To appeal to a variety of people the producer would have to make different sections suitable for different kinds of people based on groups like age or sex. Similar to many other Dreamworks films “Over the Hedge” is targeted mainly at families; however the success they have achieved obviously proves that many other people watch them as well. To appeal to young children they enhanced the cartoon characters and some of the jokes which young children love, for example Vern and RJ being chased by the dog and Hammy being hit over the head with a big text book. This kind of joke make the audience laugh and encourages them to ask their parents to go to see the whole film. This makes them a passive audience not thinking about the consequences purely thinking about seeing this movie. The trailer also contains jokes which are more established so adults will understand more, for instance, walking on water and how many people fit in a huge four by four car. Parents are more of an active audience making sure the movie is suitable for their children and whether they will enjoy it too. This means that the whole family would enjoy going to see this film resulting in more tickets being sold.
Younger children are able to relate to the characters for example when the father possum pretend to die one of the children wants to poke it. This is what young children are commonly tempted to do! However the parents very firmly tell them not to, this is teaching them a lesson and making sure that they realise it is wrong! Parents are able to relate to some characters especially Vern, they may feel a connection with him as they are both trying to look after a family. The humour makes it a fun experience and a diversion from stress at work or at home and spend time with their children – parents like nothing more than to see their children enjoying themselves.
Disney and Dreamworks are two different film companies both of which are very successful and often release similar films to compete against each other for instance “Shark Tale” and “Finding Nemo”. Dreamworks films always have a moral put across in a fun and exciting way. Their ethos tends to change depending on the age group but always teaching you subjects such as friendship, family, race and sometimes a hint of romance. Dreamworks’ story lines are often more realistic than Disney even though the characters are still either fictional or cartoon. The concept is still extremely believable and often happens to people in real life, whilst Disney’s ethos is more simple - just enjoy and be yourself, what you see is what you get. Both film companies seem to want the audience to relate to the characters and therefore want to do a sequel or perhaps just see it again. Many children only care about the story line, whereas the parents would prefer their children to go to see a film which they will enjoy and they learn something and become a better person. “Shrek” and “The Incredibles” is a great example to compare as they are both aimed at the same age group, they are funny and have a sense of adventure in them. However “Shrek” has more grown up jokes for older members of the audience which young children can just ignore.
In “Over the Hedge” many morals and lessons are expressed, the main one which stands out to me is at the end of the movie when RJ explains why he used the forest animals to get the food. He is ashamed of himself and deeply regrets this, Vern tells him that if he had just told them then they would have helped, quote Vern “…because that is what families do”. This sums up what a real family is and how important it is to look after each other. There is also a lot more ideology in the film which you may not realise without thinking about it! It presents a strong argument of why to preserve the environment and eat the right kind of food by enhancing the fact that the forest animals wouldn’t be able to collect enough food without eating human food which is bad for them. Finally there are many different races (animals) getting on really well in the same environment therefore we should do the same.
In many ways “Over the Hedge” is similar to other fictional cartoons containing a hero, princess, villain, donor and others. However these different characters are not the common stereotypes that appear in most fairy tale stories. Firstly the hero starts off as a false hero. RJ comes into the forest claiming that he has a great way of saving them when we know that he is really just using them. It is sad to see that RJ’s lies are pushing Vern out of the family and the others worship RJ whereas we just want him to go away. By the end of the story we begin to like RJ again as he saves the day like the hero should. Unusually the princess here is not your typical princess as she’s not pretty or rich, she is food. The animals are obsessed with finding food like the prince is obsessed with the princess. A princess can be any object of desire therefore Stella is also a princess for the house cat. The villains in “Over the Hedge” occurs often as they get in the way of the quest – basically kill the animals and their habitat like Vincent, the exterminator and Gladys. There are a couple of donors which tend to be the funniest characters in the film. Stella plays a huge part in them getting food, she surprises everyone by becoming a pretty skunk and makes us laugh with her fabulous flirting with the house cat which seems so amazing because skunks are supposed to be ugly and smell really bad her magical powers help enormously. Hammy is a great distraction for the animal team, his magical power is being super fast when hyper on sugar drinks, this saved the day.
There are many signs and signifiers in “Over the Hedge” one being when RJ opened the crisps everything was in slow motions. The camera zoomed out into the universe and it signified the atomic bomb blasting the world. This shows how food can be extremely bad for you and the environment if not eaten in the appropriate amounts or disposed of properly. It tells us that animals should stick to eating their own food and we will leave them alone. Also when the animals first go into the garden everyone except Vern adores RJ because they find it so amazing. To get the attention away from RJ Vern says “it’s not like he cannot walk on water” as this happens you see RJ walking across a swimming pool in the background, this then makes the animals believe he has magical qualities like Jesus. It is ironic how originally Vern is trying to make the animals realise that RJ really isn’t that fantastic, however it blew up in his face as instead of making him seem worse the animals agreed with him and now they think that he is even more superior.
The first few events take place at night, this adds to the effect of RJ being sad, lonely and scared as he is running away from Vincent and has an impossible task to do. It is ironic how there is a straight cut from darkness to spring time because after having RJ all by himself at night we witness the family happy and excited to be together.
To conclude RJ has developed dramatically from the beginning of the story. He’s first a selfish, greedy racoon with no one but himself to think or care about! He has no conscience and using people does not affect him at all. However as the story grows we observe RJ changing for the better, he realises how much the forest animals care about one and other and wishes he could experience the same feeling. By the end of the film the audience has acknowledged that RJ’s attitude has changed vividly. He obviously regrets the mistakes he has made in the past such as using them and stealing food and he comes back to save them like a real hero and is loyal to his new family.