BRUCE WILLIS CONS THE ANIMALS FOR OVER THE HEDGE

(VIDEO) Bruce Willis voices RJ, the raccoon in Over The Hedge and cons the animals

Bruce Willis stars in Over the Hedge as the voice of RJ, a crafty raccoon who cons his way into a family of animals to show them the way over a mysterious hedge that has cropped up during their long winter’s sleep. Willis describes the character.

The other animal voices are Garry Shandling as the practical turtle Verne, Steve Carrell is a hyperactive squirrel Hammy, Wanda Sykes is Stella the sassy skunk, and William Shatner is the melodramatic possum Ozzie. Bruce talks about giving the animals human qualities.

“He’s a lonely little raccoon and he runs into this family of animals and he kind of wants to be them. He needs them but the con man in him also needs something from them. A lot of the comedy comes out of that.”

On the human side of the hedge is West Wing star Allison Janney as Gladys, the president of the local homeowner’s association, and Sideways star Thomas Haden Church as the voice of the verminator hired to get rid of the woodland heroes.

“It’s a funny thing to see characteristics grafted onto animals. A guy that’s a control freak, a guy that’s a con man, a guy that’s scared to death of everything. When you have good writing it’s easy to be funny. It really does address a lot of human foibles and kind of makes fun at them and holds a mirror up to humans and society in general that I think everybody’s gonna find funny.”