It’s out! Finally managed to get the copyright visibility block gone from this - it’s a bit late but I hope you enjoy! Sadly, this is still demonetised. It could get a million views & I wouldn’t see a penny… which _kiiiinda_ sucks for a video so _transparently_ fair use, and which I was working on for nearly 6 months. If you watch this video & wonder why it seems better edited or more thought-through than my usual releases, all that time is why. I really wish more of my projects could spend so long in the oven. I really wish that payment for the ones that do wouldn’t arbitrarily get cut off. So I’m very thankful that I’ve got over a hundred people with a RUclips Membership or a Patreon pledge helping both of those wishes come a little truer! If you feel like helping out, too - in exchange for a whole bunch of perks & exclusive content - I’d be super grateful if you considered doing so via the link below: www.patreon.com/pillarofgarbage? And, on that note, since this video file was uploaded back in June, I’d like to thank everyone who’s joined up since then & therefore isn’t credited at the video’s end. So huge thanks to A. Murphy, Adam Cunha, Ashtin Bryde, Autumn Leonard, Ben Jammin, Colin Vigneault, CubeArtisan, DevinFolf, Dusk Dargent, Elijah R Trujillo, Enamon, Erica Brown, Harry Price, Hayden TCEM, James Maxwell, Jason Harrison, Jay Bigley, jjstarA113, Joel Berg von Linde, Joel Majano, John Eastep, Justin Leggero, Kevin Brown, Lizard-Steak, Mark Bainter, Metakirb Super Smasher, Monomancer, Mooglatan, Navek15, Nicole-ah Jacques Morel, Phil Hoggart, Philippe Marcil, Plasma Player, PleaseKaleMeNow, ponyfhtagn, Proclaimer91, Robert Frankel, Sherpacon, Sweetbees, Toad, Tim Cook, Token_Guard, Tom the not quite so brave as Sir Lancelot, and TooMuchDanger.
👍 Some companies need to learn that these videos, essays, analyses are actually helping them to sell their properties. It's marketing for free. And if the person who did it makes a dime or two with this, what's the problem? It's not they'd lose money. In fact people may go and watch it, try to get a digital or physical release, after watching your video. That's pure money.... Anyways, it's great that it's out. 🙂
@@crowman2702 Sorry, I have no control over that. The RUclips copyright system allows the studio making the copyright claim to monetise the video themselves & locks the video creator out of the process. Seems like Dreamworks have plugged this video full of ad spots with no regard for placement - and trust me, I’m as annoyed by this as you are.
@@PillarofGarbage dude im just beyond glad i got to watch the video just unlocked crazy memories for me also much respect for the hardwork you put in. you got this!
There's also the unspoken loss of all of the animals who were hibernating where the suburb was placed. Had our gang slept in a hollow or log only a few yards away, they'd have been killed or driven out by the construction
Thank you so much for mentioning this. I watched the hell out of this DVD as a kid and always felt a sense of emptiness or loss at the introduction of the hedge that I couldn’t pin down the source of. I think I questioned what happened to the animals in the rest of the forest and reached the same conclusion but it got pushed to the back of my mind and dissipated as the action of the film continued.
That particular detail is disingenuous... the winter is the wet season in most places, and only an idiot or a masochist (or a government contractor, because not his problem!) would clear land then.
@@josephfisher426Clinging to the thought he mentioned earlier, I think that idea still stands considering some animals hibernate for 150 days and winter only lasts for 89. A lot can be done by a construction company in 61 days if all they’re doing is clearing the land. Maybe?
The end of the movie and the "hybrid" lifestyle is pretty much setting up the comic strip the movie was based on -- a community of woodland animals living on the fringes of the suburbs, both living their natural lives and "borrowing" stuff from the humans. Not fully part of the suburb but not existing fully apart from it.
Thank you for explaining to me why I still occasionally think about this non-Shrek, non-Panda Dreamworks movie from nearly 20 years ago, that I haven't re-watched in almost that long and that I've never seen anyone else reference before. I knew there must be *something* there, but I was beginning to wonder if I was just crazy.
What a great ending. It's a mindset I struggle to express to my friends. Most are either planning for a future I don't think will exist or so wrapped in how grim our reality is they don't even bother imagining a different, more beautiful future
I have a strong distaste for your brand of optimism. 60.000 passed away in Europe due to heat in 2022, 47.000 in 2023, I live in Eastern Europe, feel my skin burning up indoors. Climate change is going to get worse, it's not in the interest of the rich to curtail it, and the masses are overworked and apathetic or straight up brainwashed by big oil. We should advocate for a better world, but why peddle false hope? We need to acknowledge how horrible things are and how much worse they will inevitably get. That's honesty.
@@naomisoltesz9890where on earth did they “peddle false hope?” They said we should imagine a more beautiful future, which is *mandatory* for actually pushing to improve things. That reply was just a display of contempt toward OP for not being a weak-minded useless doomer.
@@alicev5496 The point is that it's the right thing to do, it's the only thing to do if you care about people. I don't have a drop of hope anymore, we're literally seeing a rise in fascism again. We don't seem to learn. I struggle to keep trying without hope, it's true, but I can't fake hope and I can't stop caring. It hurts a lot when people like me, with dried up hope get called "useless doomers" and much worse by people who are ostensibly on my side. It is genuinely painful. I'm used to horrible things being said about me by conservatives, but it always stings more when it's "my side."
@@naomisoltesz9890you’re not a “useless doomer,” but the brand of cynical defeatism you project is the exact thing that conservatives who want nothing to change (or for us to regress) feed on. It’s what turned people against Hillary Clinton in 2016, stating that her brand of marginal progress was seemingly as bad as Trump’s regressivism, and it’s what oil companies use to continue their unstopped march of profitable destruction. I cannot blame someone for being “doom and gloom” about this stuff, but I also cannot pretend that that isn’t exactly what our enemies want. One cannot fight for a better future without hope that a better future can exist, and without fighting for a better future, all that’s left is to accept what we ourselves have doomed to be inevitable.
Fun Fact: in Brazil they localized the title to "Os Sem-Floresta" or "The Forestless", which is a reference to "Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra" or "Landless Workers' Movement", which is a movement that wanted to redistributed the land that was taken from workers during the military dictatorship
I recommend checking out Mort Theory. Or at least the section covering this film. The Film Theorist has created a Dreamworks equivalent to the Pixar timeline where the movies are connected by an ongoing conflict between animals and humans.
Basically all trees in Norway have been planted in the past couple centuries replacing our entire "ancient forest".. This earth will never run out of trees
Believe it or not, this is actually the SECOND time I've seen an in-depth analysis of "Over the Hedge" that covered these EXACT points! P.S. The video I'm referencing is from Isenhart Productions, I have the link in a reply.
One thing that made me start thinking is the fact that this movie is from 2006, two years before the house market crash. I don't know if that can be a positive for the animals watching the suburbs implode from itself, or a negative they are having to rebuild from the ashes in a post--catastrophic world.
"Only a select few will call it home" the pamphlet says and RJ highlighting it with a magnifying glass over a circle (magnifying glass) the "future development" could also be read as him being part of this....they kinda tell us the ending of the movie while, yes, leave open everything afted it to our interpretation. That's the idea (like in The Thing there's no resolution only questions and it's up to you deciding/discussing about it). Or do they? The hammer on the bunny, again and again could be read as an indicator of them being in sort of a "time loop", they will come after them...but the bunny rises again. The hammer comes down. But the bunny rises again. A neverending cycle of man vs nature.
Something I find worthwhile to note with this reading, is that the way they have AJ hold the pamphlet. The way he holds it, the green patch. The 'wood' is lined up roughly with his heart. So it being circled red and labeled 'future development' does read like pretty on-the-nose foreshadowing.
You could argue that we DO get a glimpse that leans on the positive when it comes to the ending thanks to the credits! In the credits roll, we get to hear slight snippets of the hibernators talking about their tv binging habits. We do get to see them watch TV on a scene before, but it's only the one scene and the dialogue in the credits makes allusion as if they have been watching for quite a while. As such, we can argue that said dialog is happening AFTER the movie's ending. As such, it means that while 100% we are not sure about the fate of their environment, we DO get confirmation that thanks to their newfound bonds and skills, they managed to continue thriving by borrowing from the suburbans' excess to live a hybrid stable life. One can also infer that during the movie, despite the occasional disgust and discomfort when interacting with the critters directly, the suburbanites are never the ones pushing for the destruction of our protagonist; ONLY Gladys. I feel that's a clever signal to show that while the humans are lazy, they don't share the drive for expansion that the pamphlet seems to imply. That only seem to fall upon Gladys' own desire for shallow over-perfection. So, without the bad leader leading the flock, the rest of the humans don't really have a reason to keep expanding, notching another possible point to the hope that the hibernators will be able to survive with their newfound hybrid lifestyle.
