Whoa, whoa, whoa!!!

You guys are severely under-rating Over the Hedge, it is, to put it simply: Fantastic!!!!!

But, first, let me take a moment to praise the lead-in animated short film, First Flight -- it is perfection itself. Emotional, beautiful, inspiring. Let's take a moment to recognize it's creators, Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson. Bravo!

Now, back to our feature presentation... Over the Hedge is a lovingly judgemental accusation against our species. Oh human. Utilizing the neighborhood survivor mammals (...and amphibious reptile), that scavenge off our prodigious waste materials, to craft a story of redemption and hope, the film transcends CGI animation, and touches our hairless sapien skin directly.

Forget the animation genre -- this is a great, great movie in any category.

(Surprisingly, it rates my third ever "7 out of 5" rating, and my second this weekend, after The Da Vinci Code.)

7 out of 5.

It was funny. Hamilton stole the show. I liked how all the random explosions were extraordinarily large.

B+

I'm looking forward to further adventures with the Over the Hedge Gang!

I can't wait for OTH2, OTH3, etc...

(Also, I disagree that it's all about Hammy, all the characters were great, with especially great work from Bruce Willis, Wanda Sykes, and William Shatner. Also, I hope that Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara get a more central role in the next one...)

Absolutely, surprisingly delightful, and actually the best movie I've seen so far in this dreary, dreary year. Good show. The best role Bruce Willis has had since the first Die Hard.

And I second the praise for the hilariously large (visible from space!) explosions.

Indeed, this is the best non-Pixar CGI film yet. It doesn't touch Aardman's work, however.

The nacho chips bit, along with the laser beam trap,

I think it's one step forward for Dreamworks in terms of storytelling (writers finally don't feel the need to rely on pop culture) but one step back in terms of humor. These things just don't make me laugh.

C

I think the difference is in the dialogue.

As easy it is to say that Pixar has more talented script writers than Dreamworks, that's really what it comes down to. In Pixar films, characters actually say funny things, whereas Dreamworks films (and I'm excluding Shrek here) have sight gags for the kids and obvious, unfunny in-jokes and pop culture references for the parents.

OTH lacks the pop culture references, which does, in fact, make it a lot less annoying than, say, Shark Tale, but its script is otherwise devoid of any real wit.

Again, it's fine for kids. Bit of a bore for everyone else.

There was still some pop culture for good measure. William Shatner and Wanda Sykes were basically playing themselves.

Apparently, the short film First Flight was only attached to 400 prints of Over the Hedge shown in LA and NY. My apologies to those who didn't get to see this wonderful animated movie. It will however, now be eligible for Oscar consideration, but it's too bad they didn't show it everywhere.

Agreed on Hamilton, the major complaint I have is the songs are cheesy, kids might find them cute, but I just couldn't wait for them to end. Damnit Ben Folds...




That difference b/w Dreamworks and Pixar is why I always see Pixar films in the theater and buy them, and why I sometimes watch Dreamworks pictures. I really didn't like Shrek 2, and I avoided Shark Tale like the plague, but th eorginal Shreak was good minus the use of that awful Smash Mouth song.

It was actually kinda decent. Not hilarious, but sometimes it's funny (the Citizen Kane reference was pretty clever) and it's enjoyable, too. Probably Dreamworks' best so far (minus Shrek).

C+

Ripper:

Ben Folds > You.

Though I'm not sure how the songs would work all kiddie animation style.

Yeah, the songs were not good.

My kids really enjoyed it and I liked it too! Althouh, I thought it would be a little funnier!

I thought it was better than the trailers make it good.

This was far better than Shark Tale and Madagascar. Also, the First Flight cartoon was just plain beautiful (could this be an Oscar contender).

As for the movie, good storytelling and characters.

Grade
Movie: A-
Flight: A

There were a lot of mildly funny stuff here, a nice story, but the characters needed improved badly. I just didn't care at all about that turtle. The humans could have also been portrayed as funnier/quirkier. But overall I did like the movie, I thought William Shatner and the cat scenes were the best.

Grade: B

B (B+ for target audience)

Hehe, I found it pretty cute. I'd really recommend it.

I loved the cat...

What's the Flight cartoon you speak of? There wasn't a short film shown before it where I saw it. The last such occurrence was the "Gopher Broke" short I saw before Doogal (Better than the film itself although it copies Ice Age's Scrat).

This one definitely surprised me. After the absolutely horrible slate of CGI films last year (Madagascar - C+, Chicken Little - C-, Robots - D+), Dreamworks managed to make a movie that is around the same level of Shrek. It is the first cartoon that actually feels like it was set in modern times. The movie was cute and entertaining and well worth watching. A-

Awesome! I think he was my favorite character, as he wasn't in any of the trailers. I like being surprised, all those other characters seemed jammed down your throat with the marketing, and none of them were even that great, save for Shatner and Carrell. Sykes was OK, but predictable.

BJs Grade:

A

the best film of the year, waht a fantsitc surprise, hammy rocked

C+. There are few nice gags, but they are repeatet over and over again (like the explosions from a satellite view). The slapstck chases are really funny, but in between the movie drags a bit.

C

Why I gave it a C is because the story is too simple that can't be made into a movie.

But it's more respectable than Shark Tale and MAD.

Considering I see it five times a day at work, I've grown to appreciate it more and more. Dreamworks is definitely moving in the right direction. Heh, during the credits there is quite a funny Star Trek joke, which seems obligatory in every new project Shatner is in. There is a Trek reference each week on Boston Legal.