Over the Hedge: Predictable ending; hilarious trip getting there

Last night I caught a prescreening of T. Lewis and Michael Fry’s “Over the Hedge” movie with my six year old daughter.  She had an absolute blast and thought the movie was the greatest movie she’d ever seen.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the movie.

• I thought it was very funny, quick paced (good thing), but the ending was highly predictable
• When I talked to T, he said RJ was a lovable scoundrel, but I mostly found him to be a scoundrel.
• Steve Carell who was the voice for Hammy really did a great job – probably the best job of all the voice talent. He really put the life into the character and made Hammy stand out.
• Vern, to me was the star of the show. Perhaps it was because I mostly identified with him, but I think he was the movie’s center. The movie is about the friendship of all the forest creatures, but Vern took center stage.
• Over the Hedge (talking about the comic strip) is a really insightful strip on the oddities of human behavior.  Other critics of the movie have mentioned how insightful this movie is, but with the exception of the beginning when RJ teaches the rest of the animals about how human’s revolve around food, there isn’t a great deal of insight – which I could counter argue is a good thing. I went to the movie to be entertained, and less so to be taught.
• Bruce Willis seemed very flat and unemotional at times. I’m not sure he was the best pick for the RJ character, but Jim Carey (the first pick for the character) probably would have been too much and would have competed against Steve Carell.
• The movie was very well written and the packed theater that I was in was rolling with laughter.

Another concern I had was some of DreamWorks Animation pictures are loaded with dialog with double meaning or crude language that I’d rather not expose to my younger kids.  “Over the Hedge” is very family friendly and my anxiety of taking my impressionable six year old was not warranted. There were a couple of lines (Hammy trying to find his nuts), but overall, very kid friendly dialog.

Tonight, “Over the Hedge” opens up in theaters across the country.  It goes up against “Da Vinci Code,” but after seeing the movie, I agree with Michael Fry that the two films are vastly different in audience appeal and that OTH is much more likely to have repeat viewings. I’ll probably take the rest of the kids to see it and I’ll look forward to doing so.

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