It hardly seems worth the time to talk about Over the Hedge in terms of an adaptation -- it's conscientiously loosely tied to its source, and no one seems to mind. That source happens to be a comic strip, co-created by Michael Fry and T Lewis. It would be the latest entry in that short line of relatively rare projects, the comic strip converted from a series of still illustrations to animation.

Most of the time, such ventures turn out as one might expect. They're often the subject of animated television specials or series, and they usually feel like extensions of their sources. The results range from mediocre to charming -- from the Peanuts specials that literally recycled jokes from the strip while retaining a unique draw, to short-lived series like Dilbert which proved stretching its format did little for its minimalist-style humor. Rarely have they transcended their origins (The Boondocks series comes close); rarely do they make it to a movie theater (e.g. Garfield, a live-actioner where only the cat was computer-animated).

But the one trait they've consistently retained -- even the dreadful Garfield -- is fidelity to the source's original tone. Because they all primarily traffic in humor, the style of the humor is the most identifiable characteristic for each of them; to recognize the humor is to recognize the strip. Peanuts is simple yet philosophical; Dilbert is ironic; The Boondocks is confrontational. And Over the Hedge is dry, low-key, and cynical.

And that's what the movie is not. However, this may not necessarily be a bad thing. It threw me for a loop because I remember what the strip was like from reading it years ago (it's still running today, actually), but I imagine most people seeing this movie won't be familiar with it. Fry and Lewis are listed as creative consultants here, which confuses me even more, but if they're ok with it, good for them. The movie makes it quite obvious that it only intended to use the original strip as a simple base on which to build a unique version of itself -- and that base required only the three main characters (a raccoon, a tortoise, and a squirrel) and its premise of the animals wryly observing the silly foibles of human beings as they live in an ever-expanding suburbia.

My main problem with the movie, though, is that, with all the different paths it could've chosen, it goes the generic route, as most of these cg-animated movies tend to do, and that never fails to disappoint. The strip's personal tone of humor is replaced by a wacky please-the-kids soullessness that's all the more worrisome because it's actually pretty entertaining. Much of the movie appears done well -- the character animation for the creatures is top-notch and several riotous comedy pieces liven it up.

But when you take a step back, you can see that the movie seems mostly a rehash of Toy Story: new guy drops in on an established, family-like group; new guy is popular and effectively usurps leadership from original head of group; the two leaders learn to get along, with new guy learning the value of belonging and original guy learning to loosen up. That group had to be created from thin air for the purposes of fulfilling the family dynamic and having that useful ensemble of minor characters as a display of different quickly-drawn personality types. Also, there's the opportunity to gather in an armful of celebrity voices for the movie, a practice becoming so commonplace it's difficult to get worked up about it anymore.

Not only is the original style of humor gone, but the seeds of its major theme become lost as the movie goes on. When the main character, RJ the raccoon (voiced by Bruce Willis), delivers a raucous monologue about people and their relationship to food, it's the closest the movie comes to reflecting the spirit of its origin. But, before long, it heads into the areas of the importance of family and the battle of wills between the critters and a couple of people who want them exterminated, setting the stage for the final, hyperactive chase scene.

In other words, the movie takes something original and modest, and turns it into something we're becoming conditioned to expect every year -- that cg-animated kids' movie that feels like every other cg-animated kids' movie. By this point, it seems any old premise would do -- they just   serve as starting points that allow the filmmakers to eventually regress to a standard template. And no one will care because these films make more than their money back, and who asks for depth in a kids' movie anyway?

I guess you'll have to pardon me for being a grouch -- Over the Hedge is decently fun for what it is, after all -- but even as a kid I exhibited loyalty to cartoon movies I could recognize creativity and originality in. If we don't care to foster and reward that kind of recognition and thinking in our kids now, then maybe our absurd sense of logic deserves to be mocked by the woodland creatures who live over the hedge.

(Released by Paramount Pictures and rated "PG" for some rude humor and comic action.)

Review also posted on www.windowtothemovies.com.