Over the Hedge

As a huge fan of animation, it is somewhat amazing I have not yet seen The Wild, although coming so close on the heels of Madagascar, perhaps not as surprising as it would normally be. After all, if you have seen one movie about mis-fit zoo animals from New York accidentally transported to the wilds of Africa...you have pretty much seen them all. I will probably check it out when it hits dvd, but meanwhile...new, fresh animation was available, so yesterday afternoon the Goose and I went to Over the Hedge. Pretty good voice cast, nice animation, potentially good story line, an easy target to poke fun at (homeowners associations in the 'burbs)...and a few pretty funny jokes. Hammy the Squirrel is hilarious, especially when he drinks caffeine...but overall, I was underwhelmed by the number of laughs. The pokes at suburban life are occasionally on the mark, but they feel like a tacked on socially conscious message that will somehow give this otherwise just plain fun romp some credibility with the snobs who think if a movie has no message it isn't worth seeing.
Now, I should note here that I often enjoy movies with a message regardless of genre. The action-packed and driven "The Island", for example, entertained while still addressing some tough questions about cloning, mortality, and rights to live. I had friends who enjoyed it on a pure entertainment level without catching (or caring) about the social issues, and I myself enjoyed it both on that level and also for the examination of deeper issues. Like I mentioned in the DrewVinci Code post, I am unlikely to change basic beliefs based on a fictional, entertainment and money-driven movie...but that does not mean visualizing the physical and/or emotional impacts of a debate might not at least give me something to think about.
Sometimes, the message is blatant and obvious...almost preachy. For instance, in John Q, the sit around whining about the HMOs was blatant...it had little do do with the narrative and everything to do with the social ills. It was like watching a movie on television and, instead of a break in the movie for the commerical, they just dropped the commercial, the campaign ad if you will, directly into the movie.
Other times the message is more subtle...for instance, the anti-consumerism, anti-corporate America message of Fight Club, while not exactly subtle, is still lost on the vast majority of that movie's fans. They enjoy the movie for the brutality, the violence, and the "twist" without really understanding what the movie was trying to say.
And the fact the movie works on both levels is a testament to the skill of the movie makers. When a movie works on several levels, that is something cool. Unfortunately, in Hedge, they are never sure if they want to make a point, make a joke, use a joke to make a point, or make a joke without making a point, and it then falls into an area where it is not funny because it is to close to trying to be social commentary and too much social commentary to be a joke.
Contrast this with Shrek, for instance, in which the ugly are beautiful, the beautiful are ugly, and it is what is inside that matters when it comes to love. If you watch Shrek with an understanding, it is making a brilliant statement about our fixation with appearance at the expense of personality...and the movie works because it does so smoothly, below the surface, without breaking the narrative to make the argument...the narrative IS the argument. And it works.
I had some nice laughs at Hedge, and it was kind of...here comes the dreaded word...cute, but not nearly as great as it could have been.