A few weeks ago I got to attend the Over the Hedge junket here in Los Angeles. Thankfully I really liked the movie, which always makes for a better day. In case you haven’t seen the reviews that have run on Collider, check out Steven Snyder or Brian Orndorf’s. Both enjoyed the movie as it is a real step forward for DreamWorks and their animated fare. In case you are unaware, the film stars Bruce Willis, Gary Shandling, Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, Steve Carell and a ton of other “names”.

The film is about family and what is really important in life. Gary Shandling plays the leader of a group of animals who wake from hibernation to find that humans have invaded their surrounding world. At the same time, Bruce Willis’s character of RJ is trying desperately to find an answer to his newly created problems and in this group of naive creatures RJ thinks he has found the answer.

Rather than going into more details, I found the message of the film timeless and true with many funny moments for adults that will definitely fly over the head of any kid. The other reason I really dug the film is there are no stupid jokes that are aimed at the lowest common denominator. Therefore there are no farts, mentions of poop, or any jokes that ruin the message and heart of the film. In the past certain animated films throw in things that make you shake your head and wonder what studio exec. thought this was needed or that it would be funny. Thankfully Over the Hedge is not one of these films. Over the Hedge arrives tomorrow in theaters and is definitely worth your hard earned dollar. The interviews below were done in roundtable form. If you are unfamiliar with what a roundtable is, what film companies do to promote their film is get a bunch of the stars together and have them go from room to room, talking with reporters about the project. It also means that we had around twelve or so people in the room, so I only got to ask a limited number of questions. If you have listened to any of our audio interviews here on Collider before, you know how it works. You can listen by clicking on the link or right click and save itfor later. I hope you enjoy the interviews, I think they came out great.Bruce Willis and Wanda SykesThese two were the first of the day and while it started slow it got better as it got going. They both talk about how the process works and how difficult they thought doing an animated voice is. Also Bruce explains how when you are recording you are always just doing your voice with no interaction from anyone else so it makes it hard to know how it is all going to come out. The other thing that Bruce said is this is the first time that he got to play David Addison again, the character from Moonlighting. He really felt that RJ is very similar. The interview is done with both of them together and there are a lot of funny parts.

Gary Shandling Gary came in and for the majority he just wanted to talk about Gary Shandling DVDs and how he was gathering material for his Tonight Show appearance. Out of all the interviews I have ever been apart of, this was the craziest and the one you have to listen to. I hope the atmosphere that took place in this room during the interview is able to be heard on this recording….Bonnie Arnold

The producer of Over the Hedge and a self proclaimed Nick Nolte “lover”. She also produced the first Toy Story and Tarzan. Bonnie came across as really nice and goes into a lot of details about the creative process and how much she has a thing for Nick Nolte. She is from the Atlanta area and her southern charm is very much on display in this interview.

Mike Fry and T Lewis – the comic strip creatorsThese guys created the comic strip Over the Hedge. They talk about their creative process, what comic-strips they read, how the film got made and what it is like to see their baby up on the big screen.

Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick – the directors of Over the HedgeBoth of these guys have been in the industry for awhile and I think their experience is the reason why Over the Hedge works. Tim Johnson also directed Ants and Sinbad while Karey Kirkpatrick wrote the new Charlottes Web, Hitchhikers Guide, Chicken Run, James and the Giant Peach and more. They go into a lot of details how they put the film together, the writing and editing process, how they made decisions together and most importantly, how they cast voices and what each actor brought to the screen. These guys had a lot of interesting things to say, definitely worth a listen. Well that’s it for Over the Hedge stuff but in case you missed some of our other audio interviews here they are.

From The Proposition junketGuy Pearce click here.Danny Huston click here.Ridley Scott and William Monahan Q&A - from our screening of the Director’s Cut of Kingdom of Heaven.part 1 - part 2From the film Water Deepa Mehta - she wrote and directed the film Water.Lisa Ray – one of the stars of Water