Karey Kirkpatrick
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Connections, in both directions
With films like “Shrek”, and now this, their studio really breeds films that are hit or miss (Shrek 2, A Shark Tale).
You have to give credit where credit is due: Under the helm of co-directors Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, a lot of people clearly worked very hard on this film with the aid of technology that's come a long way even since the original "Shrek" from 2001.
This scene alone is worth the price of admission, but Over the Hedge is so consistently hilarious and polished that it can be grouped with the likes of Shrek.
While not quite up to par with the eye-popping visuals of the Pixar films (although it's still quite good and certainly light years ahead of some of this year's other animated offerings) and not really containing anything resembling a complex story (this one's geared for a slightly younger crowd than played to the likes of "Shrek" or "The Incredibles"), the film more than makes up for such shortcomings with its copious, fine details.
We have seen it all before, the likes of Shrek, Ice Age, and most recently the subtly successful Hoodwinked.
But here it is: I prefer "Kung Fu Panda" to any of the "Shreks," along with moderately diverting entertainments such as "Bee Movie," plus more grating items such as "Madagascar," "Shark Tale" and "Over the Hedge."
Beyond the general idea, however, Lepeniotis and co-writer Lorne Cameron (2006's " Over the Hedge ") bring nothing to the material that is fresh or engaging.
Writer/director Peter Lepeniotis was an animator at Disney/Pixar, while co-writer Lorne Cameron worked on Disney’s “Brother Bear” and DreamWorks “Over the Hedge.”
That's a shame, because there's fun in the basic premise of the film, even despite the obvious debt owed to 2006's "Over the Hedge," which -- like "The Nut Job" -- tells the story of a group of woodland animals who stage the mother of all heists.
And so, with the animals’ goal so easily achieved, Lepeniotis and co-writer Lorne Cameron (“Over the Hedge”) are left to fall back on stale twists, such as revealing Raccoon as an “Animal Farm”-style tyrant who manipulates his herd according to the motto “Animals are controlled by the amount of food they have.”
Director Peter Lepeniotis, working with co-writer Lorne Cameron (Over the Hedge), could have let the two heists, the animal and the human one, parallel each other in a more ingenious way.
A conflict over ransacking a nut cart ends in Surly’s banishment, but when he and Buddy discover a nut shop—owned by a group of thieves attempting to tunnel under a bank vault across the street—the “ Ocean’s Eleven meets Ratatouille with a dash of Over The Hedge ” plot commences.
The morally strong group leader who fears being replaced by an exciting newcomer is pure Woody and Buzz; Verne the cautious turtle is a spiritual brother to the worried father in “Finding Nemo” ; the happy dog whose overexcited dialogue consists only of “Play?
Considering how the marketplace has changed, maybe it's unfair to compare Over the Hedge with the likes of Toy Story, Shrek, and Finding Nemo, but there's a world of difference.
Warner Bros., however (like CNN, a unit of WarnerMedia), has enjoyed its share of successes, including "The LEGO Movie," whose directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, are among the producers here.
Yet, despite the names involved — Bad Neighbours ’ Nicholas Stoller and The Lego Movie ’s Phil Lord and Christopher Miller also earn executive producer credits — Smallfoot ’s heavy-handed messaging and by-the-numbers approach thunder like an avalanche.
Its first film, The Lego Movie , was animated by Australia's Animal Logic, and this one comes from Sony's Imageworks.
The double entendre-laden humor and catchy tunes that made “The LEGO Movie” a hit are woefully missing from “Smallfoot,” a musical that tries too hard to educate kids and not hard enough to entertain them.
It's not up with the best of the studio's animated offerings like "The Lego Movie," but families -- especially their youngest members -- are likely to leave satisfied, and maybe even a little more "woke" in the process.
They'll be mesmerized by color and noise watching the frantic slapstick adventures of RJ the raccoon (Bruce Willis), Verne the turtle (Garry Shandling) and a skunk (Wanda Sykes) who seems to have named Stella solely for the purpose of setting up "A Streetcar Named Desire" joke.
Although there are smart performances by Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, and Steve Carrell and the animation has taken a giant leap forward from previous outings such as 1998's "Antz" and 2004's "Shark Tale," the film lacks affable characters and a coherent story to sustain interest.
The cheeky family comedy, from the people behind "Antz" and "Chicken Run," wags its finger at all of us humans for buying more food then we need — fast food, junk food, food we have delivered because we're too lazy to leave the comfort of our cookie-cutter houses and drive to the grocery store in our gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, which, like the ever-growing encroachment of suburbia, are contributing to the destruction of the environment the cuddly "Over the Hedge" creatures call home.
But the direction by Tim Johnson ("Antz") and Karey Kirkpatrick (writer of "Chicken Run") sets a nice visual tone, portraying the disaster-prone neighborhood like a game of The Sims gone horribly awry, with the occasional mushroom cloud livening up the action.
Still, as co-directed by Tim Johnson (Antz) and Karey Kirkpatrick (the screenwriter of Chicken Run and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), Over the Hedge is a bright, vibrant treat.
Stealing the idea from 2001's " I Am Sam " (which did it better), "Imagine That" is filled with Beatles cover tunes (i.e.
Imagine That takes an age for the crux of the plot to kick in, which echoes similar supernatural concepts from the likes of Liar, Liar and Bruce Almighty.
Think of all those wonderful upward looking shots from "Toy Story."
The animation, full of canted perspective shots to highlight the animals’ disorientation in a human world, is confident and sure of itself, and if not packed with the same sort of background-detail jokes to which adult audiences of the Shrek and Toy Story films might have grown accustomed, then no less involving for the distinction.
Although there are smart performances by Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, and Steve Carrell and the animation has taken a giant leap forward from previous outings such as 1998's "Antz" and 2004's "Shark Tale," the film lacks affable characters and a coherent story to sustain interest.
His only previous directorial outing was Over the Hedge , an amusing animated effort, but he has written a number of noteworthy screenplays, including those for The Spiderwick Chronicles and Chicken Run .
There is silly talk about a highly exclusive organization for master magic-makers called "The Eye," but screenwriters Ed Solomon (2009's " Imagine That "), Boaz Yakin (2010's " Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time "), and first-timer Edward Ricourt don't even seem to be particularly sure of the hows and whys.
It is interesting to note that Ed Solomon, the first of three credited screenwriters (the other two are Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt), has a long career in Hollywood, but almost exclusively in films that are NOT meant to be tied to real-world rules: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Mom and Dad Save the World, Men in Black, Charlie's Angels Imagine That, and so forth.