You bringing up the pamphlet reminds me of similar feelings i have with the ending of Fantastic Mr. Fox. The forest community starving until they find out that they're under a supermarket. A happy ending, until you stop to consider that they can't possibly steal from there forever, they're gonna get found out. And what then?
Ok this explains a lot : While i was growing up the narrative was "ratatoille good and mature, over the edge bad and childish" I disagreed , i didn't like ratatoille but i didn't mind over the edge , But i was a kid and lacked the eloquence or the awarness to do so , Now i do : Ratatoille as a movie is fundamentally unsympatetic towards the rats , They are first shown crawling trough a house like vermins , Remy is disgusted and criticises their lifestyle as starving desperate creatures but like he doesn't care about continuing to exist , he puts himself in huuge risks to make good food , And like it kinda frames the other rats as somehow dimwitted somewhat , Linguini tells remy that stealing is bad , Remy's father shows him all the dead rats and that is treated as a fact of life , an inevitability of life , The rats will never know peace , they'll just have to play along with the humans , become pets who can do a trick ... Over the edge is massively sympatetic towards the animals : We always see things from their point of view : We see them struggle to get the last scrap of food from a deserted suburban hellscape , We see even huge black bears struggling to make ends meet , We see a turtle thinking about how they'll survive without food , And like their plight is shown as real , If remy stumbled here and told them to just become more artistic with the food and to not just eat it like gluttons he'd get slapped on the back of the head and told to get real because winter will come wheter they eat fancy or not . Ratatoille tells oppressed pepole to learn new tricks , become fancy , and find a howner , then things will be good forever , Over the edge has a temporary happy ending in "we'll at least survive this winter" One movie gets clouded in the mirage of fancy living and high end resurants , The other stays real and notices how surviving one more year every year is the important part
I always thought that the movie was unfair to rats because the movie is from the point of view of humans. I think that the movie would be comparable to a film about a straight person being friends with someone who has a lot of internalized hatred about their community. And that both the hatred from outside the community that was based off of ignorance and assumptions about the survival mechanisms of marginalized people as well as the internalized idea that a community can't amount to more than what is expected of them are contributing factors to marginalization.
I never really considered all this before but you make a really good point! For me, I just preferred OTH because it was more bright and colorful and didn't feel as long as Ratatouille.
Your analysis is solid, but I have to disagree. Remi doesn't cook because he wants to be favored by humans; he does it because he has an intrinsic love for the art, and the film focuses on how that passion drives him. We see things from Remi's perspective, so the rats are presented through his dillusion with their way of life. That being said, the climax sees him embracing the community he'd shunned, and his happy ending still involves Gusteau's shutting down forever in favor of a much smaller, simpler restaurant that makes space for the rats. I don't see the two movies as being at odds with each other because, while they may have different themes, both have protagonists that realize the value of those around them. RJ forgoes his life of solitary scavenging for a hopefully permanent home, and Remi uses his gift to elevate his family's lives instead of isolating himself in pursuit of his dream.
"Earlier I likened RJ to Milton's Satan - but Satan was, of course, a fallen angel. Luckily though, 'Over the Hedge' isn't 'Paradise Lost', or 'Genesis' even, and RJ isn't Satan." Sentences like that are why I love this channel.
You might like the Film Theorist’s Mort Theory where he posits that the little guy with big eyes in Madagascar is a Lovecraftian horror uniting the entire Dreamworks universe.
As a known Ben Folds obsessive, I would feel wrong if I didn’t mention the 3rd version of Rockin’ The Suburbs (called Remix ‘06) that replaces the soundtrack’s Shatner monologue with a really weird new instrumental and lyrics about the war on terror and homophobic propaganda
Pom Poko by Studio Ghibli is an animated film about a group of tanuki (Japanese raccoon-dogs) finding that their forest is being destroyed by urbanization and that there will be less and less food available come each winter. The tanuki attempt many different ways of dealing with the issue, both peaceful and violent, but the film is often criticized for it's uncharacteristically dour ending: despite their best efforts the tanuki lose and their forest is bulldozed. They are forced to either adapt to living off urban scraps or die.
I haven't finished this video yet so maybe you address this, but: I'd argue that it isn't quite *as* cynical of suburbia as you're presenting at first (though it is cynical). For example, with RJ's speech about the suburbanites, you have to keep in mind a few things: • RJ is himself a shallow materialist, and is very likely projecting. • RJ is also not a friend of the suburbanites necessarily, he is trying to rob them after all. • RJ is also actively a liar and a manipulator at this point in the story. • I'd also argue Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs warps the animal's perspective of the Suburbanites. They spend much of their time just trying to get enough food to live, so they have trouble wrapping their minds around humanity. So RJ's speech shouldn't necessarily be taken at face-value as correct...indeed, I'd say the humor is that he's simultaneously not quite correct but also you can see where he's coming from from his perspective. I'd say the line "This is the altar where they worship food!" is a good example of this. The HOA lady does embody quite a bit about what's bad about suburbia. I would, however, note that it's implied she's not viewed all that positively by the other suburbanites. A key moment in particular being the line "You worry about your casserole while I worry about the end of suburban peace and tranquility!" - she's a loon going on a personal crusade to protect property values, even when the other suburbanites don't seem to care that much. Specifically the HOA lady represents the mindset that views homes primarily as investment vehicles. This is where much of what you don't like about suburbs comes from.
As a kid, I thought Over The Hedge was a sci fi movie. Being European, I wasn't familiar with the unique geography and lifestyle of US suburbs, so the film's setting was alien to me, showcasing just as many elements I recognized from my own life as it did unique qualities and problems which made it clear this wasn't any environment that I was familiar with. So I thought Over The Hedge was set in the near future, presenting a dystopia (though obvs I didn't know that word back then) that might become reality. Just like Wall-E, I saw Over The Hedge as a cautionary tale. A call to action directed to the children of the world to orevent this future from becoming a reality. But unlike Wall-E, it was a future that might become the present within my own lifespan. I don't think I was wrong
A lot of the content in this video is being carried by the creator bringing up these topics rather than the film itself presenting them in a particularly well thought out way.
over the hedge is deep, they stacked the cast and brought in a clever musician that really fleshed out the themes as we see them in the film. die hard didnt become a racoon for nothin. it aint kaufman but they went for it.
I really like the ambiguity argument of the pamphlet and the nut ex-machina. In the same way that the woodland creatures are able to defeat the human antagonists, perhaps the nut ex-machina gives them the means to survive long enough to fight back. There’s hope in that ending, but it’s tempered hope that doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be a fight for that change. Whether it’s anti-colonial, anti-suburban, or anti-capitalist movement, the struggle feels impossibly big. But every little victory is still a victory, and change - while not inevitable and requiring tremendous effort - is still possible.
I am so excited, you don't know. I have such a soft spot for this movie, warts and all, and I'm sorry it's been such a struggle getting it out but I can't wait to see what you have to say
Recent subscriber here, fantastic work! I really like the structure of the essay as well. I think a lot about how the singer in Lost in the Supermarket says the first feeling they ever felt was fear, and that it never went away despite the consumerism. So it was a pleasant surprise to have the soundtrack analyzed here too. I also appreciated how unshy and unapologetic the subjects were approached here, it's refreshing and lets us explore them further. Good luck with the "it's not that deep" comments!
I remember having fun with this film back when I was a kid/before junior high school. Then the Internet told me that it's not so good. And now you Mister Pillar sir made a point that there is something in this film and real life only got worse. And I think people should give more attention to this. In any case, keep up the great work, stay safe, and take care
I hate when the a big RUclips channel puts out a video saying ‘X kids movie sucks and here is why’. And then it gets millions of views and makes the collective opinion on the internet (mostly from people who never saw or don’t remember the movie) that the movie is irredeemable garbage. (Yes I am talking about Schafarillas Productions’ video on Shrek The Third)
@@elonk4life I don't have that much experience with that YT channel (I'm on a Cinemasins & Nostalgia Critic free YT diet) or most of the other channels of this type, but it is indeed annoying.
