'Hedge' creator is pleased with film adaptation

He may not be as rich and famous as that other author whose work sees big-screen adaptation this week, but Austin comic-strip scribe Mike Fry has been at work on his film a lot longer.

Years before "The Da Vinci Code" was published, Fry had established "Over the Hedge" as a comic with cinematic potential. He and the strip's illustrator, T Lewis, wrote a screenplay and sold the movie rights 10 years ago, although Fry says that early script "bears no resemblance at all" to what Dreamworks has finally brought to theaters.

DreamWorks SKG Read reviews of 'Over the Hedge'

Fry is a veteran of the Daily Texan funny pages, which launched careers for Berkeley Breathed ("Bloom County") and Chris Ware ("Jimmy Corrigan"), although his UT years weren't spent on the four-panel strips that are now his bread and butter.

"I was the editorial cartoonist," he says of his early '80s stint. "I was a year behind Breathed — the guy sweeping up behind the elephants. On the one hand, I haven't liked being in his wake, but on the other I learned a lot. He raised the bar so high."

After graduation, Fry sought work at the Houston Post, where he inched away from direct social comment. "I kind of gradually moved away from politics. I was heavily influenced by 'Doonesbury' and 'Bloom County.' I love that kind of stuff, but there's only so much room for it in the marketplace. I always wanted to do something popular."

Which eventually led him to funny animals, albeit ones who often make jokes about their wasteful human neighbors. During "Hedge's" long journey from newsprint to cinema, Fry (who has seen his work adapted badly in the past), knew he wasn't steering the ship: "I tried to keep my expectations in check," he says. "But I was surprised at how much they consulted with us. They hired both of us to do work on the film. We read almost every draft and gave notes."

And the pair got to watch as the voices in their heads were replaced by those of famous (and soon-to-be-famous) actors. The casting was solid in general, but Fry agrees that one hiring was particularly lucky: "Steve Carell just — man, he's incredible. They hired him way before '40 Year-Old Virgin,' when he was just coming off 'The Daily Show' and starting to do character parts." If Carell played down his weirdness in "Virgin," he's hilariously unhinged here as Hammy the Squirrel; it's a small part, but one of the best voice/animation matches in recent 'toon history.

Now that he's finally happy with the movie, Fry is headed for much smaller screens: He's a partner in RingTales, a company translating print comics to 15- or 20-second animated films. They're coming soon, Fry hopes, to a cell phone near you.