Tim Johnson

In Over the Hedge (2006), suburban consumption looks considerably less sensible when animals consider it. Tim Johnson and co-director Karey Kirkpatrick get good comedy from that change of viewpoint, then give the animals plenty of slapstick of their own. We laughed at their assessment of human habits; the jokes are sharper than the film's reminders about family. That is where Johnson earns our interest: he can make a broad family comedy observant without asking it to stop being silly.

He came to features through computer animation at Pacific Data Images, making his feature directing debut alongside Eric Darnell with Antz (1998). With Patrick Gilmore, he then directed the traditionally animated Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), before joining Kirkpatrick for Over the Hedge. Those shared credits matter when we try to identify what belongs to Johnson. We can credit his adaptability without pretending that every joke or choice of tone belongs to him alone.

By Home (2015), he was directing a feature alone, adapting a book by Adam Rex into a story built around friendship and cultural misunderstanding. Its long development involved new animation software for closer shots and improvisation. That is a useful way for a director with a computer-animation background to spend his technical experience, making room for comic performance rather than merely finding more things to put in the picture.

Over the Hedge gets much of its personality from Bruce Willis and Steve Carell, who distinguish themselves within a crowded voice cast. That is the practical value of Johnson's handling of actors, shared here with Kirkpatrick: the predictable story remains worth following. At 83 minutes, it also knows when to stop. Start here for a good family evening, provided the jokes about suburban consumption appeal more than the prospect of a surprising plot.