It's hard to argue that a film where the primary antagonist is an HOA President isn't at least a little about capitalism, conformity, and the illusion of control.
I was a little worried this would just be a rehash of the seminal big joel video on the subject, but this has a ton more to say and imo says it better in certain ways! great work!!
The pamphlet does open up the film for sequels. The Family could have to leave as their last bit of wilderness is about to be demolished and RJ has to lead them to a rumoured sanctuary. Like an American version of Animals of Farthing Wood. But hopefully with less hedgehog crushing.
It did have a post-ending video game tie-in, where the gang goes out in search of endangered species to convince them to move into their patch of wilderness in order to protect it. I was obsessed with it and it really stuck with me. To be fair I am one of the easiest gets for the environmental movement, but Over the Hedge in both movie and game form really fast-tracked me against sprawl for a kid raised in suburbia.
16:45 Even as a sociologist, I have only ever been exposed to Slavoj Zizek against my will and it is always when I least expect it. Thank you for continuing this trend in your very well put together video about the found family racoon movie.
He stood and spoke. The Pillar said what we didn't have the gumption to. Over the Hedge is a radical anti-capitalist work of art opposed to the rapid suburbanization which furthers corporate interest at the cost of the environment and human choice.
Alongside Barnyard, Madagascar, and Shrek the Third, this was one of the most well-worn DVDs in my house as a kid. I remember loving the soundtrack. I also remember feeling this vague sense of uneasiness at the ending. Like all the problems hadn’t been completely solved but I didn’t know why. Now I know. Thank you.
Targeting Korn for a "whiny white boy" song is wild. On their very first album, Johnathan Davis has a whole song about being SA'd as a child and his mother enabling the abuse/calling him a liar. I'm really glad Pillar of Garbage called that out. SA isn't made up for by growing up in a suburb.
Another film I think this can be compared to is "Lilo and Stitch " Both films merely gestured at inequalities that became so obvious in the preceding years that even privileged White suburbanites have a hard time dismissing them.
This is wild, I literally was having a conversation with my spouse a few weeks back about how impressed I was that the version of Rockin the Suburbs written for Over the Hedge was actually a pretty good version that maintained the general themes/critique of suburban life while being acceptable for a children's film lol I appreciate how you highlighted that it actually does a better job than the OG, it's something I hadn't thought about!
If you want to see the continuation of the story after the movie that you were speculating about, there’s always the video game that directly continues the story from a year later. I remember it being quite good
While I haven't read much of the comic I do think it needs to be considered in these interpretations a lot more as while the movie represents the idea of the animals having to adapt to the discovery of urbania and the hedge the serialized comic, perhaps intentionally or just purely as a result of its nature of a series of short, weekly adventures and gags show a much more nonchalant conformity to life with the hedge. It paints a picture of how things can be with both sides coexisting, if not outright giving a good argument for what comes after the movie if you can frame it as a prequel to the comics. Of course all of that has to be taken with consideration of the thoughts in place for the comic and how it relates to the film as its unlikely much of the tie-in is intentional so much as serendipitous that when the writer was approached for a movie adaptation they settled on an origin story and things shook out as they did.
I was just reading through the comments to see if someone had mentioned this. Seeing this vid pop up in my feed reminded me of reading the comics in the paper as a kid, and how much I had begged my dad to consider it for our local paper (he was the features editor who bought the comic subscriptions at the time). The comic feels more like a mix of the "This Far and No Further" and the "Nuts and Trash" approaches. I would be very interested to see a further analysis of the comic's approach to things, especially when it stats making jokes about Disney adapting Victor Hugo and showing commentary on the consumer culture of collectable trading.
I feel like you wrongly credited over the hedge for the quicksilver sequences in the X-men films, because over the hedge copied their sequence from Futurama. The episode three hundred big boys did it first, 3 years earlier.
Love the fact you're analyzing this movie I loved as a kid then as a teen when I was learning more of politics I started noticing things and thought I was crazy for noticing the anticapitalism and criticism of the very idea of suburbs and as an adult it's crazy how it's so clear what the movie says and everyone looking at it now
Great video. Over the Hedge was one of my favorite films as a kid. It's not one Dreamworks's best films, even for its time, but it always has a special place in my heart. I'm glad that someone picked up on the pamphlet. Sometimes I wonder if they included it to leave room for a sequel, which probably would've focused on the animals trying to save what is left of their sanctuary or find a new home. Alas, we'll just have to use our imaginations to find out what's next.
This movie is special to me because I saw it in a hospital multiple times as a very sick child going through my first largish surgery. I wasn't allowed to eat so the animals stealing food was like a vicarious feeling to me.
A) Love the serious treatment of a film that is almost never taken seriously. B) There's this measage about suburbs being bad, but I'm struggling to wrap my head around what the film suggests should be done about it. Is it just HOA's that are problematic? Should we all move back into the inner city? Like, what's the point of saying there's a problem if there's not any suggestion of a direction that might be better? C) Based on how long the Over the Hedge comic strip ran, you can assume that "future development" didn't happen for a very long time.
'move back to the inner city' as if that is where humanity has always existed. 'Suburbs' have always been where the majority of city populations lived. Squesing the majority into inner cities was a very short peirod of time that only happened because overly centralised urbanisation and caused a lot of health problems. Suburbia isn't a problem, American suburbia is because of flaws unique to it.
@@matthiuskoenig3378 So, the question still remains, what do we do to fix the problem. There are definitely problems, but what would fix those problems? It's easy to say something's wrong, but a lot harder to say how it can be fixed. From Over the Hedge, there's the idea of community being important, nature being important, avoiding materialism being important, etc. I'm trying to see, from the perspective of the film writers, what they would have American suburbanites do?
@@jaredwonnacott9732 yeah the film doesn't offer answers. I think the answer is 'garden cities' and similar ideas, mix the density of suburbs more while adding nature coridors (forgot the term actually used) which allow animals to move from parks to parks (and also linked to wild land outside the suburbs and exurbs, possibly maintaining the corrodors and clumps through farmland). I think it offers the best balance for both human needs and animal needs. while also adding more denser buildings ie more green zones of no buildings, but also more low rise apartments. also have mixed zoning for buisnesses. this has been tried in a handful of places and it seems to work well so far.
short answered solution: commieblocks and designing cities that aren’t car centric, allowing people to take busses, trams, trains, to bike, to walk where they need to go. Mass transport and housing that doesn’t stretch people out for miles and alienate them from their neighbors. Alongside reforesting parts of urban areas to decrease local temperatures and make things not a concrete jungle. Suburbs are an inherent problem because they’re terrible at utilizing the space they take up. One family per building which tends to include both a front and back yard which will likely constitute a quarter of a city block
As an Australian, and someone from New South Wales, having just had a premier called Gladys that had the nickname, "Koala Killer" is kinda funny when one of the main antagonists of this movie is also called Gladys that hates animals. Is it a coincidence that the two feel alike? I think not!
This rekindled the Over the Hedge obsession I had as a kid. The ending implies some downer stuff, but the video game (which is actually pretty good), gives us a continuation of the animals' story, and while very silly in that video gamey way, it does play on the ideas of the fight escalating, RJ and co. rob more houses, VermTech starts using mind control on animals, it gets really nonsensical, but it addresses your points of them getting more experienced and able to fight back against Camelot suburbia. Every time the gang defeat the mind-controlled animals, they gain more allies who are hungry and have an axe to grind with VermTech, including characters like Vincent. So, while the pamphlet is never addressed again, I think it's extremely feasible that with their newfound experience battling Dwayne, Gladys, and having an army of growing animal allies with them, they realistically could either hold off construction over their garden.
There is something painfully weird about the fact three days ago, while visiting relatives and being hosted at their home, in middle of a suburbia in a culdesac, we talked about this movie, just to see it mentioned again a couple of days later.
"Only a select few will call it home" is the most thought provoking detail on the pamphlet. Who are the select few? What are the needs of that few? Are just basic thoughts that the pamphlet can insight. Seeing the ever consumption of land that the delevopers have already erected their constructions on and the ongoing construction plans aimed at continuous development to the last remains of open land depicted on the map.
