Hedge? You Bet!

Yesterday I caught the movie Over the Hedge at the local theater with the digital projector. Before I get on to talking about the movie itself, let me say this -- picture does not get better than a computer animated movie digitally projected. The source material is right there, with no loss in quality, projected dozens of feet high. If you have the means in your area, I highly recommend it.

And, I can say, I recommend this particular film. In my opinion, this is Dreamworks Animation's best film yet. I thought both Shrek films were "pretty good, but not great." This movie was great.

The casting was nothing short of brilliant. In some cases, you had actors that didn't take a great deal of imagination to match up with their roles, but their presence was appreciated all the same -- Bruce Willis and Eugene Levy, for example. In a few cases, you had an absolutely inspired stroke of genius in matching a voice to a character -- William Shatner and Nick Nolte, in particular. And then there was Steve Carell. I would never have seen him in this kind of role going into the movie. Afterward, I couldn't see anyone else providing the voice. His character was the highlight of an already-great film, and his performance was brilliant throughout.

Major props to the animators, who do an excellent job imbuing each character with a unique and consistent personality. As good animation should, it brings out even more from the vocal performance.

Though the technical aspects of CG-animated movies don't do a lot to sway my review of them, it's worth noting that this movie looked slick. (The digital projection helped, I'm sure.) The textures on the different animals were outstanding. The humans still looked a little "off," but in a way that seemed to be intentionally so and that basically worked -- not at all like the "hell ride to creepy town" that was The Polar Express.

And finally the script. I suppose the story itself was nothing special, though it did push all the buttons one should in this kind of movie. Where it stood out was in being damn funny. It made me laugh almost constantly. Plenty of base, easy jokes for the kids. Loads more in-jokes and sophisticated lines for the adults. I haven't laughed that hard at a movie (animated or otherwise) for a long time.

There's only one way to add it all up -- I give this movie an A. I don't think it makes the top 100 list, but only because that's getting to be a tough list to break into. I mean, despite my total adoration for the recent Wallace & Gromit movie, it's barely hovering at the bottom of the list right now... and as much as I loved Over the Hedge, I don't think it beats W&G. It is probably about time to take a serious new look at the list, though, and rebuild from the ground up.

Anyway, I'd say the stakes have now been raised even higher for Pixar's new film coming this weekend, Cars. At least for me they have. I've always considered Pixar to be #1 in the CG-animation business, with Dreamworks a distant second. But if Pixar should have it's first real stumble just as Dreamworks is having what in my mind is its first total creative triumph (granted, they've had major box office success already), that race may tighten.