Over the Hedge

Today, I went to see a preview screening of Over the Hedge, which hits theatres this Friday, May 19, 2006.

This is the next Dreamworks picture, created by the writers of Shrek and Madagascar.

I thought this movie was humourous, but a lot of the humour is pretty low brow... Burping jokes, stink joke, farting jokes. However, there are some highlights in the film as well. But, this film sort of celebrates consumerism, which is not something I would like to happen.

There isn't much to the premise of the story. Basically, RJ - the racoon (Bruce Willis) is caught trying to steal food from a bear, and nearly loses his life, but he promises to find the bear the exact stuff that he lost. And then RJ suckers a bunch of animals into helping him gather some food. At first, the leader of the group, Verne - the turtle (Garry Shandling) is skeptical, but RJ quickly wins over the rest of the group. The story develops however, when the other animals trust RJ and takes a liking to him.

The voice talents of Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Wanda Sykes, Avril Lavigne and William Shatner are excellent, they really portrayed their characters well. The story was a little weak, and the jokes were a little low brow. There were a few touching moments in the story, and a valuable lesson at the end, but the movie to me was a bit disappointing.

I thought the porcupine daddy, mommy and the children were adorable. However, my favourite small animal creature character was Verne (the turtle). I especially liked the part when RJ knocks over the trash cans, and Verne sniffs and picks up the diaper. RJ informs him that, "Uh... That's a diaper." to which Verne just sort of gives him a nasty look and rolls his eyes. The other part I liked was when Verne and RJ were flying through the air with an umbrella, and using it as a parachute. It eventually catches on fire, and and the plastic spontaneously combusts... Verne turns to RJ and states, "You're the devil."

This movie is more geared towards children than it is for adults. For example in Shrek and Shrek 2, there is humour in it is for children, but there are references in it that make the adults laugh. However, in Over the Hedge, I didn't see any references for adults. There is however, lots of product placement.

Before the film, there was a kid who saw a Jewish individual, and then remarked, "Wow, a Jewish guy." I was so surprised that this statement came out of the kid's mouth. Also, I was quite surprised that this kid didn't get smacked!