NEWS
An "Over the Hedge" Update
02 Oct 2003 Grinchy Steve
(JCO Correspondant)
A First Look at Carrey, the Animal Con-Artist
In Over the Hedge, directed by Tim Johnson ( Antz, Sinbad), Jim Carrey will voice the mischievous con-artist raccoon R.J. and Garry Shandling will be the voice of the sensitive turtle named Verne. Also Gene Wilder is confirmed as the voice of Norbert the Owl. As the story goes, Verne and their woodland friends find a suburban housing development encroaching on their forest home, Verne's first instinct is to retreat into his shell and leave, but the ever-opportunistic R.J. sees a treasure trove to be had from his unsuspecting new neighbors. Together, Verne and R.J. form an unlikely friendship as they learn to co-exist with--and even exploit--this strange new world called suburbia.
Director Tim Johnson further revealed in a June 2003 interview that "the movie is based on a terrific comic strip. It's about a smart-aleck raccoon [Jim Carrey] who wakes up from a long slumber near a retiring turtle [Garry Shandling]. They realize that suburbia has taken over their home while they were sleeping." Instead of despair, the animals find nirvana. "They can't believe humans are nice enough to put out food for them in giant silver cans! They think they've found paradise." Meanwhile, he says, Carrey "cons the other animals into doing risky stuff like infiltrating the backyards. The animals think the sprinklers look like the fountains outside the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas. They also marvel at human behavior."
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"Over the Hedge" (Left: One of the preliminary CG designs; Right: A possible teaser poster) |
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"Over the Hedge" (One of the first CGI results) |
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"Over the Hedge" (A bigger look at the characters) |
Let's be honest, this just looks… "GRRREAT!" Jim has a great line where he says, 'Humans feel the deep-seated need to connect, and they also like to sit on their cans. That's why they watch TV.' As you can see on the picture, it seems to me, when I see the raccoon, he has a lot of Ace Ventura charisma… lovely!
By the way, Production started on July 15, 2002.
-- Source: 'Yahoo Movies' and animated-movies.net. Also the official site of dreamworks.com has allready a 'kinda' 'Over the Hedge'-section. Just click on 'animation' and take 'Films in Production'. With thanks to Grinchy Steve. Click to comment this article.
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