Just got back from seeing Dreamworks’ newest cartoonimation and it was slightly better than I expected. I mean, I’m no movie critic, but I listened to critiques in school and payed attention to what the teachers and other kids had to say. Over the Hedge had many good points and it also had all the crap that drives me nuts about DreamWorks’ movies. Stuff like big name actors to “sell” the film to the rubes, pop songs driving the story, and way too many jokes that were timed poorly or just not funny make a film less enjoyable to me. Maybe I’ve gone mad, but I like to laugh out loud at funny stuff.
The textures in CG films are getting more and more amazing. That’s helped along by the lighting crew and both are just fantastic. The leaves on the hedge, the fur, the tortoise. Oh, man, that tortoise skin and shell looked so there.
The animation was solid on all the little critters, but to me, it was too snappy, too cartoony on the humans. Every animal has its own unique walk that really fit the character, which is to be expected from a big production house like DW. My fave was Verne’s, the reptile. It looked like it was so hard for him to get anywhere with his waddley, stumpy legs.
Avril Lavigne’s character was true to her real-life looks: hideous.
Once the exterminator showed up the film really started to get fun and funny. The timing was better on the jokes, both visual and audible. Plus, there were some really good takes on some cliches that I saw coming and still laughed hard at. The lesson at the end was only thrown in your face minimally. Nothing ruins a movie more for me than when they keep telling you the moral. As if we’ve never seen an after school special on not hitting grandma. Over the Hedge is worth it if you’re an animation fan or if someone else is paying. I was a fan of the comic strip when I received the paper, but there’s a reason why the phrase is “based upon such-and-such” and not “the same stuff you remember made better.”
