Pixar-worthy! - Over the Hedge Reviews

Dreamworks have always made entertaining movies, even the pretty mediocre Shark Tale and Madagascar were at least entertaining in their own ways. But with the exception of Shrek, Dreamworks have never really stood tall next to Pixar, to this day Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles all stick strongly in mind. Dreamworks could never do this, thankfully, they come pretty damn close with Over The Hedge. The plot follows a feisty racoon, RJ, who has stolen a bears food, the bear wants RJ to get him all his food back within a week or he will kill RJ. RJ travels to Suburbia where he finds some local woodland animals baffled by the sudden appearance of Suburbia on their front lawn, RJ takes advantage of them and begins to get them to steal food of the local residents so he can steal it all later and save his own neck. The really good thing about Over the Hedge is the fact it never seems to desperately show off as much pop jokes as possible, yes their are a few, but they are kept to bare minimum and the movie definately benefits from it. Shark Tale shoved things like Coral Cola, GUP etc in your face until you went red with annoyance. Over the Hedge gets it laughs from good writing and also a pretty nifty plot. The voice cast for this movie is definately the best thing, Bruce Willis is superb as RJ, Steve Carrol steals the show as the hyper active Hammy, Wanda Sykes is great as Stella the Skunk, and notable effort as well to Gary Shandling as Verne the tortoise. They all work perfectly together and the movie just seems a much neater affair that the likes of Madgascar which when i think about it was quite lame. Over the Hedge does have its faults, i just fealt after the nice first laugh the movie seemed to dry up slightly. It definately regained its pace once the animals went "over the hedge" but until then it seemed a bit lacking in the humour department, there were smaller jokes in there but nothing to have you burst out laughing. Also the initial stealing of food seems over and done with a little sooner than i hoped for. Over the Hedge might not be up to the greatness of Shrek, Toy Story ot Finding Nemo. But in my eyes it holds strong against Shrek 2, A Bugs Life, The Incredibles and Monsters Inc. Definately one of Dreamworks best movies so far.