Over the Hedge

2006 • 83 minutes

About this movie

A group of hungry critters led by RJ the raccoon (Bruce Willis) plot to make their way over a giant hedge that was built to separate the woodland animals from their usual treasure trove of snack food. The gang sets out to overcome the new divide in hopes of pleasing a hungry bear – and themselves.

Ratings and reviews

A heart-warming, lighthearted story about woodland animals foraging food for the winter while avoiding ruthless villains is a fun captivating concept. I often laughed at the comedic elements and none of them are an insult to the cortex and they are all clever as a fox (just a figure of speech). The key ingredients that contributes the entertainment value and comedy is the animation, the writing, and the amazing cast that did an exceptional job with their voice acting. The animation is very bright and colorful, and shines with lighting and detail, and quite often, there are moments where the movement of the characters are zippy and swift which triggers engagement in a rather amusing way. The animation backgrounds are very pretty and pleasant to look at. The animation overall is dynamic, colorful, and it works to make this a fun diversion. The writing is very clever and was written well, from the lines of dialogue, the script for each scene, and even the jokes. The dialogue for the characters who live in the forest was written with brilliant ideas of what they are gonna say, especially of what they see in the suburbian area and what they think of it. The dialogue for RJ the raccoon explodes with knowledgeable speech when he talks about what he knows about the human neighborhood. The great all-star cast has a lot of high energy within the material of their voice performances, all of the voice acting is very well directed because all of their performances strongly lives up to the movie's genre and reflects the mood of each and every element. And lets not forget that the cast is a pitch-perfect choice in an authentic way, especially when they have Nick Nolte who voices Vincent the American black bear who is a big intimidating brute, not to mention that Nick himself has been doing some research about bears in order to give the right vocal tone and performance to his character. And his voice gives us the answer of what a bear would sound like if a bear talks. Omid Djalili is very funny as Tiger the Persian cat because of how the voice acting was paced and directed to match the cat's personality. The comical tone is genius due to it's great sense of timing, and the volume of the tone was used at the right time to get that hilarious reaction that we're looking for. The dynamic music score composed by Rupert Gregson Williams and his score sprightly and colorful score really enhances the mood and the score also compliments the whole movie visually and fits the genre superbly. The main theme of this movie is "Family," and it is a wonderful theme as it teaches kids what families do. Yet, I will admit that the story has this has a liar revealed cliche involving RJ when he is actually trying to give all of the food back to Vincent the bear. Although the story is not perfect due to it's liar reveal bit, this story with a liar reveal element is an asset because the movie truly understands of how families should be portrayed and embraces that, that's because movie calms down the conflicting leadership in the end, and it explains of what RJ should've done, and that's an important lesson, and as whole. To conclude: Over The Hedge is a great example of clever, energetic escapist entertainment that the whole family will go "nuts" for. (no pun intended). Recommended.

Not sure if the movie has aged so well (like a lot of DreamWorks' catalog) but I've always loved this and thought it was one of their best. The soundtrack by Ben Folds is amazing too. Definitely an underrated film.

Hilarious movie very well done animations My favorite character is Hammy he is like what every child would act at 2 too 5 Funny energetic and curious great movie ... HIGHLY RECOMMEND TOO BUY ... But if you're unsure rent it first for 0.99 cents and if you wnd up loving it i would also recommend buying ...Hammys Boomerang Adventures... It is with Hammy the squirrel it's hilariously funny good comedy both of them 😂😂😊👍