I always viewed the finding of the nuts as a type of olive branch within the flood of suburbia, that there is more wilderness out there waiting to be discovered just outside the suburbs
"Germ, what are you doing?" "Watching A Serious Analysis of Over the Hedge." "It's 4 o'clock in the morning. Why on Earth are you watching A Serious Analysis of Over the Hedge?" "Because I've lost control of my life."
This was a great video I always saw this as a underrated Dreamworks movie, to see how it looks at and criticizes the way America is, especially with the use of also looking at Ben Folds song, and its deeper meaning. This was a great video and I appreciate the work and effort into looking deeper into this movie.
9:20 😍 acknowledging that the whole of north & south America - yes, all of it, from old growth and oceans to prairies and rainforests - was actively managed for abundance & stability prior to european contact
Great vudeo, I actually went and got just the 3 Ben folds songs from the soundtrack back in the day. Just couldn't really discuss it with my young kid . . .well done.
Even if the crew at DreamWorks didn't plan on it, this whole film is actually an allegory for an actual location; Hamilton County, Indiana. The daily strip the film was based on was set in Indiana and pretty much had a similar premise of woodland critters having their ones compromised by suburbia and having to adapt. And Hamilton County has just exploded in growth over the past few years, way more than the film likely had anticipated. Hasn't helped that Indiana is a very developer friendly state.
“Inspires the best scene in two X-men films” you mean shamelessly steals a scene from the same place two X-men films stole from, Futurama. It even has the same concept of a character overloading on caffeine to move super fast and save the day.
I guess this movie is what influenced my beliefs of humanity's relation to nature, especially with my passion of designing for a better lifestyle like with Disneyland.
Could you imagine if nearly 20 years later they made a movie about trying to defend the last bit of undeveloped land to only have to shift the plot to escaping and moving onto a new home (the true outskrits of the suburbs to keep it like the comics. Or, the true wilds to move past all this)
You forgot the post credit scene. They are back at the rest stop getting food from the vending machine at the beginning of the movie. So apparently they WERE forced out of the forest/garden.
With the ending scene after the credits it had them all trying to get a bag of chips out of a vending machine the area looked simmilar to the start of the movie so I always assumed that the family moved
See this is why I subscribed to your channel Pillar, you just randomly show up on my algorithm with BANGER video concepts and you always end up breaking my mind with having a very open mind on how to break down movies of our past.
Friendly reminder that the comic's creator refused to use the film for commercials at Walmart because the chain is too polluting. This guy is down to earth and knows what he wants.
I was OBSESSED with OtH as a kid and for my 9th bday, a friend bought me the PC game! I had all the lines memorized from the film, even beat the PC game that was so big, it came with 2 discs (I now have only one of them ;-; but still have the box and disc holder). I still own the DS game too with the box n all and have played it so much the cartridge is dying out and glitches are everywhere but it’s still playable…kinda. The late game is rough. Anyway, the DS game covers that issue that the film ends on. Gladys comes back with her plans to build a pool in place of their little garden. You get endangered animals to move in by stealing the things they need to live and stall construction by breaking the machines between levels. They then get the attention of (I believe) the Girl Scouts who identify the endangered species and the plot of land is saved. Gladys gets arrested and the exterminator is Dwayne’s brother. Henri, who’s also a taxidermist and plans to turn the gang into little figures for Gladys, but yeah, that’s how they solve the neighborhood development issue!
Bro please shut up🤦🏽,your not funny or quirky for that🙄,what? Do you really not have alot going in your life to where you gotta pour your life to a comment section?
This was my favorite movie growing up i remember when my brother got mom to buy it on dvd and it just stayed on the tv for weeks. Loved seeing such a good a video about it!
One of the best movies of my childhood. Ironically, I would play this and Open Season almost daily as background noise while playing hunting games on my old PC. I would love a sequel if done right.
All these years and I NEVER knew that song was by Ben Folds??? How did I miss that. Also thank you for finally being the person to talk about this movie 🙏🙏🙏
I'm proud to say this has always been one of my favorite movies, like by the time I was learning to read... I think the prevailing sense of decline is what makes it so memorable for a child
The game is basically the second movie. This is me remembering it from 10+ years ago but they have to deal with winter and steal from the houses again, and the bear joins you. There's also a like bumper car min game lol
About the whole "pamphlet" & "Hammy found his nuts" thing, there is a sequel in the form of the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube game, which shows that they'll still be doing those heists in the suburbs, so I assume that the animals DO know that those trees are gonna be limited for a while before new trees are able to grow. I am thinking of getting that game at one point as it looks pretty decent(alongside the movie on DVD), but still I'd thought it'd be worth mentioning.
It’s out! Finally managed to get the copyright visibility block gone from this - it’s a bit late but I hope you enjoy! Sadly, this is still demonetised. It could get a million views & I wouldn’t see a penny… which _kiiiinda_
sucks for a video so _transparently_ fair use, and which I was working on for nearly 6 months.
If you watch this video & wonder why it seems better edited or more thought-through than my usual releases, all that time is why. I really wish more of my projects could spend so long in the oven. I really wish that payment for the ones that do wouldn’t arbitrarily get cut off.
So I’m very thankful that I’ve got over a hundred people with a RUclips Membership or a Patreon pledge helping both of those wishes come a little truer! If you feel like helping out, too - in exchange for a whole bunch of perks & exclusive content - I’d be super grateful if you considered doing so via the link below:
www.patreon.com/pillarofgarbage?
And, on that note, since this video file was uploaded back in June, I’d like to thank everyone who’s joined up since then & therefore isn’t credited at the video’s end. So huge thanks to A. Murphy, Adam Cunha, Ashtin Bryde, Autumn Leonard, Ben Jammin, Colin Vigneault, CubeArtisan, DevinFolf, Dusk Dargent, Elijah R Trujillo, Enamon, Erica Brown, Harry Price, Hayden TCEM, James Maxwell, Jason Harrison, Jay Bigley, jjstarA113, Joel Berg von Linde, Joel Majano, John Eastep, Justin Leggero, Kevin Brown, Lizard-Steak, Mark Bainter, Metakirb Super Smasher, Monomancer, Mooglatan, Navek15, Nicole-ah Jacques Morel, Phil Hoggart, Philippe Marcil, Plasma Player, PleaseKaleMeNow, ponyfhtagn, Proclaimer91, Robert Frankel, Sherpacon, Sweetbees, Toad, Tim Cook, Token_Guard, Tom the not quite so brave as Sir Lancelot, and TooMuchDanger.
👍
Some companies need to learn that these videos, essays, analyses are actually helping them to sell their properties. It's marketing for free.
And if the person who did it makes a dime or two with this, what's the problem? It's not they'd lose money.
In fact people may go and watch it, try to get a digital or physical release, after watching your video. That's pure money....
Anyways, it's great that it's out. 🙂
If your video is demonetized could you remove the ads? Some of them are very intrusive and kept cutting off the flow of the video.
@@crowman2702 Sorry, I have no control over that. The RUclips copyright system allows the studio making the copyright claim to monetise the video themselves & locks the video creator out of the process. Seems like Dreamworks have plugged this video full of ad spots with no regard for placement - and trust me, I’m as annoyed by this as you are.
I shall download this video and make a deep dive analysis on it 🫡🫡
@@PillarofGarbage dude im just beyond glad i got to watch the video just unlocked crazy memories for me also much respect for the hardwork you put in. you got this!
There's also the unspoken loss of all of the animals who were hibernating where the suburb was placed. Had our gang slept in a hollow or log only a few yards away, they'd have been killed or driven out by the construction
Thank you so much for mentioning this. I watched the hell out of this DVD as a kid and always felt a sense of emptiness or loss at the introduction of the hedge that I couldn’t pin down the source of. I think I questioned what happened to the animals in the rest of the forest and reached the same conclusion but it got pushed to the back of my mind and dissipated as the action of the film continued.
I never thought about how a whole community was slaughtered, and they lost neighbors and friends they could have known for many seasons. Damn.
Heathers mom probably
That particular detail is disingenuous... the winter is the wet season in most places, and only an idiot or a masochist (or a government contractor, because not his problem!) would clear land then.
@@josephfisher426Clinging to the thought he mentioned earlier, I think that idea still stands considering some animals hibernate for 150 days and winter only lasts for 89. A lot can be done by a construction company in 61 days if all they’re doing is clearing the land. Maybe?
