Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3489 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-12-04
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Formats: Box set, PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 80 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The manicured lawns and overstuffed garbage cans of suburbia become a buffet for woodland creatures in Over the Hedge. A self-centered raccoon named RJ (voiced by Bruce Willis, Die Hard) steals and accidentally destroys the hoard of an angry bear (Nick Nolte, 48 Hours), who gives the raccoon a week to replace it. RJ despairs--until he meets an odd gang of foragers, ranging from a turtle named Verne (Garry Shandling, The Larry Sanders Show), a father/daughter duo of opossums (the bizarre pairing of William Shatner and pop singer Avril Lavigne), a family of porcupines (with A Mighty Wind's Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as the parents), and a hyperactive squirrel named Hammy (Steve Carell, The 40 Year Old Virgin).

By convincing these friendly beasts that the suburban homesteads on the other side of a recently erected hedge are a mother-lode of cast-off food, RJ hopes to dupe them into doing his gathering. But when the suburban residents realise they've been invaded by woodland pests, an exterminator is called to take care of the problem. The overarching storyline of Over the Hedge is pure formula--your basic "family matters more than anything" lesson--but moment to moment, the movie is delightfully crisp and clever. The animation is topnotch, the acting is excellent (other voices include those of Allison Janney, The West Wing, and Thomas Haden Church, Sideways), and the satirical jabs at consumerism are actually funny. An above-average animated movie. --Bret Fetzer

Synopsis
Based on a comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis, OVER THE HEDGE sees a ragtag group of forest critters awaken from hibernation to find that their forest has been turned into a suburban housing development. The only thing standing between them and the humans is a great, towering hedge where their forest used to be. This is bad news for the furry friends, who are just about to start their annual forage for food. Overhearing the critters' concerns, a crafty, streetwise raccoon named RJ (Bruce Willis) moves in with the promise of a cornucopia of mouth-watering delights... just over the hedge. But what Verne and his pals don't know is that RJ's intentions are less than honourable: he plans to let his new friends do all the legwork, gathering the food at great risk to their own lives, so that he can repay a debt to a rather large, angry bear. Meanwhile, on the other side of the hedge, the uptight president of the neighbourhood homeowner's committee has enlisted the services of the Verminator (think: Rentokil meets Arnie), to rid the area of its 'pests'. It's all-out war as the animals infiltrate the world of humans, dodging traps and angry canines just to get their paws on the tasty stuff. Will the loving woodland family emerge victorious, or will the spoils of suburbia run them out of the small patch of land they have left? And will RJ stick by his new family, or just keep looking out for himself? OVER THE HEDGE features top-notch animation, a delightfully witty script that deals with the perils of suburbanisation without being preachy, an all-star line-up of vocal talent (including Gary Shandling, Wanda Sykes, Steve Carrell, William Shatner, and Eugene Levy), and music by Ben Folds.

Customer Reviews

One for all the family
I watched Over the Hedge with my almost-40-yr-old husband and I spent the movie doing what I usually end up doing while watching funny films.....rewinding it to hear what I'd missed while my husband was roaring laughing! And yes....it is that funny.

The movie starts with a greedy raccoon (RJ) getting caught stealing a bears stash of food. The bear gives RJ just one week to replace everything he's taken....or else. RJ stumbles upon a group of simple forest critters who he entices into a plan to go `over the hedge' into the new housing development and feast upon some of the best food they've ever tasted. What follows is a laugh a minute. It's a movie that the kids will watch over and over and not one which will have the parents going `oh no, not again' as you could watch it over and over and still find it as funny as the first time you saw it! If you enjoyed the likes of Shrek, Monsters Inc and Cars then you'll love Over the Hedge. If you didn't enjoy any of them......what's wrong with you!?!?!?!?

2 Disc Version Stick to One Disc
The film is excellent 10 out of 10, however the second disc in my opinion is poor for a DVD of this quality from Dreamworks. When i checked the file size when i was installing the PC hammy desktop i was shocked !! to see how little was actually on the second disk.

1. DVD Video Part it mostly Seasonal with Hammy dancing and thats about it. Hammy busting out his best moves (Dancing Hammy )
2. The second part is computer based Give hammy a home on your desktop and printable seasonal goodies. when i put it in the drive to see the computer goodies

Including pt1 and 2 there is very little on the second disc if you are only getting Over the Hedge.

In my personal opinion if you only want the DVD Film and the better extras ie the Hammys Bomerang Adventure etc then go for the One Disc version, and save the difference in money to put towards another Title

A cut above
A scheming squirrel gets caught trying to pinch a psycho bears stash of grub, gets one week to replace every last crisp packet or its death by bear claw. He runs in to a band of simple wood dwellers who fall for his food gathering con trick.
The story is tiny and as usual full of aww schucks moralizing as per usual but who cares when the films is this funny? The voice overs are all very good and any cartoon worth its salt will have every last hair rippling with realism and thats all very nice but far too often these sort of kiddie flicks blast out of the blocks and then fizzle out with a wimper but not this one it starts off funny and keeps it up right to the end. Whats more some of the scenes are truly inspired in paticular one, where the potty squirrel who runs away with the whole film, gets so stoked up on fizzy drink that the whole world appears to be moving in slow motion to him.
This is a nice change from the usual and stands up to repeated viewing.
You'll enjoy this and so will the nippers it's well worth getting, go on, splash some conkers on this one.