Movie Review : Over The Hedge (31)

Over the Hedge

Over the hedge is an animation film. I watched it together with my friends in the Learning Source Center. It’s about a raccoon that’s in trouble with a big bad bear. There are many characters in it, they are RJ is a devious and deceptive raccoon, Verne the wise old turtle, Hammy, a red squirrel, whose mouth moves as fast as his feet. He is naive and very childish in nature. Stella is a short-tempered, sassy striped skunk. Ozzie an opossum. Vincent the big bad bear, he’s a ruthless creature. Dwayne an overweight, over-zealous human pest exterminator hired by Gladys Sharp. Gladys Sharp is (The one who called the exterminator) president of the Camelot Estates Home Owners Association. Lou a North American porcupine father and family patriarch with an overly talkative and optimistic attitude. Penny is the porcupine family matriarch and optimistic mother. Heather another opossum. Tiger is Gladys’s pet, he’s a Persian cat. Bucky, Spike, Quillo, they're big on video games (unlike their actual size) and are the most enthusiastic about exploring the world beyond the hedge.

This is the plot. The story begins when RJ, a starving raccoon, fails to get snacks from a vending machine, he becomes so desperate that he tries to steal a large food cache belonging to Vincent, a hibernating black bear. However, while trying to leave, he wakes Vincent and loses both the food and the red wagon that’s on when a truck runs it over. He promises to replace everything by the time Vincent reawakens in a week.

Meanwhile, a group of forest animals led by Verne the box turtle, awake from hibernation to find their food cache almost empty. They begin foraging but they find a large hedge blocking their way. Verne find out human, it makes him confuses and frightens him. RJ convinces the other animals it's easier to steal the humans' garbage for food rather than forage for it, and they manage to get enough food to keep them from starving. However, Verne remains wary, especially after homeowner Gladys Sharp discovers the animals in her yard, chases them out through the hedge, and hires VermTech exterminator Dwayne LaFontant to keep them out.

Worried for his family's safety, Verne decides to return the food they get to the humans. RJ tries to stop him, resulting in an argument between the two. This attracts the attention of a playful Rottweiler, who chases them across several lawns before all of the food the animals gathered is destroyed. RJ then blames Verne who tries to defend himself, makes a comment that hurts the others' feelings.

RJ helps Verne reconcile with the others. He also discovers that Gladys has just restocked her pantry with a large food supply for an upcoming party and concocts a plan to get past the exterminator planted booby-trap in her yard. Working together under cover of darkness, the animals get the food. But, when RJ sees he refuse to get back before he get it, it’s a can of "Spuddies" potato chips, the others keep on going to the outside and success, But RJ still inside. Somehow Gladys wakes up, she discovers the animals in her house, and calls VermTech.  Dwayne arrives and traps the animals, he gets all except RJ, who escapes with the food.

RJ takes the food to a now-awake Vincent, but when the latter points out RJ's treachery, the raccoon decides to sacrifice the food to save his friends. This angers Vincent, who chases RJ as he chases Dwayne's truck. Verne is happy to see RJ again but the others no longer trust him since he left them. They almost thwart RJ's efforts to help before Verne finally assures them otherwise. The animals then subdue Dwayne and turn his truck toward home, but the truck goes out of control and crashes Gladys' house and demolished it.

The animals hide in the hedge, trapped by Vincent on one side and Dwayne and Gladys on the other side. RJ and Verne get an idea to give Hammy the hyperactive squirrel a can of cola, which puts him into overdrive. Hammy activates an illegal trap that Dwayne had installed (at Gladys' insistence), capturing Vincent, Dwayne and Gladys. Gladys and Vincent are taken into custody by the police and a wilderness preservation group, respectively, while Dwayne escapes after taking advantage of Gladys' attempt at fighting a police officer and resisting arrest, only to encounter the same Rottweiler that chased RJ and Verne earlier.

Back in the forest, Verne tells RJ that if he'd explained what he was trying to do in the first place, the others would have helped because "that's what families do" and welcomes him back to the family. The animals also find that while Hammy was in his caffeine-charged state, he had refilled their food cache with nuts to satisfy them for the year.

My favorite parts are when the gang went to Gladys’s house to steal her food stock. He discovers that Gladys has just restocked her pantry with a large food supply for an upcoming party and concocts a plan to get past the exterminator planted booby-trap in her yard. Working together under cover of darkness, the animals get the food. But, when RJ sees he refuse to get back before he get it, it’s a can of "Spuddies" potato chips, the others keep on going to the outside and success, But RJ still inside. Somehow Gladys wakes up, she discovers the animals in her house, and calls VermTech.  Dwayne arrives and traps the animals, he gets all except RJ, who escapes with the food.

And when RJ comes to Vincent, but he finally realizes that he’s bad, he left his friends who help him.  RJ went back to help his true friends. He’s with those foods that they collect. He ran with the food until he found the truck. When RJ finally entered the truck and Vincent followed him. Vincent can’t get into the car but he keeps on trying. The truck arrived to the house. The animals can get out from the truck but Vincent can’t. He finally gets the solution, he found the animals, but the animals are smarter than him. Vincent was electrocuted, and got the super big bomb.

I like the movie because it’s very entertaining, funny, it’s good in the animation, and it has a good message. It’s about friendship. We mustn’t left people who helped us when we need them. Don’t come only when you need them but always be there.