Bruce Willis Starred In A 2006 Animated Box Office Hit That Never Got A Sequel

"Over the Hedge" began its life as a rather good newspaper comic strip in 1995. The strip, created by Michael Fry and T. Lewis, was about a roguish raccoon named RJ and a persnickety turtle named Verne who had to face the encroaching development of local human suburbs that were recently built on their woodland paradise. RJ loved the approach of humans, as it gave him an opportunity to steal junk food from their trash cans and watch TV through their windows. Verne was a calmer, more Zen character who was careful to treat everyone with kindness. The strip was thoughtful and gentle while still being funny and full of slapstick. The strip is still running to this day. 

"Over the Hedge" became popular enough in the mid-2000s to warrant a high-profile, feature film adaptation, overseen by DreamWorks Animation. The "Over the Hedge" movie was directed by Tim Johnson ("Antz," "Home," "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas") and Karey Kirkpatrick, and it had a high profile cast that included Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, and pop star Avril Lavigne. Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara played a couple of porcupines, and Nick Nolte played a bear. The human characters were voiced by Allison Janney and Thomas Haden Church. The premise of the film was the same as the strip: some gentle woodland creatures find that the suburbs have appeared more or less overnight, and they don't know what to do about the hedge between them and the human world. 

Willis played RJ as an irascible newcomer who teaches Verne (Shandling), more cautious than in the strip, how to navigate the human world. 

"Over the Hedge" was a hit, but weirdly, it never took off in the consciousness.

It should be noted that "Over the Hedge" was a major studio release, and featured a full-bore, nationwide ad campaign. I need to remind readers of this because the film doesn't seem to be remembered at all, almost 20 years after its release. The film cost a pretty high $80 million to make, but it would earn a perfectly decent $340 million at the box office. It's likely that audiences were lured in by the impressive cast of celebrity voice actors, as well as the cute animals. It's hard to say if the "Over the Hedge" comic strip was widespread enough to accrue a mass audience. There were some tonal changes from the paper to the screen, with the movie being noticeably more frenetic and slapstick. The strip had plenty of slapstick humor, too, but it existed on a matrix between pop-culture-savvy and pastoral. The movie was a more traditional adventure/comedy/heist movie.

The film was also pretty warmly welcomed by critics, and currently holds a 75% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 171 reviews). The general consensus seemed to be that "Over the Hedge" was gentle, sweet, non-threatening fun. And it was indeed mildly amusing, with capable-enough performances, a tight-enough script, and an amusing cast of characters. Steve Carell's hyperkinetic squirrel character Hammy was clearly the breakout of "Over the Hedge," as he was granted his own spinoff sequel called "Hammy's Boomerang Adventure," a short that was featured on the "Over the Hedge" DVD release. 

And there was also a widespread media blitz for "Over the Hedge" as well. There were three video game tie-ins, including a Hammy-centric game called "Hammy Goes Nuts!" There was a series of children's books as well. "Over the Hedge" had actual merch.

So if the film made over $300 million at the box office, and was granted the same media blitz as any other major animated release, why didn't the studio keep pushing? In a world where "Madagascar" and "Shrek" media seeps through the pop consciousness like maple syrup through a wool sweater, why isn't "Over the Hedge" part of the story? As it so happens, it just wasn't successful enough. Indeed, DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg was even quoted on the matter in a 2007 article with the Hollywood Reporter. Katzenberg said that "Over the Hedge" was indeed a hit, and that it actually bolstered revenue for the studio at large, but that  "It was close. An almost," in terms of getting a sequel. 

Some enterprising "Over the Hedge" fans (and, yes, they're out there) crunched the numbers back in 2010, and figured that a sequel would demand higher prices from the voice cast, and likely require a higher budget overall. Plus, the studio would likely need to create an equally large marketing scheme just to put it in theaters. And while "Over the Hedge" was successful, Hollywood accounting dictates that it likely only made about $50 million in actual profit. That's not nothing, but it's small when compared to films like "Shrek" and "Madagascar." And of course, since those numbers were crunched 15 years ago, interest in "Over the Hedge" has only waned, making a sequel nigh impossible. Plus, star Garry Shandling has since passed on, and Bruce Willis has retired.

But, as mentioned, Michael Fry's and T. Lewis' "Over the Hedge" comic strip persists to this day.