You've got to appreciate an animated film which, in its zeal to appeal to kids could have overdone the potty humor but doesn't, and in its attempt to tempt parents and young adults could have gotten politically preachy but didn't.

		"Over the Hedge" Rating: PG for some rude humor and mild comic action. Starring: Voices of Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling. Directors: Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick. "Over the Hedge" Web site

To be honest, I fully expected a boo-hoo "Bambi" tree-hugging flick with evil-doer developers evicting teary-eyed anthropomorphic critters. Instead, I found a funny, extremely well-scripted, cleverly animated face-off pitting a family of animals against the family of man. Everybody wins, especially audiences, in the new computer-generated extravaganza by DreamWorks Animation, the first to be distributed by Paramount.

Spring arrives as a manipulative raccoon named RJ leaves his winter den and slips silently into the lair of a hibernating bear, hoping to steal his supply of accumulated goodies. The big, bad bear awakens and RJ barely escapes with his life. He's given an ultimatum: Replace the stolen stuff or, well, die. How can he ever gather enough food in time?

Down in the valley, other forest dwellers are awakening from the comfort of their hollow log when they discover something odd in their neck of the woods. A giant hedge separates them from a new suburban real-estate development that has sprung up over the winter. With part of their forested neighborhood gone, where, oh where, will the dysfunctional woodland family find enough food to get them through the next winter?

Wily RJ concocts a scheme in which, under his duplicitous leadership, the critters learn to peruse the suburban smorgasbord barely contained in backyard tin trash bins. They think they're stocking up for winter. RJ has other plans.

"Over the Hedge," based on a comic strip that's been given a trial run in the Post-Gazette, arrives with great pedigree. Co-director Tim Johnson did "Antz," a segment of "CyberWorld" and "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas." His partner, co-director Karey Kirkpatrick, wrote the screenplays for "The Rescuers Down Under," "Chicken Run," "The Little Vampire" and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and he's working on a live-action remake of "Charlotte's Web."

Bruce Willis provides the voice of RJ, and Garry Shandling is Verne, a well-meaning turtle who mistrusts RJ. Want more? Steve Carell is hilarious as the mile-a-minute voice of Hammy the squirrel. Additional voices are provided by Nick Nolte, Catherine O'Hara, William Shatner, Thomas Haden Church, Eugene Levy, Wanda Sykes, Allison Janney and Avril Lavigne.