Starring (the voices of): Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, Nick Nolte, Avril Lavigne, Omid Djalili
Cert: U
Released: 30th June 2006

RJ (Willis) is a racoon who loves to live up to his reputation as a bandit and will go to the most extreme of lengths to get what he wants.

Unsurprisingly, it gets him into a whole lot of trouble when he accidentally wakes his latest hit - a hibernating bear called Vincent (Nolte) - then loses all his winter food. RJ has a week to get it all back or Vincent will, in no uncertain terms, kill him.

RJ happens across a collection of woodland creatures just waking; Hammy the squirrel (Carell), Stella the skunk (Sykes), father and daughter possums (Shatner and Lavigne) and a family of hedgehogs (Levy and O'Hara) all led by a Verne the tortoise (Shandling).

They have discovered a horror in their forest that wasn't there before they went to sleep. A huge hedge has penned them in and the rest of their woodland has been replaced by a housing estate. With their usual source of nourishment now taken they don't know what to do.

RJ spies an opportunity and offers his help in getting the forest folk acclimatised to the humans beyond. He introduces them to a range of new delicacies like 'crisps' and 'fizzy drinks' and it's not long before they are thieving from the residents much to the chagrin of Verne and his danger-sensitive tail.

RJ is juggling too many balls at once: he has to keep everyone happy so they continue pillaging; keep everyone alive so the continue pillaging; keep suspicious Verne off his back; ensure he's collection the right things that Vincent wants; and stay out of the way of the newly commissioned 'Verminator'. To make matters worse is his conscience that keeps telling him he's gone too far this time.

Oh the computer animated films are just rolling out this year. With Disney's poorly conceived The Wild providing a low benchmark for everyone else to jump over, Over The Hedge beats it by a mile.

The secret (take note Disney) seems to be to give the characters and actual character. Instead of famous voices just reading out a script you can tell that these guys have put some effort into their vocal performances.

Willis's RJ is a return to old form. He's like a rodent Hudson Hawk; quick witted, roguish charm and a gizmo to get him out of any trouble he gets himself into.

Levy and O'Hara (who have performed plenty of times together on Christopher Guest projects) are doting (and a bit dopey) parents of three rambunctious children.

Shatner shines out again (just as he did in The Wild) and also puts in a retro-performance playing his death-performing possum with more than a wry wink to his Enterprise days; over … exaggerating … every … turn ... of phrase. Lavigne is his loving, but embarrassed, teen-daughter.

Sykes (last seen in Monster In Law) is as should be expected; a female skunk full of attitude and sass. But that's just a defence mechanism she's built up and all she wants is to be loved.

The star of the show is Carell's Hammy the hyperactive squirrel. Able to travel vast distances in the blink of an eye but unable to hold his attention on any one thing for the same period - he's going to be the popular merchandise this Christmas. Heck, I'll even buy one if it can burp it's 'A B C's. Hammy's golden moment - and easily the best scene of the film - is when he's introduced to caffeine. It's The Matrix turned up to 11.

The weakest role has to be Shandling's tortoise. With a vocal cast so full of character it's a shame Shandling is so bereft of life. I understand that they needed a 'straight man' to everyone else's wackiness but, for me, whenever Verne opened his mouth it turned the film into a bit of a dead spot.

The majority of jokes are human and animal habits turned on their head. The animals are 'naturally' normal whereas all human activity is completely bizarre. Which, in reality, is true.

I'm not sure that Over The Hedge will go down in the annals of greatness but it's certainly good enough to warrant a repeated viewing.