DreamWork’s hit animated feature Over The Hedge arrives on home video today, complete with a new animated short and a bevy of behind-the-scenes bonus features. Considering the recent retail success of Disney’s The Wild, Hedge should do quite well on disc, adding to the $318 million it generated from worldwide ticket sales over the summer.
Based on the comic strip of the same name by Michael Fry and T. Lewis, Over the Hedge finds a raccoon named R.J. (Bruce Willis) with a literal deadline of one week to replace an ominous bear’s spring food supply. In order to complete the task, he recruits a small band of forest animals to loot a suburban housing development that has cropped up over the winter. Like the comic, the movie offers a satirical look a suburban life and how the animal world might view the absurdity of human excess. The film is directed by Tim Johnson (Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Antz) and first-timer Karey Kirkpatrick, a writer whose credits include The Rescuers Down Under, James and the Giant Peach, Chicken Run and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
The feature is accompanied by the new toon short Hammy’s Boomerang Adventure, starring the hyperactive squirrel character voiced by Steve Carell. The short’s director, Will Finn, a storyboard artist on Over the Hedge, provides optional commentary. Other DVD extra features include feature commentary by Johnson, Kirkpatrick and producer Bonnie Arnold; a Verm-Tech Institute Infomercial with exterminator Dwayne LaFontant; and the featurettes Behind The Hedge featurette, Meet The Cast and The Tech of Over The Hedge, There’s also a virtual playground of programming and creative activities for kids, including set-top games and a tutorial on how to draw Hammy. The disc can be had for the suggested retail price of $29.99.
Also debuting on home video today is Little Robots: Big Adventures, a 40-minute compilation of episodes from the stop-motion animated BBC preschool series that airs on Cartoon Network in the U.S. Created by Create TV & Film and produced by animation house Cosgrove Hall Films, the show follows the adventures of Tiny and his diminutive android friends. The disc from Fox Home Entertainment lists for $14.98.
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