OVER THE HEDGE Film Review - 3/6/06

Mightily impressed with this latest Dreamworks offering. Having seen Shrek I found this totally different in style - Tones, colours, textures. It has a variety of ace performances - Particularly William Shatner verily taking the michael out of himself. A self-depreciative Bruce Willis ably backed by Garry Shandling and a wonderful Hammy by Steve Carell. Even Nick Nolte puts in a sly turn with a nice role for Eugene Levy as well and another surprise in Avril Lavigne as Heather. Subtle talents from this cast mix up a simple story well told with a lot of humour and fairly good old fashioned fun but all fairly knowingly. The moral aspects aren't completely hammered home just added with a slight touch. Con-raccoon Willis has to pay back a bear with stolen food big-time and gets involved with a tight-knit group of forest dwellers on the edge of suburbia and all it's riotous perils from the local exterminator to the cuddly rottweiler in between psycho girl scouts and the local business-woman neighbourhood snob. One I hope which will be a 2-disc DVD when it's out with lot's of supplemental detail to round out the package. Please release this soon - I need another dose of Hammy!