That's the kind of casting that the Over the Hedge directors came up with for the animated DreamWorks film about woodland creatures who find suburbia encroaching on their forest. Tim Johnson's first animated feature was Antz, with the voices of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone and Anne Bancroft, and then he worked with Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Joseph Fiennes in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. Co-director Karey Kirkpatrick recently co-wrote the upcoming live-action adaptation of Charlotte's Web with Dakota Fanning and the voices of Julia Roberts, Robert Redford and Oprah Winfrey, as well as Chicken Run, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, James and the Giant Peach, Rescuers Down Under and The Little Vampire. They have a lot of experience working with stars in animation, and they have no sympathy for those who complain about the process.

In interviews at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Science Fiction Weekly talked to Johnson and Kirkpatrick as well as Willis, Sykes and Shandling. During the interview with Shandling, his green pen burst open and spilled ink on his tan pants, so Science Fiction Weekly gave him an extra pen, and throughout the other interviews, Shandling kept coming back to the room to say thanks. The creators of the comic strip on which the film is based, Mike Fry and T. Lewis, were also on hand to give their insight into the film, which comes out on May 19. Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, all of your actors have complained about working alone in a sound booth with no one to interact with. Why don't you make it easier for them?

Johnson: Oh, boo hoo for them. That's not the process; we're not exploring or workshopping the story. This is a 76-minute story, and we have a lot of story to tell and need it very specific. ... If they get together and find great chemistry, great, but it's about Karey and I piecing the story together. ... And look, getting two of these great actors together at the same time is tough, but getting three is completely impossible.

Kirkpatrick: They're all so busy, and when we have a chance, we'll say, "Can you do it Friday?" They'll be on their way to something else. We're not paying them their full rate, it's a few hours every two months, so consequently we say, "We will chase you around the world," and we did. Like where?

Kirkpatrick: Well, we followed Bruce [Willis] to Canada, where he was filming. Tim went to New York for Woody [Allen for Antz], and Catherine Zeta-Jones he followed to Paris [for Sinbad]. People get frustrated with the process because they aren't sure of themselves. ... We know the emotions of the scene.

Johnson: And the actors do about 40 pages in four hours rather than just two lines for a whole day. It's what acting is all about; they much prefer that.It seems like animation requires two directors more and more these days. What's that like?

Johnson: There's so much going on and so many decisions to make that you do have to be in two places at the same time sometimes. I'll have to say, "Karey, you stay here, I'm going to look at the lighting." There are 350 people who need a decision on something or other.

Kirkpatrick: I remember one meeting where we had to figure out if the leaves on the hedge should be two inches or two and a half, and you know what? It really looked different.

Johnson: And one way was going to be less expensive than the other. Don't you think it would be better to have two actors working off each other, though?

Johnson: Well, Garry Shandling craved working with Bruce Willis, and nobody is harder on Garry Shandling than Garry Shandling, and he says he is best working off somebody else. So we had one session for about an hour with he and Bruce. After, he said, "Yes, I see how it's better to do it one-on-one." There's too much exploration.

Bruce Willis, how did you deal with the fact that you had no one to work off of during your taping the voice of RJ the raccoon?

Willis: I can't believe it came out as funny as it did, especially since we didn't work together at all. We didn't ever see or meet each other. And I really wanted to meet William Shatner, and I still haven't. ... It's so funny for teenagers and kids and parents, I'm so surprised how it came together. .... It took me six months to get the legs under me and feel comfortable. ... I was trying to get a rise from whoever was there, and make the writer and producer and two guys moving the buttons up and down in the booth, to try to make them laugh.Was this your first experience voicing an animated character?

Willis: No, I did a character in Rugrats Go Wild that didn't speak in the TV show, but did in the movie, and if I had the chance to do it all over again, I would do it much different. In this case, we were giving human emotions to these little furry creatures. ... It was the most vulnerable I ever felt; I was never sure if what I was doing was right. Then I became much more courageous about it. And now I know what it's like and would do it again. You have never done a kids' film like this before this one and Rugrats?

Willis: I predominantly do films for adults, and whenever possible I can do films that kids can see, and my kids. Because they grew up in a household with both parents in show biz, they know the tricks and that nobody gets hurt when they see someone get shot, and that's fake blood, and they get up when say "Cut," so I can't wait for my kids to see this. ... I've saved the world eight times now.What did you think of the process of doing the voices?