Love seeing a deeper side to a movie I would play on repeat on my handheld dvd player in the back of the car on long drives
Yes! I got this dvd and Madagascar as handmedowns from my cousins as a kid and they were some of the first and most rewatched dvds in my collection.
You had one of those too? I remember watching that on the way to my grandma's house
i have never had an original experience
Omg same. this one and Two Towers special edition went with me everywhere
The end of the movie and the "hybrid" lifestyle is pretty much setting up the comic strip the movie was based on -- a community of woodland animals living on the fringes of the suburbs, both living their natural lives and "borrowing" stuff from the humans. Not fully part of the suburb but not existing fully apart from it.
Oh, what comic strip is that?
@@xenotiic8356 Same as the movie. "Over the hedge".
Damm. Now i must track this one down!!!!!!!!!!
thank you for mentioning this, I've just spent like 30 minutes looking at a bunch of the comic strips, they are delightful
@@JoaoVictor-rg5ix
There was some of them shown during the end credits
They tried to silence him, but the Pillar stood tall.
Almost like a... Hedge or something.
Proudly erect, you might say
@@miguelcapetillo7160 man they really had to get over that one
They couldn’t let the truth come out 🙏
37:15 "a sword of Damocles, hanging overhead"
More like a sword of Damocles, hanging overhedge, am I right?
this is huge from you
this should be pinned
You just won the internet today
That aint no crime
Thank you for explaining to me why I still occasionally think about this non-Shrek, non-Panda Dreamworks movie from nearly 20 years ago, that I haven't re-watched in almost that long and that I've never seen anyone else reference before. I knew there must be *something* there, but I was beginning to wonder if I was just crazy.
What a great ending. It's a mindset I struggle to express to my friends. Most are either planning for a future I don't think will exist or so wrapped in how grim our reality is they don't even bother imagining a different, more beautiful future
I have a strong distaste for your brand of optimism. 60.000 passed away in Europe due to heat in 2022, 47.000 in 2023, I live in Eastern Europe, feel my skin burning up indoors. Climate change is going to get worse, it's not in the interest of the rich to curtail it, and the masses are overworked and apathetic or straight up brainwashed by big oil. We should advocate for a better world, but why peddle false hope? We need to acknowledge how horrible things are and how much worse they will inevitably get. That's honesty.
@@naomisoltesz9890what's the point without hope? It just leads to more apathy
@@naomisoltesz9890where on earth did they “peddle false hope?” They said we should imagine a more beautiful future, which is *mandatory* for actually pushing to improve things. That reply was just a display of contempt toward OP for not being a weak-minded useless doomer.
@@alicev5496 The point is that it's the right thing to do, it's the only thing to do if you care about people. I don't have a drop of hope anymore, we're literally seeing a rise in fascism again. We don't seem to learn. I struggle to keep trying without hope, it's true, but I can't fake hope and I can't stop caring. It hurts a lot when people like me, with dried up hope get called "useless doomers" and much worse by people who are ostensibly on my side. It is genuinely painful. I'm used to horrible things being said about me by conservatives, but it always stings more when it's "my side."
@@naomisoltesz9890you’re not a “useless doomer,” but the brand of cynical defeatism you project is the exact thing that conservatives who want nothing to change (or for us to regress) feed on. It’s what turned people against Hillary Clinton in 2016, stating that her brand of marginal progress was seemingly as bad as Trump’s regressivism, and it’s what oil companies use to continue their unstopped march of profitable destruction. I cannot blame someone for being “doom and gloom” about this stuff, but I also cannot pretend that that isn’t exactly what our enemies want. One cannot fight for a better future without hope that a better future can exist, and without fighting for a better future, all that’s left is to accept what we ourselves have doomed to be inevitable.
Fun Fact: in Brazil they localized the title to "Os Sem-Floresta" or "The Forestless", which is a reference to "Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra" or "Landless Workers' Movement", which is a movement that wanted to redistributed the land that was taken from workers during the military dictatorship
That’s actually super interesting - thanks for sharing!
Caramba nunca tinha notado essa conexão
With that pamphlet in mind, I could see them doing a crazy ass sequel where the animals just, enact war with humanity
I recommend checking out Mort Theory. Or at least the section covering this film. The Film Theorist has created a Dreamworks equivalent to the Pixar timeline where the movies are connected by an ongoing conflict between animals and humans.
I mean the game for the OG Xbox starts at the hedge scene (the climax of the movie) and continues from there iirc
I'm here for it. Team wildlife!
I mean wasnt that basically the games? Dismanteling the machines and stealing artifacts to expand the forest?
We got 5 Ice Age sequels and no Over the Hedge sequel for some reason lol.
Thematic analysis of children's films is my favorite genre of RUclips videos.
Have you seen Mort Theory?
They slap !! Love it 🙌🏾
Squirrels lose most of the nuts they burry. So soon the trees will return…
Basically all trees in Norway have been planted in the past couple centuries replacing our entire "ancient forest".. This earth will never run out of trees
As long as no one mows them!
Believe it or not, this is actually the SECOND time I've seen an in-depth analysis of "Over the Hedge" that covered these EXACT points!
P.S. The video I'm referencing is from Isenhart Productions, I have the link in a reply.
the P in PoG stands for plagiarism 🤫
@@PillarofGarbage I mean, yours is DEFINITELY longer, and still has plenty of its own content.
@@PillarofGarbageWell as long as you're plagiarizing garbage, I suppose.
Was the other one Big Joel?
@@aliminator1310What was the first? May you link it please?
One thing that made me start thinking is the fact that this movie is from 2006, two years before the house market crash.
I don't know if that can be a positive for the animals watching the suburbs implode from itself, or a negative they are having to rebuild from the ashes in a post--catastrophic world.
2006 was also the peak of the housing bubble. The same kind of houses that we see in the movie.
Uhhh🫨
"Only a select few will call it home" the pamphlet says and RJ highlighting it with a magnifying glass over a circle (magnifying glass) the "future development" could also be read as him being part of this....they kinda tell us the ending of the movie while, yes, leave open everything afted it to our interpretation.
That's the idea (like in The Thing there's no resolution only questions and it's up to you deciding/discussing about it).
Or do they? The hammer on the bunny, again and again could be read as an indicator of them being in sort of a "time loop", they will come after them...but the bunny rises again. The hammer comes down. But the bunny rises again.
A neverending cycle of man vs nature.
Something I find worthwhile to note with this reading, is that the way they have AJ hold the pamphlet.
The way he holds it, the green patch. The 'wood' is lined up roughly with his heart. So it being circled red and labeled 'future development' does read like pretty on-the-nose foreshadowing.
To take a quote from the ending of Crow Country:
"It's a curious mixture of Hope and Dread. Maybe everything will be okay. And maybe it won't."
You could argue that we DO get a glimpse that leans on the positive when it comes to the ending thanks to the credits!
In the credits roll, we get to hear slight snippets of the hibernators talking about their tv binging habits. We do get to see them watch TV on a scene before, but it's only the one scene and the dialogue in the credits makes allusion as if they have been watching for quite a while. As such, we can argue that said dialog is happening AFTER the movie's ending.
As such, it means that while 100% we are not sure about the fate of their environment, we DO get confirmation that thanks to their newfound bonds and skills, they managed to continue thriving by borrowing from the suburbans' excess to live a hybrid stable life.
One can also infer that during the movie, despite the occasional disgust and discomfort when interacting with the critters directly, the suburbanites are never the ones pushing for the destruction of our protagonist; ONLY Gladys. I feel that's a clever signal to show that while the humans are lazy, they don't share the drive for expansion that the pamphlet seems to imply. That only seem to fall upon Gladys' own desire for shallow over-perfection.
So, without the bad leader leading the flock, the rest of the humans don't really have a reason to keep expanding, notching another possible point to the hope that the hibernators will be able to survive with their newfound hybrid lifestyle.
Along with when the movie was made, right before the housing crash, also speaks volumes.
You bringing up the pamphlet reminds me of similar feelings i have with the ending of Fantastic Mr. Fox. The forest community starving until they find out that they're under a supermarket. A happy ending, until you stop to consider that they can't possibly steal from there forever, they're gonna get found out. And what then?
Thank you! I always felt a little bit uneasy with that ending and didn’t know why.
