Over the Hedge (film)

RJ the Raccoon fails to get a stuck bag of nacho chips to fall from a vending machine. He decides to raid the food stash of Vincent, a hibernating bear; however, when he opens a can of "Spuddies", Vincent awakens, and the food is accidentally destroyed during the ensuing chase. RJ promises, on pain of death, to replace it in a week's time. The bag of chips falls moments later, to RJ's intense frustration.

Meanwhile, a blended family of animals led by Verne the turtle awakens from hibernation and finds a giant hedge has been built between them and their foraging grounds. While the rest of the family (Stella the skunk, Ozzy the opossum and his daughter Heather, Hammy the hyperactive Squirrel, and porcupines Penny and Lou and their three children) stays behind, Verne cautiously goes across, only to find the foraging grounds have been replaced by a housing development. After a frightening experience, he returns and forbids the family to cross the hedge.

RJ, who was watching, feeds the animals the chips and convinces them the humans have better food. He guides the family in stealing food from the humans against Verne's wishes, and they soon fill a hollow log with food. RJ plans to steal it all and give it to Vincent once the time is right. Verne still distrusts both RJ and the humans, especially when his family is chased away by HOA president Gladys Sharp. Hammy is also injured by a Girl Scout while trying to steal her wagon of cookies, and Ozzy is nearly hit by a car. Gladys hiring top exterminator Dwayne LaFontant is the final straw, and Verne decides the safest thing to do is return the food to the humans. RJ intervenes, but the two's arguing awakens a playful Rottweiler who chases them across several yards until the food, as well as Gladys' SUV, is completely destroyed. In response, Gladys makes Dwayne fill her yard with every kind of trap there is, including the illegal De-Pelter Turbo.

The family shuns Verne when he unintentionally insults them for trusting RJ. After a while, RJ and Verne reconcile, and RJ considers admitting the truth to Verne but is interrupted by a supply truck arriving at Gladys' house with food for a neighborhood party. RJ decides to steal it, as he has only one day left. Verne apologizes to the family, and RJ outlines his scheme. Late that night, Hammy goes across to the roof of the house and disarms the traps. Stella disguises herself to romance Tiger, Gladys' Persian guard cat. The others go through the cat flap and load up a wagon with food, while Stella keeps Tiger talking.

Despite having more than enough food, RJ refuses to leave without the Spuddies (Vincent's favorite), and inadvertently tells the family of his true motives. Gladys awakens, and RJ runs off with the wagon of food, leaving the others to be captured by Dwayne. However, when Vincent praises him for the con, RJ's conscience gets the better of him. He uses the wagon of food to wreck Dwayne's truck, knocking out Dwayne and freeing the family. The porcupine triplets drive the truck back to the housing development, with Vincent clinging on and attempting to kill RJ. RJ begs for help, but the others, angry at him for his treachery, refuse, until Verne finally convinces them otherwise. The animals crash the truck into Gladys' house and flee into the hedge. Trapped by Vincent on one side and Dwayne and Gladys on the other, RJ gives Hammy an extra caffeine soda, enabling him to run faster than light speed. Hammy arms the traps, and RJ and Verne lure Vincent across the hedge, where he and the two humans fall victim to the De-pelter Turbo.

The police arrive and arrest Dwayne and Gladys for the illegal use of the De-Pelter Turbo, while local Park Rangers take Vincent away. Once safely back in the woods, Verne explains to RJ that if he had told them the truth from the beginning, they would have gladly helped him to repay Vincent. RJ is officially made part of the family, as is Tiger, who ran away with Stella. They wonder what to do about food, but Hammy reveals that while in light-speed mode, he filled the entire log with enough acorns and nuts to last them the year.

Bruce Willis and Avril Lavigne at the film's premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival

