ARTIST INTERVIEW

"Over the Hedge" has been under the radar for years. The 11-year-old comic is one of the funniest in syndication, and has a respectable client list of about 200 newspapers. But it has not gotten the ink of such other 1990s-launched strips as "Zits," "Mutts," "Get Fuzzy," and "The Boondocks."

That will soon change. On May 19, a major motion picture based on the Michael Fry/T Lewis comic will arrive in theaters. The Over the Hedge film is coming from DreamWorks Animation, and features the voices of several heavyweight Hollywood actors.

"How could we not be happy with Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, and William Shatner?" said Fry, who writes the "Over the Hedge" strip. "And we caught lightning in bottle getting Steve Carell to play Hammy the squirrel. His performance is fantastic. We're absolutely thrilled with the movie."

Fry and Lewis, who draws "Over the Hedge," also praised the behind-the-scenes talent working on the film. "They created a huge thing from our little idea," said Lewis.

But it took more than a little time.

The United Media strip – which looks at suburbia from the perspective of animals who live nearby – was optioned for a movie back in 1997, after it caught the eye of writer/producer Jim Cox. Fox had first crack at the film, but things didn't pan out. Then DreamWorks – with the enthusiastic support of its cofounder, Jeffrey Katzenberg – secured the rights in 2000.

At one point Jim Carrey was going to voice RJ, the mischievous, junk-food-eating raccoon. But he was replaced by Willis, and Lewis says he has no regrets: "Bruce Willis is that character – a lovable scamp."

The movie, like the comic, focuses a lot on the relationship between RJ and Verne, the sensitive, neurotic turtle. Fry said he thought DreamWorks captured that relationship between the two creatures well.

Lewis and Fry figured Verne should be voiced by a Woody Allen/Dustin Hoffman-type, and the creators were pleased with the casting of Shandling.

"Verne is the window into the strip, the conscience of the strip," said Lewis, meaning the movie couldn't make him completely off-kilter. The key question, he added, was: "How whiny could Verne be before he became too annoying?"

The film and the comic share a similar ethos. Suburbia is encroaching on the animals, yet things are not all bad as the critters adapt to "civilization" and enjoy perks such as fly-fishing for hot dogs off backyard grills.

Not surprisingly, there are differences between the strip's newspaper and screen incarnations. Some supporting characters from the comic are missing, while some new characters were created for the film. Also, the computer-animated critters in the movie appear more real than they do in the strip. "It's almost a live-action look, yet still 'cartoony,'" Lewis noted.

Lewis and Fry haven't yet seen the completed film, which also features the voices of Wanda Sykes, Nick Nolte, Allison Janney, and others. Indeed, the movie might not be finished until a few weeks before its May debut. But the cartoonists have viewed earlier versions, and say they liked what they saw. Indeed, they said working with DreamWorks was almost totally positive – unlike the experiences some other cartoonists have had when their comics received film or TV treatments.

Part of the reason why Fry and Lewis are satisfied with the film so far is that they, as "creative consultants," were invited to offer their input during various steps of production. "There has never been a moment when we felt out of the loop," said Fry, who did some writing for the script while Lewis contributed a little to the film's look.

Lewis said the movie "was such a committee effort," and added that things were continually revised to improve the film. Those ongoing changes, plus the fact that animated movies take longer to make than live-action ones, are among the reasons why the film was so long in the making.

A sequel is possible if the movie does well. There's also an "Over the Hedge" video game on the way, in conjunction with the movie's release. But Lewis said the newspaper strip still gets top priority.

Actually, "Over the Hedge" was not the first comic Fry and Lewis created after meeting in the early 1990s through a mutual agent. They initially came up with a farm-based feature called "The Secret Lives of Pigs" (Lewis swears he and Fry didn't initially realize the title had the abbreviation of "SLOP"). But syndicates told the cartoonists that pigs were not appealing enough to star in a strip, and that few readers lived on farms anymore. So the duo moved the milieu to the suburbs and created other animals.

Fry, 46, has created several other, now-defunct comics, including "Committed" (which ended in February) for United; "When I Was Short," with Guy Vasilovich, for King Features Syndicate; and "Cheeverwood" for the Washington Post Writers Group. The Minneapolis native has lived in Texas for nearly three decades.

Lewis, 52, a Texas native who moved to Washington state 12 years ago, is also known as the illustrator of about 15 children's books.

How did that punctuation-less "T" in his name come about? "After a while, the period seemed extraneous," said Lewis, adding that not using his full name – Thomas – avoids confusion with other Thomases in his family.

Lewis and Fry, who collaborate on "Over the Hedge" mostly via e-mail – think the movie could draw more readers to the comic and increase its list of client newspapers. "The film will obviously be a big boost," said Fry.

"We're hoping the movie will be a gigantic ad for the strip," added Lewis. "This is a very rare and cool opportunity."

Will the "Over the Hedge" comic make references to the Over the Hedge movie on or around May 19?

"We sort of want the strip to be a separate 'animal,'" said Fry. But Lewis noted that "it might be irresistible to do a couple of gags."

"Syndicates: Cartoon Critters Migrating to Film" by Dave Astor Reprinted with permission of Editor & Publisher.