Over the Hedge (DVD, 2006, Full Frame Version)

I'm going to bring down the average a bit. When I think of excellent 5-rated animated films, "Beauty and the Beast," "Finding Nemo," "The Incredibles," and "The Curse of The Were-Rabbit" set the bar. "Over The Hedge" is more of a 2.5 with the benefit of the doubt on the side of nice computer graphics.

Not long ago a writer speculated that the reason this film and the recently released "Open Season" have made less money than expected was because the audience has gotten too used to this style of computer graphics. I don't think that's the case; Disney thrived for years on the same style. I think it's more that the audience is getting tired of having the same prototype of character and story repeated on end.

"Over The Hedge" feels so recycled; the dialogue so stale. One suspects they churned this out to turn over a quick buck. All the creativity has gone into the animation as if character and story were just an afterthought. You can go back to the success of "The Lion King" that introduced the very popular characters of the warthog, Pumbaa and the meerkat, Timon. Ever since versions of these characters seem to pop up in way too many animated films.

They show up here with R.J. the racoon, Verne the turtle, and Hammy the squirrel. Then tack on as many celebrity voices as you can. I wasn't quite sure what to make of Wanda Sykes providing the voice for the black skunk who exists on fringe of social acceptability; and didn't want to read too much into it stereotype casting-wise.

The cute little scavengers too often speak in the overly precocious, faux hip vernacular of annoying sitcom children. It doesn't seem considered. The makers of "Finding Nemo" talked about how they agonized over and spent years working out the dialogue and kinks in the story. And it showed. It was not only witty, wise and wonderful but very original.

And that's what's missing here. "Over the Hedge" isn't very original at all. It's not that it's horrible, it's just more of the same. The animation is fun and there are some lively action scenes that kids will enjoy, but it adds up to the equivalent of a C paper.

A neighbor lent me the movie and I wouldn't want to spend the money on the DVD or see it again. There is much better out there. I give it a meh and a shrug.