Willis: I had one session with Garry [Shandling] maybe for an hour, and we said "Ah, that doesn't work, let's just go back to just you in the booth alone." And it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. ... There was a lot of improvisation. I'd ask them every day, I'd say, "Is this what you want? Is this it? Because I can do it a different way if you want. " They said, "No, no, this is it, you're on the right track." ... I questioned so much, because when all your tools are taken away, you don't get to work with the other actors, there's no interaction, and for some reason, I thought that's what it was going to be, that I was going to be in the room with Wanda [Sykes], or I'd be in the room with Garry, and ... it's tough, because you really are just putting it out there and relying on other people's hearing you and saying, "Yes, that's funny; no, that could be funnier," because you doubt yourself. You're in a dark room, you're talking into a mic.You've lived out in the wilderness in Idaho with your girls for a long time. Have you had a lot of interactions with these kind of animals?

Willis: Yeah, I lived in Idaho for a long time, for 12 years, and I had every animal problem you could think of. Well, one of my dogs bit into a [porcupine] and got all those quills in her mouth, and had to get them pulled out. .... I had a couple dogs that were capable of killing deer, so you'd see them kill a deer. They were big, Akitas. But in the country, animals, and cats also, revert to their wild instincts. And yeah, I'd be out, and they'd drag some animal home. One of my dogs almost got killed by a beaver. The beaver got a lucky bite in and almost killed one of my dogs. I could go on—Have you had a chance to meet all of your co-stars in this?

Willis: Some, I've met them through the course of the last couple of years. I haven't met William Shatner, and I'm really bummed about that. That's the thing, nobody got to work together, no one, and in the film, it looks like we were all working together as a group and kind of in one big room, but that was never the case.Does this experience give you new respect for animated features?

Willis:Yes, for how hard it is, for how hard the process is. This is way harder than doing live-action films. There was way more improv than you ever get to do in live-action films. ... It changes when [another actor will] have said something funny. Garry will have done something funny in one of his sessions; that impacts something that I have to respond to, so my response would be different. ... The ultimate job is just making people laugh. Not to save the world, not to teach anybody anything about woodland creatures. It has a message, it's a satirical look at suburban life.

It's just pure entertainment. The whole point was always about just trying to be funny and just trying to be entertaining.

Garry Shandling, what was the process like for you, doing the voice in a booth without any interaction?

Shandling: There's no one going in giving you feedback. It's impersonal. ... I had to struggle to understand the character and struggle with writing and understand the sum arc of the character, and some of the other characters are very clear and didn't go through that. I don't know.

Did you study turtles?

Shandling: I did study turtles. I didn't know it was animated; I was shocked. I studied turtles, came in on all fours and thought maybe I made a wrong choice. Turtles I see have their heads in the shell a little bit more; he moves a little faster than most in this movie. I think I'm a little more like a turtle than Verne. Do you ever have an instinct that makes your tail tingle, something like that?

Shandling: I have it right now, it tingles, but I don't want to mention her name. No, seriously, that part of the story is something I relate to, trusting your instincts: This guy is not to be trusted. And, yeah, I have things like that. I'm in show business, that happens to me every day. My ass sometimes actually tingles, and you can put whatever you want in there for ass; I substituted tail for rear end and it seemed to connect.

Wanda Sykes, you are such a physical comic, what difficulties did you have in this process?

Sykes: It was about trusting your director. It takes a while. ... I saw a crude drawing, I saw 30-second clip of her movement; she had a little weight to her. It did help; it was another piece of information. I'm used to the audience giving me the yea or nay right away, and I was stripped away of all my weapons. ... It was very difficult. It was the first time I was directed.Mike Fry and T. Lewis, how was it seeing your comic strip put to the big screen finally?

Fry: We had it at Fox for a long time, and when they finally turned it down, we had to come up with a new story, so we went to an origin story. It gave us the chance to explore the characters in a way we never did before.

Lewis: The strip may seem a bit more cynical than the movie, but we were very happy with what everyone did. Steve Carell particularly brought so much to his part, and Bruce did too, turning it into the lovable scamp he played in Moonlighting.Is there a sequel planned?

Fry: It's up to you and the population of the world who goes to see it or not.

Lewis: We certainly think there's a lot more to explore with these characters on the big screen.