Early in the studio’s run, however, despite their exclamation that “a great animated film starts with a great story,” they seemed to believe that a “great story” entails collecting a motley crew of big-name stars, throwing them together in a hodgepodge, and letting the pop culture references fly. A prime example of this is 2004’s Shark Tale, a successful, yet aimless flick that lacked freshness and did little with its inspired cast (including Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie and Jack Black).

But now, after a run that has included the well-received Madagascar and the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, DreamWorks seems to be back on track and in line with keeping up to their substantial claims. This summer, they score once again with their newest offering, Over the Hedge, which has proven to be the second most successful animated film of the summer, falling short only of Cars and coming out way ahead of more recent fare like The Barnyard, The Ant Bully and Monster House.

Over the Hedge, based on a comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis, follows the adventures of a group of woodland animals who have emerged from their long winter’s sleep to find a gigantic hedge cutting through their glorious forest. What’s on the other side? How will they find and gather food with this huge obstruction blocking their path?

To answer their questions, along comes an opportunistic raccoon named RJ (Bruce Willis), who promises that all their problems will be solved if they just let him be their guide to the world on the other side of the shrubbery. Despite the protests of Verne (Gary Shandling), an overly cautious turtle and their de facto leader, the group follows RJ’s lead and treads into a land of opportunity… a land where, as RJ says, creatures called humans live to eat rather than eat to live. But could RJ have his own motivations for these risky jaunts?

With a crisp running time of under 90 minutes, sharply-rendered and colorful computer animation (the facial expressions are absolutely priceless and the rendering of the fur and hair is beautiful and near breathtaking), and a witty, yet not overly preachy, script about the evils of unabashed consumerism, Over the Hedge manages to have something to say without letting its message overwhelm the fun of the story.

Also, to its credit, it boasts Willis, invoking his full-on, slick “Moonlighting” mannerisms, William Shatner as a melodramatic possum who loves to ham it up playing possum, Wanda Sykes as a sassy skunk, Steve Carell as a hilariously-hyper squirrel named Hammy, and a group of other notable stars and celebrities as voice talent, yet doesn’t rely on the audience being amused simply because we can identify the stars behind the animated characters. Rather, it lets the story and set-up give us the majority of the laughs… and the voice actors merely complement and add to the hilarity. Quite a step up from the lame pretensions and stale screenplay of Shark Tale.

On its website, DreamWorks Animation states of its productions: “These are not cartoons. They’re wonderful movies and, like any great film, they connect with audiences on many different levels.” Over the Hedge, which is rated PG for some rude humor and mild comic action, may not achieve the loftiest of their goals (it doesn’t have quite the emotional layers of Cars, for instance), but it’s certainly engaging entertainment worthy of the time spent on a lazy summer’s afternoon or evening.