Over the Hedge is a 2006 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and based on the comic strip of the same name by Michael Fry and T. Lewis. Directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick (the latter in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Len Blum, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton, and Kirkpatrick, the film features the voices of Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, William Shatner, Wanda Sykes, Avril Lavigne, Allison Janney and Nick Nolte. The film's plot follows a raccoon named RJ who must reclaim food for a bear, ultimately manipulating a group of animals that had recently awakened from hibernation in order to speed up the process. Over the Hedge was released in the United States on May 19, 2006 by Paramount Pictures (which acquired the DreamWorks Pictures studio the same year), making it DreamWorks Animation's first film to be distributed by that studio.[5] It received generally positive reviews from critics, and grossed $336 million on an $80 million budget.