Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Over The Hedge



I can't help but wonder if anybody really got this. I thought it was hilarious. It sure put us in our place, didn't it? I kept guffawing at the pampered townies on the other side of the hedge, thinking that it wasn't me being poked fun at, because I'm a farmer's daughter, dammit....and then realized quickly that I am, at this time, living in...gasp...a subdivision, much like the majority of people who are watching an animated feature film!

How many of this movie's target demographic actually lives like that, consuming junk food, driving gas guzzlers, being irritated with that pesky wildlife. And watching a screen. I'd say pretty much the majority of the kid-movie watching demographic! Many would protest and say, but wait, our suburban house is not that big...we're not that rich. But it's all the same thing, really. Those greedy ignorant humans- that's us!!!

And it is funny. We have got to laugh at ourselves, because man, we're pathetic! The raccoon is right- we live to eat!

Now just in case you're wondering, I too find most forms of wildlife to be pesky. They're a bunch of thieves! But you know, they were kind of here first.

Has anybody noticed that squirrels are the new mice? With this movie's Hammy, and Hoodwinked's Twitchy, squirrels are hot stuff in Hollywood. They're funny, dim, hyper, barely intelligible, and are affected severely by caffeine. They're fuzzy comedians with ADHD. In real life, they're actually not cute, and they are thieves, scoundrels, scallywags- they'd be pirates except they're just not cool enough. But dang, did I ever enjoy Hammy. Funny little guy.

The Persian cat and the playful dog were great too.

The Computer generated images looked very fur-like. It still smacked of obvious CGI that I couldn't not notice but it was well done.

There was music too in this movie but y'know, I can't really remember much of it now. That can't be good.

Check out the voice talent. You can't ever get away from the stellar cast. I'd have to say that at times it became distracting for me because I was too busy marvelling at the voice work to pay attention to what the characters were actually doing.(Click to enlarge. I think they got the photos off of google images.)

And just to wrap up a ridiculously skinny review, I present you with the phrase that should convince you to see it:

William Shatner, as a possum, in a death-faking scene.

Vision....fading. Limbs....growing cold.

Watch it with your kids in your nice rec room while munching on packaged snacks while your gas guzzler shines under the streetlights outside. That's how we did it.

It was your standard kid-comedy with not much innovation besides the CGI but overall it was pretty good. I'll give it THREE JOHN DEERE TRACTORS, and I'll throw in a haywagon too.