Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carrell
Directed by Kim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick

Now that the computer animation wizards have perfected the art of rendering fur, we have been treated to a spate of cute, talking animal movies, which Over The Hedge should ultimately be declared the cutest of them all. But cute isn't all that Dreamworks has to offer with their latest grown-up friendly kid-flick. These animals know how to grab an audience and keep them mesmerized.

Based on the comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis, Over The Hedge features the Bruce Willis voiced raccoon con artist, RJ, who must replace the destroyed food supply of hibernating bear, Victor before the full moon, or else! While on his mission, RJ happens upon a family made up of a variety of foraging animals led by Verne the turtle, who likewise are on a quest for food. It is then that RJ indoctrinates these animals on all the benefits that urbanization seemingly brings to their lives, albeit with the ulterior motive of using the innocent animals' efforts to help him gather all the items needed to pay Vincent back.

As you can guess, hilarity ensues with each of RJ and company's forays 'over the hedge,' but not without lessons learned for both RJ and Verne, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the crew. Typical of films of this genre, the moral of the story has to do with selfishness and shallowness versus true friendship in the hopes that the young, impressionable viewers will take these lessons to heart.

With over the top action, which is absolutely acceptable because this is a cartoon, Over The Hedge puts a satirical spin on human life. So the next time you and a raccoon are standing eyeball to eyeball and you want to know what he's thinking, think of RJ.