Hammy (Steve Carell) talks less than the ADD donkey of Shrek, and he’s also funnier. The threadbare plot (RJ needs food to feed a bear; Verne needs food to feed a family; decadent suburbanites have food) plays second fiddle to its kinetic delivery. The animators indulge in slapstick, not flatulence; their aim is silliness, not stupidity.

There is something nostalgic about their comic hyperbole, which is borrowed straight from the jarring language of Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett in the zaniest reaches of the Looney Tunes canon. In one scene, RJ opens a bag of nacho chips and flavour explosions bloom in mushroom clouds visible from space.

The animals walk on two legs, and Verne has a visible butt-crack when he falls out of his shell, but gestures, not appearances, make them humanlike. The characters are more than digital puppets: they are actors who can spin a farce out of melodrama without saying a word.

It is a smart choice to collect all of the hyperactivity in a single show-stealing character, Hammy, and make use of the trait as a device that advances the action. RJ’s guilt-ridden cunning and Verne’s sober caution set a steady tempo of conflict and resolution, as opposed to the sustained barrage of stimuli that plagues so many other CG productions. The story adheres to a familiar pattern of escalation, but it delights in the telling.

Over the Hedge is steeped in genre, but the overcooked comic tropes of animals displaced into human civilization avoid feeling stale.

It reminds us that everything formulaic originates from something that was once novel and fun, and although the novelty is long gone, the right hands can bring back the fun anytime. V

Opens Fri, May 19
Over the Hedge
Directed by Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick
Written by Len Blum, Lorne Cameron,
David Hoselton, Karey Kirkpatrick
Voiced by Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell

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