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Over the Hedge (2006 film)

Over the Hedge is a 2006 American computer-animated comedy from DreamWorks Animation, directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, about a group of woodland animals whose forest is cut off from a newly built suburban development by a giant hedge. Adapted from the comic strip of the same name by Michael Fry and T. Lewis, it was released in the United States on May 19, 2006 by Paramount Pictures and earned about $340 million worldwide against an $80 million production budget.1 • 2 • 3

Key factDetail
Directors / producerTim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick; produced by Bonnie Arnold1
SourceComic strip Over the Hedge by Michael Fry and T. Lewis, launched in 1995 and running in about 250 newspapers4
ReleaseMay 19, 2006 (wide, Paramount Pictures); video release October 17, 2006 by DreamWorks Video2
Runtime / rating83 minutes; rated PG for some rude humor and mild comic action5
Box office$155,019,340 domestic; $339,795,890 worldwide (Box Office Mojo); opening weekend $38,457,0033 • 2
Reception75% Tomatometer from 171 reviews and 71% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes; Metascore 67 on Metacritic6 • 7
AwardsTwo Annie Awards in 2007: Best Character Design (Nicolas Marlet) and Best Directing (Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick)8

Spoilers

Plot and voice cast

The story follows RJ (voiced by Bruce Willis), an opportunistic raccoon who has incurred a debt with a hibernating bear named Vincent (Nick Nolte) after trying to steal his food reserves.9 When Verne (Garry Shandling), a cautious turtle, and his fellow woodland creatures wake from winter hibernation, they find a suburban development where their foraging ground used to be, with a hedge dividing the two worlds. RJ shows the family how to exploit the suburban bounty of snack food, partly to repay the bear.6 • 5

The ensemble voice cast includes Steve Carell as the frenetic squirrel Hammy, Wanda Sykes as the skunk Stella, William Shatner as the opossum Ozzie, Thomas Haden Church as the pest-removal specialist Dwayne, Allison Janney as the homeowner Gladys, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as the porcupine couple Lou and Penny, and singer Avril Lavigne as Heather.7 The screenplay is credited to Len Blum, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton, and Karey Kirkpatrick.1

From comic strip to screen

The strip was created in 1995 by writer-cartoonist Michael Fry and children's book illustrator T. Lewis after their earlier pitch, The Secret Life of Pigs, failed to sell. The retooled strip, featuring the raccoon RJ, the turtle Verne, and the squirrel Hammy observing suburban consumer culture, was picked up by United Features Syndicate and runs in some 250 newspapers.4

The film rights changed hands before DreamWorks took over. Animation producer and writer Jim Cox, whose credits include story development on Beauty and the Beast, contacted the creators and pitched the property to studios; Fox, Henson, and DreamWorks showed interest, and Fox won the bidding. The project sat on Fox's shelf, and when Fox let the option expire in 2001, DreamWorks acquired it and put it into development. Tim Johnson, who had known of the property since making Antz, said he had long seen it as "the seed of a fantastic film." Fry and Lewis served as creative consultants on the adaptation.4 A corporate filing records that DreamWorks entered an agreement with Behind the Hedge Productions, Inc. on February 27, 2004 to produce the film.10

Production was based at DreamWorks's Glendale studio, with a satellite crew at the original PDI facility in Silicon Valley contributing additional animation, effects, and lighting. During story development, Johnson and Kirkpatrick reshaped RJ's character arc from self-centered con artist to someone who learns to care about others.4

Box office and home video

The film opened on May 19, 2006 in 4,059 theaters, grossing $38,457,003 on its opening weekend, 24.8 percent of its eventual domestic total. It ran for 16 weekends in wide release, and its domestic gross of $155,019,340 gave it legs of 4.03 times its biggest weekend. The Numbers lists a production budget of $80,000,000, meaning worldwide box office returned about 4.3 times the budget.2 Box Office Mojo records the worldwide total as $339,795,890, split $155,019,340 domestic (45.6 percent) and $184,776,550 international, while The Numbers lists a slightly higher worldwide figure of $343,397,247.3 • 2 The film opened between Fox's Ice Age: The Meltdown and Pixar's Cars in the 2006 animated release calendar.4

Home video was a substantial market. The Numbers estimates domestic DVD sales of $133,533,811, and the video release came on October 17, 2006 from DreamWorks Video, less than five months after the theatrical debut.2

Critical reception

Reviews were generally favorable. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 75 percent Tomatometer from 171 reviews, with the critics' consensus calling the film "clever and fun" even if not an animation classic, and a 71 percent Popcornmeter from more than 250,000 user ratings.6 Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 67 ("Generally Favorable") based on 31 critic reviews, with 74 percent positive and none negative; the highest scores came from The A.V. Club (91), the Baltimore Sun (91), and the Portland Oregonian (91), the last comparing its character-driven humor to the Toy Story films.7 The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw was more reserved, rating it two out of five and calling it a "patchy animated comedy."11

At the 2007 Annie Awards, the film won Best Character Design for Nicolas Marlet and Best Directing for Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, and received nominations including Best Animated Feature.8

Themes and related media

Commentators have read the film as social satire. A 2008 academic analysis described its overt message as wariness of consumer ideology, with RJ showing the animals a map in which their woodland is a tiny speck against kilometers of suburbia, and the animals ending the film wiser and defending their woods.12 Common Sense Media notes the film's cartoon violence in the Chuck Jones tradition and its songs by Ben Folds.13

An Activision video game tie-in was released on May 9, 2006 for GameCube, PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox, featuring an AI-controlled companion animal players could switch with on the fly; GameSpot's review scored it 5.6/10, calling it competent but repetitive.14 No sequel has been produced; as of 2026, DreamWorks's official catalog lists only the 2006 film, and fan-circulated claims of an Over the Hedge 2 release date remain unconfirmed by the studio.15

References

  1. Over the Hedge (2006), AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  2. Over the Hedge (2006), Box Office and Financial Information, The Numbers
  3. Over the Hedge (2006), Box Office Mojo
  4. Joe Strike, "'Over the Hedge': Making The Leap From Newsprint To Pixels," Animation World Network, May 19, 2006
  5. Over the Hedge, Official Site, DreamWorks
  6. Over the Hedge, Rotten Tomatoes
  7. Over the Hedge, Metacritic
  8. Over the Hedge (2006), Awards, IMDb
  9. Filmmakers and Cast Discuss "Over the Hedge," Rotten Tomatoes Editorial
  10. DreamWorks Animation SKG filing, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
  11. Peter Bradshaw, Over the Hedge review, The Guardian
  12. Analysis of consumer ideology in Over the Hedge, Deakin University journal
  13. Over the Hedge, Parents' Guide, Common Sense Media
  14. Ryan Davis, Over the Hedge Review, GameSpot, May 18, 2006
  15. Over the Hedge 2: Is There a Sequel?, Cryptsy, June 4, 2026

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

© 2026 Biostate AI. Free to use with credit under the Edgepedia Community License. Embed a reference card.

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Over the Hedge (2006 film)

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