This one is a treat for kids of all ages ;). This is a must watch for all animation lovers. It has a wonderful cast, great animation, sharp dialogues and a good story to boot.
The movie is based on a daily comic strip of the same name that appears in New York Times. It focusses on the suburbia- where the city and the woods meet. The way city life affects animals in the woods is the undercurrent of this movie. Its from the perspective of animals- how silly we can be.
The main character is a racoon named RJ (Bruce Willis) who travels around with a golf bag full of tools and is hooked on junk food. He tries to steal a stash of food from a large bear named Vincent, gets caught and gets a week to replace the food he stole or become a snack himself. The next day is the first day of spring and Verne (tortoise) (Shandell) and the rest of the famliy wakes up. The family consists of hyperactive squirrel (Carell), sassy skunk (Sykes), hammy possums (Shatner and Lavigne), curious porcupines (Levy and O’Hara). RJ stumbles upon these foragers and decides to use them for his food collection plan. He convinces them to go over the hedge and steal from the humans.
An adventure with the usual chases, fights and tricks follows. Most of these are masterminded by RJ and you end up impressed by his repertoire. Verne’s tingling tail and Ozzie’s death routine are unforgettable. Hammy the squirrel reminds you of Ice Age. The evil Gladys Sharp, President of the resident association and the Dwayne the Verminator provide the perfect foil for the antics. The characterizations are strong, from the menacing bear, to the crafty RJ, to the steadfast turtle, Verne, to the hyperactive squirrel, Hammy, to the sassy skunk, Stella, to the skittish possum, Ozzie.
Of the illustrious cast Wanda Sykes as Stella and Steve Carell as Hammy are the best. The movie touches upon consumerism and environmentalism without sermonizing and that is refreshing. In fact RJ’s description of humans’ habits is hilarious: he describes cars as vehicles needed because humans are losing their ability of walking, telephones as instruments of calling food etc. RJ explains the human relationship to food—they package the food, they ship the food, they store the food, they serve the food, and then, of course, they pray to the food.
Warning: Keep your heart locked away for they sure are going to steal it ;) Keep an eye on Verne the lovable tortoise, the porcupine triplets and Hammy the squirrel..........well he ’ll steal it anyway ;)
Trivia : 1. Dwayne LaFontant as ’the Verminator’ is a spoof of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. The Verminator even says "Buenos Dias, reptile" (Hasta La Vista, Baby) and wears glasses (the Terminator’s shades).
Bruce Willis replaced Jim Carrey as the voice of RJ.
During the rolling end credits, original comics can be seen, for example, Penny and Lou reading a comic to the porcupine triplets
The child who plays one of the porcupine triplets, Bucky, is Sami Kirkpatrick, the son of Karey Kirkpatrick, one of the directors of the film
Tiger is introduced as Prince Tigeriess Mahmood Shabaz. This is a play on the middle name of another William Shatner character: James Tiberius Kirk