Over the Hedge

It’s the Great Australian/American Dream! A nice big house in the suburbs with a swimming pool, space to have friends over for a barbecue, comfy lounge with a big TV (and PS2/X-Box of course), big car, well-stocked fridge and pantry, or if you don’t feel like cooking, dinner is just a phone call away. Sounds like heaven!

But spare a thought for the cute little animals whose lives are thrown into turmoil as more and more of us attempt to live out our suburban fantasy, taking up more and more of their space. Over the hedge follows a band of critters as they come to terms with their new human neighbours. As well as being an entertaining frolic, this movie offers some humorous observations on the excesses of the way we live.

The unlikely family of animals—a turtle, a squirrel, a couple of opossums and porcupines, and a skunk—are guided in their exploration of this strange and dangerous suburban world by their new friend RJ, the street-wise raccoon. In one scene, almost run over by a huge four-wheel drive/SUV/truck, they are amazed at the car’s size and wonder how many people it must be able to carry. “Usually just one,” he advises.

RJ also explains that everything for the humans revolves around food! They package it so beautifully, there are special places to store the food, prepare the food, vehicles to carry the food, their TV shows advertisements for the food, the telephone is used to summon the food. A button near the front door heralds the arrival of the food before they finally pray to the food on the altar—the dinner table. Food in abundance!
For critters that spend most of their time collecting enough to survive the winter, all this food soon persuades them to ignore their natural fear of the dangers of suburbia. From the “rubbish” they collect, they’re soon living it up in fine suburban style—junk food and video games! It’s hard to resist, even for the sceptical Verne.

The animals take on the characteristics of their new neighbours, while the suburbanites themselves become caricatures of the worst of human nature, digging a bit deeper into how we think and live. Along with their excessive consumer lifestyle the humans are obsessed with eradicating anything that upsets their pristine, pretend world.

By holding up a mirror (even a humorously distorted one) we are challenged to see how self-centred we can be, and we see how this affects our relationships with others. It also becomes more obvious how the way we choose to live can impact on the natural world and the critters with which we share the planet. There is no more vivid example of this than the destruction of nature to make way for our ever-expanding suburban sprawl.

We Christians say that nature is God’s second book, from which we can learn so much about Him. However, I wonder what the reaction would be if Bibles were being destroyed at the same rate we are destroying nature. It’s food for thought … food? Did someone say FOOD?!

Often at the end of my reviews I say to check out a spot somewhere in the Bible, but this time how about checking out ye olde nature vibe near where you live. You might even find some amusing critters!