Over the Hedge

RealZero

8/10

2/2/2026

I finally re-watched this movie in 2026, and I still like it really much. The story itself is simple: Animals need to get a ton of food so a bear doesn't kill them. (or, well, one of them) Along the story it has bits of trust, betrayal and, most importantly, "found family", which I consider lovely. The characters are fun and adorable. RJ and Vern kinda represent Woody and Buzz from Toy Story a bit, just with some personality pieces shifted around. Both are adorable in their own ways but also have their flaws to overcome. Mostly RJ. 😁 Stella is a lovely, strong woman that won't take shit and is cool for it! Hammy is totally crazy, his boundless energy is really fun without, at least for me, going on one's nerves, especially combined with his genuine emotional side. Ozzie and Heather, the opossums, are a lovely cute "family within the family", and it's nice to see her attitude towards her father as "you're kinda embarrassing...but I love you." Also, Heather's damn nice and cute! ❤️ Lou and Penny sadly have relatively small roles, but leave a nice impression and their kids are fun. I feel that, in general, the movie has many things and emotions similar to Toy Story. Sadly it falls a bit shorter. Maybe it should've been half an hour longer to allow more character establishment for each of the group? More importantly, I would've really loved a sequel for this. And hey, I still won't give up hope for it! I generally love movies and games that depict "smart animals in a human world and how they deal with human technology and stuff", and this movie is nice for that! Visually, it still holds up okay. The fur already looks fine enough, the humans aren't "good-looking", but already far better than at Toy Story (1) times. So, I think you can, and should, still watch this if you're a fan of the old DreamWorks stuff, especially if you wanna see cute critters. I wanna hug Heather and listen to punkrock with her! ❤️