So I had the good fortune to see an advance screening of Over The Hedge tonight along with a new short from DreamWorks Animation entitled First Flight. First I have a simple review for both of them... "Fantastic!" I loved them both. DreamWorks has really upped the game for the rest of the animation competition this year. As you can tell from previous posts I have been really excited about CARS and I still am but it has some pretty stiff competition with Over The Hedge. Honestly I hope they both do extremely well though, an animated film that does well at the box office is good for the whole industry no matter where it comes from.
Back to Over The Hedge though... It was wonderful. It was a great story with characters that you really feel a vested interest in. Very good character development. It has a great story revolving around family and friendship. Very poignant at times without out being sappy or cheesy. Very funny too! I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time. I have a feeling that millions of kids are going to be running around playgrounds this summer trying their best to do Hammy impersonations. His personality is just so infectious and lovable. The new songs by Ben Folds add nicely to the action on screen without being distracting. Its not just a great Animated film but its just a great film and I would recommend checking it this weekend when it's released. It is in my opinion the best film DreamWorks Animation has made to date.
First Flight is a new short that will be shown in LA and New York with Over The Hedge. I didn't know they were going to show it to us but I was pleasantly surprised that they did. It's a nice story about a business man that is set free from his own shortcomings by a little bird that falls from a tree. Its a great little story that got a lot of positive reaction from a crowd that consisted largely of people from the Animation Industry. Given that Pixar's One Man Band short, showing with CARS this summer, qualified and was nominated for Best Animated Short last year I would say that First Flight is a strong contender for a nomination or even a win this year. Its a great film and I would recommend checking it out if it's showing near you. (I imagine it will be on the Over The Hedge DVD as well)
In addition to the aforementioned animation goodness we were treated to a new trailer for Flushed Away which revealed a little more of the story. Looks good to me. I love the style Aardman has brought to this feature. I hope it ends up being another hit for DreamWorks this fall.
http://www.overthehedgemovie.com/
http://www.animated-news.com/archives/00004996.html
http://www.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/flushedaway/trailer/
Technorati Tags: animation, dreamworks, over the hedge
2 comments:
No problem man. I'm glad you were able to come along and I'm glad that you liked it too!!
I also loved the film. It is by far my favorite DWA film so far. Everything was setting the bar high for this years animated films...characters, story, comedy, animation, etc. It was great. The panel afterwards was also insightful and fun. I think my favorite line was when the Writer/Director (sorry forgot his name) called himself a "man-child". What a good description of all of you...
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