Ok this explains a lot :
While i was growing up the narrative was "ratatoille good and mature, over the edge bad and childish"
I disagreed , i didn't like ratatoille but i didn't mind over the edge ,
But i was a kid and lacked the eloquence or the awarness to do so ,
Now i do :
Ratatoille as a movie is fundamentally unsympatetic towards the rats ,
They are first shown crawling trough a house like vermins ,
Remy is disgusted and criticises their lifestyle as starving desperate creatures but like he doesn't care about continuing to exist , he puts himself in huuge risks to make good food ,
And like it kinda frames the other rats as somehow dimwitted somewhat ,
Linguini tells remy that stealing is bad ,
Remy's father shows him all the dead rats and that is treated as a fact of life , an inevitability of life ,
The rats will never know peace , they'll just have to play along with the humans , become pets who can do a trick ...
Over the edge is massively sympatetic towards the animals :
We always see things from their point of view :
We see them struggle to get the last scrap of food from a deserted suburban hellscape ,
We see even huge black bears struggling to make ends meet ,
We see a turtle thinking about how they'll survive without food ,
And like their plight is shown as real ,
If remy stumbled here and told them to just become more artistic with the food and to not just eat it like gluttons he'd get slapped on the back of the head and told to get real because winter will come wheter they eat fancy or not .
Ratatoille tells oppressed pepole to learn new tricks , become fancy , and find a howner , then things will be good forever ,
Over the edge has a temporary happy ending in "we'll at least survive this winter"
One movie gets clouded in the mirage of fancy living and high end resurants ,
The other stays real and notices how surviving one more year every year is the important part
I hate this simply because I can only like it once.
I always thought that the movie was unfair to rats because the movie is from the point of view of humans. I think that the movie would be comparable to a film about a straight person being friends with someone who has a lot of internalized hatred about their community. And that both the hatred from outside the community that was based off of ignorance and assumptions about the survival mechanisms of marginalized people as well as the internalized idea that a community can't amount to more than what is expected of them are contributing factors to marginalization.
This is a good comment!
I never really considered all this before but you make a really good point! For me, I just preferred OTH because it was more bright and colorful and didn't feel as long as Ratatouille.
Your analysis is solid, but I have to disagree. Remi doesn't cook because he wants to be favored by humans; he does it because he has an intrinsic love for the art, and the film focuses on how that passion drives him. We see things from Remi's perspective, so the rats are presented through his dillusion with their way of life.
That being said, the climax sees him embracing the community he'd shunned, and his happy ending still involves Gusteau's shutting down forever in favor of a much smaller, simpler restaurant that makes space for the rats.
I don't see the two movies as being at odds with each other because, while they may have different themes, both have protagonists that realize the value of those around them. RJ forgoes his life of solitary scavenging for a hopefully permanent home, and Remi uses his gift to elevate his family's lives instead of isolating himself in pursuit of his dream.
"Earlier I likened RJ to Milton's Satan - but Satan was, of course, a fallen angel. Luckily though, 'Over the Hedge' isn't 'Paradise Lost', or 'Genesis' even, and RJ isn't Satan."
Sentences like that are why I love this channel.
I like to think I walk a fine line between insightful and unhinged
You might like the Film Theorist’s Mort Theory where he posits that the little guy with big eyes in Madagascar is a Lovecraftian horror uniting the entire Dreamworks universe.
Bro really did beat me to the "Anti-Capitalist Genius of Over the Hedge" punch 😔
I win this round 😔
@@PillarofGarbage I'll get you next time, PoG, if it's the last thing I do! _meniacal cackle_
maxmunich ahh
Nah, you ain't catch em lacking
Anti-capitalist? That's cringe
As a known Ben Folds obsessive, I would feel wrong if I didn’t mention the 3rd version of Rockin’ The Suburbs (called Remix ‘06) that replaces the soundtrack’s Shatner monologue with a really weird new instrumental and lyrics about the war on terror and homophobic propaganda
The song was homophobic propaganda or was about homophobic propaganda?
@@kitkatbreaker1270 was about homophobic propaganda
Good scoop
I love Ben folds, my mom introduced me to him long ago and I've always liked him since then
I had no idea this existed.
Pom Poko by Studio Ghibli is an animated film about a group of tanuki (Japanese raccoon-dogs) finding that their forest is being destroyed by urbanization and that there will be less and less food available come each winter. The tanuki attempt many different ways of dealing with the issue, both peaceful and violent, but the film is often criticized for it's uncharacteristically dour ending: despite their best efforts the tanuki lose and their forest is bulldozed. They are forced to either adapt to living off urban scraps or die.
I hedged so hard for this video.
Who else up overing they hedge?
its all over the hedge now
I haven't finished this video yet so maybe you address this, but:
I'd argue that it isn't quite *as* cynical of suburbia as you're presenting at first (though it is cynical). For example, with RJ's speech about the suburbanites, you have to keep in mind a few things:
• RJ is himself a shallow materialist, and is very likely projecting.
• RJ is also not a friend of the suburbanites necessarily, he is trying to rob them after all.
• RJ is also actively a liar and a manipulator at this point in the story.
• I'd also argue Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs warps the animal's perspective of the Suburbanites. They spend much of their time just trying to get enough food to live, so they have trouble wrapping their minds around humanity.
So RJ's speech shouldn't necessarily be taken at face-value as correct...indeed, I'd say the humor is that he's simultaneously not quite correct but also you can see where he's coming from from his perspective. I'd say the line "This is the altar where they worship food!" is a good example of this.
The HOA lady does embody quite a bit about what's bad about suburbia. I would, however, note that it's implied she's not viewed all that positively by the other suburbanites. A key moment in particular being the line "You worry about your casserole while I worry about the end of suburban peace and tranquility!" - she's a loon going on a personal crusade to protect property values, even when the other suburbanites don't seem to care that much.
Specifically the HOA lady represents the mindset that views homes primarily as investment vehicles. This is where much of what you don't like about suburbs comes from.
As a kid, I thought Over The Hedge was a sci fi movie.
Being European, I wasn't familiar with the unique geography and lifestyle of US suburbs, so the film's setting was alien to me, showcasing just as many elements I recognized from my own life as it did unique qualities and problems which made it clear this wasn't any environment that I was familiar with. So I thought Over The Hedge was set in the near future, presenting a dystopia (though obvs I didn't know that word back then) that might become reality. Just like Wall-E, I saw Over The Hedge as a cautionary tale. A call to action directed to the children of the world to orevent this future from becoming a reality. But unlike Wall-E, it was a future that might become the present within my own lifespan.
I don't think I was wrong
I uh, wasn't expected themes of manifest destiny, commercialism, and the concept of sin in funny squirrel cartoon.
But, I'm here for it.
A lot of the content in this video is being carried by the creator bringing up these topics rather than the film itself presenting them in a particularly well thought out way.
over the hedge is deep, they stacked the cast and brought in a clever musician that really fleshed out the themes as we see them in the film. die hard didnt become a racoon for nothin. it aint kaufman but they went for it.
I really like the ambiguity argument of the pamphlet and the nut ex-machina. In the same way that the woodland creatures are able to defeat the human antagonists, perhaps the nut ex-machina gives them the means to survive long enough to fight back. There’s hope in that ending, but it’s tempered hope that doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be a fight for that change. Whether it’s anti-colonial, anti-suburban, or anti-capitalist movement, the struggle feels impossibly big. But every little victory is still a victory, and change - while not inevitable and requiring tremendous effort - is still possible.
I am so excited, you don't know. I have such a soft spot for this movie, warts and all, and I'm sorry it's been such a struggle getting it out but I can't wait to see what you have to say
This shit is Gen Z's FernGully
Recent subscriber here, fantastic work! I really like the structure of the essay as well. I think a lot about how the singer in Lost in the Supermarket says the first feeling they ever felt was fear, and that it never went away despite the consumerism. So it was a pleasant surprise to have the soundtrack analyzed here too.
I also appreciated how unshy and unapologetic the subjects were approached here, it's refreshing and lets us explore them further. Good luck with the "it's not that deep" comments!
I remember having fun with this film back when I was a kid/before junior high school.
Then the Internet told me that it's not so good.
And now you Mister Pillar sir made a point that there is something in this film and real life only got worse. And I think people should give more attention to this.
