Having been caught red handed stealing the food stash of hibernating bear Vincent (Nick Nolte), RJ the raccoon (Bruce Willis) is given seven days to replace it before he becomes a light snack. He decides to invade suburbia and stumbles across a group of foragers who have just emerged from hibernation only to find a giant hedge in front of them and a housing development has reduced the area where they can forage for food.

Enter RJ who tells them of the huge amounts of food to be found in the human habitat, but of course fails to mention guard dogs and exterminator companies.

Group leader Verne the tortoise (Shandling) is suspicious and resists raiding the humans, but is overruled. As the group collect goodies RJ warms to them and worries about betraying them to pacify Vincent. Can he get the best of both worlds?

Dreamworks now have the edge over Disney in the animation stakes and this packs more jokes per minute than in the entire Chicken Little. Yes, there are stereotypes, such as the skunk (Sykes) with low self esteem and Verne's timid approach to everything, but with fun turns such as Ozzie (Shatner) the possum who is skilled at playing possum and the hyperactive Squirrel, Hammy (Carell) - just see him when fuelled up on caffeine - this is the best animation feature so far this year.

There certainly isn't anything overlooked: there's a proud housecat and a psycho Rottweiller to overcome and on the human side the anal retentive president of the homeowners association (Janney) who, fearing the critters will drive down house prices, is happy to team up with the Verminator (Church) - an over the top pest-control operator.

Directed by Antz director Tim Johnson, Over The Hedge is based on a comic strip which has run for over a decade in the States, but although American in feel, most of us have come across urban foxes and such in our own back gardens, so it crosses the Atlantic easily. The voice artists have been chosen with care and Willis has a certain rougueishness that fits RJ well. The script crackles with electricity and humour and human society is sent up extremely well.