HOLLYWOOD -- An ogre leaves mighty big footprints.
That's what Tim Johnson discovered when he set out to direct DreamWorks' animated feature Over the Hedge.
"Any animated feature put into production these past five years has lived in the shadow of Shrek and especially Shrek 2," says Johnson who directed DreamWorks' Antz.
Shrek helped make animation hip and appealing as much to teens and twentysomethings as children and their parents.
With a worldwide gross of $902.7 million US, Shrek 2 is the most successful animated feature and the sixth top-grossing film of all time.
"Shrek took animation to a new level. To ignore what it achieved and how it achieved it would be foolish, but that doesn't mean you imitate it," says Johnson.
For Johnson this meant building a film that works simultaneously on two levels.
"There are a lot of fun things in Over the Hedge that kids will relate to, but much of the humour was written specifically for adults.
"Kids love that the characters are so cute and lovable. Adults love the satirical comments. That's one very important thing we learned from Shrek."
Over the Hedge is inspired by the popular comic strip created 11 years ago by Michael Fry and T. Lewis.
Fry recalls that producer Jim Cox approached him and Lewis almost immediately after the comic strip debuted.
"He asked if we wanted to see Over the Hedge turned into a movie. We were delighted," says Fry.
The project languished at Fox Studios for five years before it moved to DreamWorks.
Fry feels "one of the things that appealed to DreamWorks is the audience for Over the Hedge is as much adult as it is children.
"The books are aimed at children, but the actual comic strip has a 70 per cent adult following," says Fry.
Over the Hedge is the continuing story of a most unlikely friendship between RJ (Bruce Willis) the fast-talking, scheming racoon and Verne (Garry Shandling) the level-headed turtle.
They observe the humans who live on the other side of a huge manicured hedge and lampoon that society.
