Public Servant Lifestyle

Cute animated creatures - voiced by Hollywood a-list stars - investigate a strange new world called suburbia...

Over the Hedge

Over the Hedge is the latest creation from the DreamWorks studios looks set to bloom when it hits the big screen this summer. The animated action comedy from the makers of the hugely successful Shrek & Shrek 2, Madagascar and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Warerabbit has already tested more successfully than its predecessors Shrek and sequel Shrek 2 in a recent research screening in the US, scoring better overall for humour, animation, story, pace and character appeal. Voiced by Hollywood heavyweights including: Bruce Willis, Steve Carell, Star Trek's Captain Kirk himself: William Shatner, Gary Shandling, Nick Nolte and Avril Lavigne, the film is released in the UK in June.

William Shatner

When RJ the racoon (voiced by Die Hard, Sin City star Bruce Willis) is caught pilfering Vincent the bear’s mountainous pile of treasured goodies-junk food stored for his post-hibernation feast-he desperately negotiates for his life, promising Vincent the impossible: to replace everything within a week.

Meanwhile, the bucolic life of a group of innocent forest dwellers is shattered when they awake from their hibernation to discover their forest has been invaded by a horrifying alien presence: the ‘burbs’! They stare out in shock at the spanking new suburbs where their nut trees and berry bushes used to be. Not knowing anything about humans, their neurotic and overprotective leader, Verne the turtle (voiced by the man behind TV's Larry Sanders Show, Garry Shandling) nervously ventures into a backyard only to encounter the horrors of the suburban living: lawn sprinklers, BBQ utensils, S.U.Vs and mountain bikes. RJ, too, has ventured into the suburb as the only place on earth with enough junk food to satisfy that bear.

Little Verne

When Verne returns to the meadow, he vows they will never venture ‘over the hedge’ again. But RJ has different ideas. He sees in the little forest gang exactly what he needs-lots more hands for replenishing the bear’s food supply.

RJ puts his plan into action, ‘accidentally’ meeting the animals and convincing them that the ‘burbs’ are not to be feared, but rather to be embraced. After all, they offer endless smorgasbord of high processed yummies and all types of modern conveniences the animals have never even imagined they needed. He can help them gather enough to feed a bear...

Here's what critics have made of Over the Hedge so far:

"Hums along with such well-greased precision, you can almost hear the industrial cogs and wheels whirring in all their viscous complexity. There's such a knowing swagger about the film's comedy, there seems to be no innocence in the mix at all." - Desson Thomson (Washington Post).

"A charming, clever and crisply paced little confection about small, junk-food-addled mammals that's sure to delight large mammals of any age." - Ted Fry (Seattle Times).

"Brightly animated, frequently hilarious and perfectly cast comedy from the Dreamworks stable - the best of the recent animal-themed cartoon features." - Matthew Turner (ViewLondon).

"As a film buff I certainly appreciated the obscure film references, but gosh, some of these are way dated." - Michael Szymanski (Sci-Fi Weekly).

See also on Lifestyle: Third Time Plucky - DreamWorks' hugely successful Shrek characters are back in Shrek The Third – once again voiced by Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas, on DVD.

Over The Hedge is out now on DVD.

PSP Ltd is not responsible for the contents of external websites.

More information available in Humour, DVD / Home Video