In any case, keep up the great work, stay safe, and take care
I hate when the a big RUclips channel puts out a video saying ‘X kids movie sucks and here is why’. And then it gets millions of views and makes the collective opinion on the internet (mostly from people who never saw or don’t remember the movie) that the movie is irredeemable garbage. (Yes I am talking about Schafarillas Productions’ video on Shrek The Third)
@@elonk4life I don't have that much experience with that YT channel (I'm on a Cinemasins & Nostalgia Critic free YT diet) or most of the other channels of this type, but it is indeed annoying.
@@Lunictd sounds healthy.
Yeah, I'll watch a second video essay in my life about Over the Hedge. Of course I will. Why would anyone not do that?
Just rewatched this movie for the first time in like 13 years ready for this lol
Get ready for "it's just a children's movie bro, is not about capitalism" comments
the moment this video starts to pick up views they’ll come flooding in ☂️
Newsflash it's always about capitalism 😂
You can at least say that the writers probably had a bone to pick with HOA people that go on power trips when writing Gladys' dialogue
Unfortunately everything has to suffer the misfortune of existing in a context, and that context is always capitalism
It's hard to argue that a film where the primary antagonist is an HOA President isn't at least a little about capitalism, conformity, and the illusion of control.
I was a little worried this would just be a rehash of the seminal big joel video on the subject, but this has a ton more to say and imo says it better in certain ways! great work!!
🙏
unironically ‘how can I come at this film differently from Big Joel’ was one of the first questions I asked at the start of planning this haha
The pamphlet does open up the film for sequels. The Family could have to leave as their last bit of wilderness is about to be demolished and RJ has to lead them to a rumoured sanctuary. Like an American version of Animals of Farthing Wood. But hopefully with less hedgehog crushing.
It did have a post-ending video game tie-in, where the gang goes out in search of endangered species to convince them to move into their patch of wilderness in order to protect it. I was obsessed with it and it really stuck with me. To be fair I am one of the easiest gets for the environmental movement, but Over the Hedge in both movie and game form really fast-tracked me against sprawl for a kid raised in suburbia.
opening with how the movie version of Rockin the Suburbs made me smile like an idiot, this is a take I've had for years
This film came out in 2006, so I'd like to think the 2008 recession put a pause on the housing development
4:30 am at night? Guess I’m getting up for this
_PoG hates his Australian viewers, pass it on_
@@PillarofGarbageCan't hate something that doesn't exist ☺
I’m with you ! ✊🏽
16:45 Even as a sociologist, I have only ever been exposed to Slavoj Zizek against my will and it is always when I least expect it. Thank you for continuing this trend in your very well put together video about the found family racoon movie.
He stood and spoke. The Pillar said what we didn't have the gumption to. Over the Hedge is a radical anti-capitalist work of art opposed to the rapid suburbanization which furthers corporate interest at the cost of the environment and human choice.
A radical anti-capitalist work of art brought to you by DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros and of course, Columbia Pictures.
Hey you finally got it approved! Congratulations!
Alongside Barnyard, Madagascar, and Shrek the Third, this was one of the most well-worn DVDs in my house as a kid. I remember loving the soundtrack. I also remember feeling this vague sense of uneasiness at the ending. Like all the problems hadn’t been completely solved but I didn’t know why. Now I know. Thank you.
Targeting Korn for a "whiny white boy" song is wild. On their very first album, Johnathan Davis has a whole song about being SA'd as a child and his mother enabling the abuse/calling him a liar. I'm really glad Pillar of Garbage called that out. SA isn't made up for by growing up in a suburb.
it was weird he went for rage and korn, im sure he pulled examples out of his ass of current nu metal bands but those didnt help his argument AT ALL
Gladys is basically the perfect cutout of a Karen also HOA dictator
Another film I think this can be compared to is "Lilo and Stitch " Both films merely gestured at inequalities that became so obvious in the preceding years that even privileged White suburbanites have a hard time dismissing them.
This is wild, I literally was having a conversation with my spouse a few weeks back about how impressed I was that the version of Rockin the Suburbs written for Over the Hedge was actually a pretty good version that maintained the general themes/critique of suburban life while being acceptable for a children's film lol
I appreciate how you highlighted that it actually does a better job than the OG, it's something I hadn't thought about!
If you want to see the continuation of the story after the movie that you were speculating about, there’s always the video game that directly continues the story from a year later. I remember it being quite good
Ohhh I loved that game!!
While I haven't read much of the comic I do think it needs to be considered in these interpretations a lot more as while the movie represents the idea of the animals having to adapt to the discovery of urbania and the hedge the serialized comic, perhaps intentionally or just purely as a result of its nature of a series of short, weekly adventures and gags show a much more nonchalant conformity to life with the hedge. It paints a picture of how things can be with both sides coexisting, if not outright giving a good argument for what comes after the movie if you can frame it as a prequel to the comics. Of course all of that has to be taken with consideration of the thoughts in place for the comic and how it relates to the film as its unlikely much of the tie-in is intentional so much as serendipitous that when the writer was approached for a movie adaptation they settled on an origin story and things shook out as they did.
I was just reading through the comments to see if someone had mentioned this. Seeing this vid pop up in my feed reminded me of reading the comics in the paper as a kid, and how much I had begged my dad to consider it for our local paper (he was the features editor who bought the comic subscriptions at the time).
The comic feels more like a mix of the "This Far and No Further" and the "Nuts and Trash" approaches. I would be very interested to see a further analysis of the comic's approach to things, especially when it stats making jokes about Disney adapting Victor Hugo and showing commentary on the consumer culture of collectable trading.
I absolutely CANNOT wait.
Fuck yeah this is like in my top 5 movies, it revolutionized super speed
I feel like you wrongly credited over the hedge for the quicksilver sequences in the X-men films, because over the hedge copied their sequence from Futurama. The episode three hundred big boys did it first, 3 years earlier.
Ha , it also makes more sense even as fryies coffee overdose i think did it
Love the fact you're analyzing this movie I loved as a kid then as a teen when I was learning more of politics I started noticing things and thought I was crazy for noticing the anticapitalism and criticism of the very idea of suburbs and as an adult it's crazy how it's so clear what the movie says and everyone looking at it now
I totally love Ben Folds. Amazing artist, saw him live last year!
Great video. Over the Hedge was one of my favorite films as a kid. It's not one Dreamworks's best films, even for its time, but it always has a special place in my heart. I'm glad that someone picked up on the pamphlet. Sometimes I wonder if they included it to leave room for a sequel, which probably would've focused on the animals trying to save what is left of their sanctuary or find a new home. Alas, we'll just have to use our imaginations to find out what's next.
This movie is the reason my first fursona was an opossum and also why I had an obsession with opossums in middle school
Same, but with RJ
Possums are pretty cool
That's cool I love opossums I'm glad other people like them as well
This movie is special to me because I saw it in a hospital multiple times as a very sick child going through my first largish surgery. I wasn't allowed to eat so the animals stealing food was like a vicarious feeling to me.
A) Love the serious treatment of a film that is almost never taken seriously.
B) There's this measage about suburbs being bad, but I'm struggling to wrap my head around what the film suggests should be done about it. Is it just HOA's that are problematic? Should we all move back into the inner city? Like, what's the point of saying there's a problem if there's not any suggestion of a direction that might be better?
C) Based on how long the Over the Hedge comic strip ran, you can assume that "future development" didn't happen for a very long time.
'move back to the inner city' as if that is where humanity has always existed.
'Suburbs' have always been where the majority of city populations lived. Squesing the majority into inner cities was a very short peirod of time that only happened because overly centralised urbanisation and caused a lot of health problems.
Suburbia isn't a problem, American suburbia is because of flaws unique to it.
@@matthiuskoenig3378 So, the question still remains, what do we do to fix the problem. There are definitely problems, but what would fix those problems? It's easy to say something's wrong, but a lot harder to say how it can be fixed.
From Over the Hedge, there's the idea of community being important, nature being important, avoiding materialism being important, etc. I'm trying to see, from the perspective of the film writers, what they would have American suburbanites do?
@@jaredwonnacott9732 yeah the film doesn't offer answers.