• Bruce Willis as RJ, a raccoon who is duplicitous, selfish, a con artist, and extremely intelligent. Despite his hard outer shell, he is revealed to have a sensitive personality, developing feelings of guilt over using his new-found companions to his own ends. Jim Carrey was originally set to voice the character,[5] but in October 2004, he left the project and was replaced with Willis.[6]
• Garry Shandling as Verne, a naturally cynical ornate box turtle, the leader of the foragers. He has his own ways of doing the daily tasks, but his world is turned upside-down when RJ introduces his free-spirited lifestyle into the mix. Though Verne genuinely cares for his family, he can be patronizing. His shell falls off regularly and is laughed at. He is commonly mistaken for an amphibian despite the fact that he is a reptile.
• Steve Carell as Hammy, a hyperactive American red squirrel, whose mouth moves as fast as his feet. He is naïve and childish in nature, with an extremely short attention span.
• Wanda Sykes as Stella, a short-tempered, sassy striped skunk. She later goes undercover as a black female cat to distract Tiger, and ends up falling in love with him when he reveals he has no sense of smell.
• Eugene Levy as Lou, a North American porcupine. He is Penny's husband and the porcupine family patriarch with an overly friendly and optimistic attitude. He has a strong Minnesota accent.
• Catherine O'Hara as Penny, the porcupine family mother, Lou's wife, and matriarch of the porcupine family; she serves as a ground between their family and the other animals.
• Shane Baumel, Sami Kirkpatrick, and Madison Davenport as Spike, Bucky and Quillo, Lou and Penny's three identical children. They enjoy playing video games, and are the most enthusiastic about exploring the world beyond the hedge.
• William Shatner and Avril Lavigne as Ozzie and Heather, a Virginia opossum father and daughter who see the world from different points of view; Ozzie often embarrasses Heather when he constantly feigns death to get away from danger.
• Omid Djalili as Tiger, a Persian cat; his full Persian name is "Prince Tigerius Mahmoud Shabazz."[7] Initially hating the forest animals, he helps guard Gladys' house from them. However, he joins their family after he falls in love with Stella.
• Nick Nolte as Vincent, a murderous and conscienceless American black bear to whom RJ owes food, motivating the story. He makes a cameo in Bee Movie.[8]
• Allison Janney as Gladys Sharp, president of the El Rancho Camelot Estates Home Owners Association. She is disgusted by animals and is strict on H.O.A. rules. She is not taken seriously by the other residents of the housing development, much to her irritation.
• Thomas Haden Church as Dwayne LaFontant,[9][10] an over-zealous, middle-aged pest exterminator styled as a "Verminator" hired by Gladys. He can detect the species of any animal that has recently been in the area by smell. He spoofs the Terminator.
• Brian Stepanek as Nugent, an excitable Rottweiler whose only spoken word is "Play!". He otherwise communicates by barks.

Two minor human characters, appearing during the dog chase scene, were voiced by Lee Bienstock and Sean Yazbeck, two participants on The Apprentice 5 as part of a reward for winning a task.[11]

The film was originally set up at 20th Century Fox through its Fox Family Films division; however, in February 2001, it was later picked up by DreamWorks Animation under the leadership of its CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg when Fox put the film in turnaround.[12]

Co-director Karey Kirkpatrick and producer Bonnie Arnold in 2006 promoting the film.

The film was originally going to be released in November 2005; [13] however, in December 2004, the date was changed to May 2006. The film was screened as a "work-in-progress" on April 29, 2006, at the Indianapolis International Film Festival (according to the scene in which the Depelter Turbo destroys a satellite, this film took place in suburban Indianapolis)[14] and it premiered on April 30, 2006, in Los Angeles.[1] Nick Nolte, Bruce Willis, Avril Lavigne, Garry Shandling, Wanda Sykes, Catherine O'Hara and Steve Carell attended the premiere.[1] The film was theatrically released in the United States on May 19, 2006.[15] In select New York and Los Angeles theatres, it was accompanied by a DreamWorks Animation's animated short film First Flight.[15] The film was also screened out of competition on May 21, 2006, at the Cannes Film Festival.[16][17]

The soundtrack for the film was released on May 16, 2006 by Epic Records. Rupert Gregson-Williams composed the original score, while Ben Folds contributed three original songs, along with a rewrite of his song "Rockin' the Suburbs" and a cover of The Clash's "Lost in the Supermarket."[38]

A video game based on the film was released on May 9, 2006. Developed by Edge of Reality, Beenox and Vicarious Visions it was published by Activision for PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Xbox, GameCube, Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance.[39] Three different versions of Over the Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts! were released by Activision in the fall of 2006: a miniature golf game for Game Boy Advance, an action adventure game for Nintendo DS, and a platform game for PlayStation Portable.[40]

In May 2007, DreamWorks Animation CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg, said that despite the company exceeding Wall Street's expectations during the second consecutive quarter of 2007, the film would not get a sequel due to the box office performance of the film, saying "It was close. An almost."[41]

In October 2010, an article was posted on the official Over the Hedge blog, explaining what would happen if a sequel was made, saying that if the sequel did not perform as well as the first one, then DreamWorks could lose money, and that a sequel probably would not happen until DreamWorks Animation was bought by a large studio, which eventually happened in 2016 when NBCUniversal bought DreamWorks Animation.[42]

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• Official website
• Over the Hedge at IMDb
• Over the Hedge at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Over the Hedge at AllMovie
• Over the Hedge at Box Office Mojo