I think the answer is 'garden cities' and similar ideas, mix the density of suburbs more while adding nature coridors (forgot the term actually used) which allow animals to move from parks to parks (and also linked to wild land outside the suburbs and exurbs, possibly maintaining the corrodors and clumps through farmland). I think it offers the best balance for both human needs and animal needs. while also adding more denser buildings
ie more green zones of no buildings, but also more low rise apartments. also have mixed zoning for buisnesses. this has been tried in a handful of places and it seems to work well so far.
short answered solution: commieblocks and designing cities that aren’t car centric, allowing people to take busses, trams, trains, to bike, to walk where they need to go. Mass transport and housing that doesn’t stretch people out for miles and alienate them from their neighbors. Alongside reforesting parts of urban areas to decrease local temperatures and make things not a concrete jungle. Suburbs are an inherent problem because they’re terrible at utilizing the space they take up. One family per building which tends to include both a front and back yard which will likely constitute a quarter of a city block
As an Australian, and someone from New South Wales, having just had a premier called Gladys that had the nickname, "Koala Killer" is kinda funny when one of the main antagonists of this movie is also called Gladys that hates animals.
Is it a coincidence that the two feel alike? I think not!
Absolutely wild opening to a video about over the hedge.
This rekindled the Over the Hedge obsession I had as a kid. The ending implies some downer stuff, but the video game (which is actually pretty good), gives us a continuation of the animals' story, and while very silly in that video gamey way, it does play on the ideas of the fight escalating, RJ and co. rob more houses, VermTech starts using mind control on animals, it gets really nonsensical, but it addresses your points of them getting more experienced and able to fight back against Camelot suburbia. Every time the gang defeat the mind-controlled animals, they gain more allies who are hungry and have an axe to grind with VermTech, including characters like Vincent. So, while the pamphlet is never addressed again, I think it's extremely feasible that with their newfound experience battling Dwayne, Gladys, and having an army of growing animal allies with them, they realistically could either hold off construction over their garden.
There is something painfully weird about the fact three days ago, while visiting relatives and being hosted at their home, in middle of a suburbia in a culdesac, we talked about this movie, just to see it mentioned again a couple of days later.
This movie really inspired me from a young age. The mission, the camraderie, all led to where i am today. Stealing copper out of peoples homes
"Only a select few will call it home" is the most thought provoking detail on the pamphlet.
Who are the select few?
What are the needs of that few?
Are just basic thoughts that the pamphlet can insight. Seeing the ever consumption of land that the delevopers have already erected their constructions on and the ongoing construction plans aimed at continuous development to the last remains of open land depicted on the map.
11:29 - If you've seen Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon then this sound bite of Bruce Willis is a jumpscare 😅
(*Specifically if you've seen it dubbed in English of course)
good manga/anime :) , even if it sounds basic its going really deep and intersting
Isn't it おいしい？
I always viewed the finding of the nuts as a type of olive branch within the flood of suburbia, that there is more wilderness out there waiting to be discovered just outside the suburbs
"Germ, what are you doing?"
"Watching A Serious Analysis of Over the Hedge."
"It's 4 o'clock in the morning. Why on Earth are you watching A Serious Analysis of Over the Hedge?"
"Because I've lost control of my life."
This makes me appreciate living very rural, my backyard is literally untamed nature with just a hiking trail as sign of humans..
This was a great video I always saw this as a underrated Dreamworks movie, to see how it looks at and criticizes the way America is, especially with the use of also looking at Ben Folds song, and its deeper meaning. This was a great video and I appreciate the work and effort into looking deeper into this movie.
9:20 😍 acknowledging that the whole of north & south America - yes, all of it, from old growth and oceans to prairies and rainforests - was actively managed for abundance & stability prior to european contact
Keep dreaming
Nice to see the Noble Savage trope is alive and well.
Great vudeo, I actually went and got just the 3 Ben folds songs from the soundtrack back in the day. Just couldn't really discuss it with my young kid . . .well done.
Even if the crew at DreamWorks didn't plan on it, this whole film is actually an allegory for an actual location; Hamilton County, Indiana. The daily strip the film was based on was set in Indiana and pretty much had a similar premise of woodland critters having their ones compromised by suburbia and having to adapt. And Hamilton County has just exploded in growth over the past few years, way more than the film likely had anticipated. Hasn't helped that Indiana is a very developer friendly state.
“Inspires the best scene in two X-men films” you mean shamelessly steals a scene from the same place two X-men films stole from, Futurama. It even has the same concept of a character overloading on caffeine to move super fast and save the day.
I was so mad when you skipped the Ben folds analysis at the beginning. I love the movies version of still sm
Super underrated artist
I just love it. Always hits me.
Ben folds and over the hedge are some of my favorite early 2000s media. I appreciate the combo, they are linked
i absolutely love this movie. the anti-consumerism angle, the soundtrack, Avril Lavigne possum, it has it all
I guess this movie is what influenced my beliefs of humanity's relation to nature, especially with my passion of designing for a better lifestyle like with Disneyland.
I've waited a long time for this
YESSSSSSSSSSS I LOVE THIS MOVIE THANK YOU FOR ALSO HAVING IT LIVE RENT FREE IN YOUR HEAD
Never thought I'd hear someone talk about Slavoj Žižek in a video about Over The Hedge.
Could you imagine if nearly 20 years later they made a movie about trying to defend the last bit of undeveloped land to only have to shift the plot to escaping and moving onto a new home (the true outskrits of the suburbs to keep it like the comics. Or, the true wilds to move past all this)
You forgot the post credit scene. They are back at the rest stop getting food from the vending machine at the beginning of the movie. So apparently they WERE forced out of the forest/garden.
11:10 bwahahahahahahaha you know your audience pretty well, congratulations (and thanks for the cool essay of course)
With the ending scene after the credits it had them all trying to get a bag of chips out of a vending machine the area looked simmilar to the start of the movie so I always assumed that the family moved
it's so refreshing to find a full on analysis of a film and not a recap
See this is why I subscribed to your channel Pillar, you just randomly show up on my algorithm with BANGER video concepts and you always end up breaking my mind with having a very open mind on how to break down movies of our past.
damn he was not fucking joking, this really is a wholly serious analysis of over the hedge (2006).
4:04 if you hate yappers.
Friendly reminder that the comic's creator refused to use the film for commercials at Walmart because the chain is too polluting. This guy is down to earth and knows what he wants.
I was OBSESSED with OtH as a kid and for my 9th bday, a friend bought me the PC game! I had all the lines memorized from the film, even beat the PC game that was so big, it came with 2 discs (I now have only one of them ;-; but still have the box and disc holder). I still own the DS game too with the box n all and have played it so much the cartridge is dying out and glitches are everywhere but it’s still playable…kinda. The late game is rough.
Anyway, the DS game covers that issue that the film ends on. Gladys comes back with her plans to build a pool in place of their little garden. You get endangered animals to move in by stealing the things they need to live and stall construction by breaking the machines between levels. They then get the attention of (I believe) the Girl Scouts who identify the endangered species and the plot of land is saved. Gladys gets arrested and the exterminator is Dwayne’s brother. Henri, who’s also a taxidermist and plans to turn the gang into little figures for Gladys, but yeah, that’s how they solve the neighborhood development issue!
Bro please shut up🤦🏽,your not funny or quirky for that🙄,what? Do you really not have alot going in your life to where you gotta pour your life to a comment section?
Someone who listened to rage and thought 'angry white suburban boy' absolutely has the capacity to sell out and cut the edge and soul out of his song
i fell asleep to this video then woke up in the middle of it to hear "zizek" and had to check it was the same video
This was my favorite movie growing up i remember when my brother got mom to buy it on dvd and it just stayed on the tv for weeks. Loved seeing such a good a video about it!
19:45 "I don't care if this thing's against the Geneva Conventions, I want it"
Legendary HOA moment
One of the best movies of my childhood. Ironically, I would play this and Open Season almost daily as background noise while playing hunting games on my old PC. I would love a sequel if done right.
All these years and I NEVER knew that song was by Ben Folds??? How did I miss that. Also thank you for finally being the person to talk about this movie 🙏🙏🙏
I'm proud to say this has always been one of my favorite movies, like by the time I was learning to read...
I think the prevailing sense of decline is what makes it so memorable for a child
The game is basically the second movie. This is me remembering it from 10+ years ago but they have to deal with winter and steal from the houses again, and the bear joins you. There's also a like bumper car min game lol
About the whole "pamphlet" & "Hammy found his nuts" thing, there is a sequel in the form of the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube game, which shows that they'll still be doing those heists in the suburbs, so I assume that the animals DO know that those trees are gonna be limited for a while before new trees are able to grow. I am thinking of getting that game at one point as it looks pretty decent(alongside the movie on DVD), but still I'd thought it'd be worth mentioning.