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Dwayne LaFontant, or The Verminator is an exterminator who acts as Gladys' henchman in the film. He is the tertiary antagonist of Over the Hedge.

He is voiced by Thomas Haden Church in the film.

Biography[]

In Over the Hedge[]

After RJ and the others wreck the town, Gladys hires Dwayne as her exterminator to kill the animals.

He arrives when Ozzie fakes his death in front of Gladys and some other townsfolk to help the others steal a cooler. Dwayne sees through Ozzie's trick. Ozzie flees back into the hedge before Dwayne can grab him. Everyone had made off with the cooler except for Verne, who hides under an SUV. Dwayne sniffs him out along with the other animals, demonstrating that he has a powerful sense of smell and can identify each animal individually. Verne escapes to meet up with the other animals.

Later, Dwayne installs a high-powered extermination system in Gladys' backyard known as the Depelter Turbo, figuring she would insist on wanting it, despite its illegal status in all states (except Texas).

Later, when Gladys catches the animals in her house, Dwayne arrives and is able to capture the animals except RJ, who left to return the food to Vincent. Dwayne mockingly tells Verne he has just been "verminated". When RJ sees Dwayne driving away with RJ's caged friends, he has a change of heart at the last moment and decides to go save them. RJ runs the wagon of food into the front of Dwayne's truck. The impact knocks Dwayne unconscious and frees the animals, who eventually forgive RJ and commandeer Dwayne's van to return home while being attacked by Vincent atop the van. With no control, they make a jump and crash land into Gladys' house. As Dwayne regains consciousness and grabs at the animals, RJ and the others flee into the hedge. Vincent stops them on the other side.

Dwayne joins Gladys to fight the animals inside the hedge from the side of Gladys' backyard, jabbing a cattle prod at the animals. RJ and Verne then get an idea to have Hammy drink some soda. He gets so hyper from the energy drink that the entire world freezes for him. Hammy walks into Gladys' backyard and activates the Depelter Turbo on her and Dwayne. RJ, borrowing Verne's shell, uses himself as bait to also lure Vincent into the trap. Vincent, Gladys, and Dwayne fall into a pile as the Depelter Turbo starts up (due to them falling into the lasers), blasting them all and locking them in one cage together.

Gladys and Dwayne are about to be arrested for possessing the contraband Depelter Turbo. While Gladys fights the cops and beats them up, Dwayne quietly escapes and climbs over a fence, only to be bitten on the leg by Nugent after stepping on one of the rottweiler's squeaky toys.

It is unknown what happened to Dwayne after the events of the film, but it's most likely that he completely evaded arrest, unlike Gladys. The cops were seeming to blame Gladys for the incident, as Gladys tried to blame Dwayne but the cops told her that her name was on the contract for the Depelter Turbo.

In Over the Hedge: The Video Game[]

Dwayne vg

Dwayne, as he appears in the video game

Coming soon!

Personality[]

Dwayne is incredibly intelligent and savvy about wild animals, having graduated with an associate's degree from "Verm-Tech" (where he is employed). He knows animals so well that he's able to pick up their scent and identify them even from long distances.

Being this profound at his job, he's naturally overzealous and hilariously invested in his character as "the Verminator", acting professional but throwing around rude comments now and then as if he's always speaking his thoughts. Despite his professionalism, he also refers to Gladys by various nicknames and can sound sarcastic.

Appearance[]

Dwayne is large and obese. He wears a white shirt with an orange suit and pants over top of it, decked out in pockets and tools with a belt at his waist. He wears glasses, has green eyes and has almost no hair other than a few strands over his head.

Trivia[]

  • The Verminator is the most iconic Over the Hedge antagonist despite being the last to appear in the movie. He doesn't show up until about halfway through.
  • Dwayne has various nicknames for Gladys including "Sister" and "Nancy."
  • Dwayne and Gladys are the only human characters in the film not to be minor characters.
  • Dwayne correctly refers to Verne as a reptile rather than an amphibian (everyone calling Verne an amphibian was a running gag). He is the only character to do so.
  • The Verminator as he appears in his brand logo has long and smooth hair and a pair of shades, while Dwayne himself only has a few bits of hair and regular glasses. This is a symbol of his ego.
  • Dwayne may have once had a passion for Jazz dance. He alludes to this when his van crashed. He sees RJ and his friends trying to escape. He reaches out of them and receives a sharp pain in his back, to which he exclaims "Oh, the old Jazz dance injury!"
  • According to Dwayne himself, he received an associate degree from Verm-Tech.
    • Coincidentally, Dwayne's line about this wasn't actually in the original script as according to Karey Kirkpatrick in the Meet the Cast feature on the Over the Hedge DVD, when they had a line in the script where Debbie is looking at Ozzie and says, "I think he's dead.", only for Thomas Haden Church to spit out of nowhere saying "Oh really? Do you, in fact, have an associate degree from Verm-Tech?" (The original line was "Are you a professional?").
    • Verm-Tech Institute is only mentioned in the movie and its extras, but was made into a full-fledged location in the Over the Hedge video game.
  • He is called "The Sniffer" by the animals in the video game because he can smell what kind of animal is surrounding him. This makes him the polar opposite of Tiger, who has no sense of smell.
  • Dwayne is the spoof of the Terminator: Both say their catchphrase in Spanish; Terminator says, "Hasta la vista, baby!" while Dwayne says, "Buenos dias, reptile!" (In the game, he then adds, "Or should I say, Buenas noches!").
  • The Verminator's iconic truck is referred to by the official Over the Hedge guidebook as "Dwayne's Battle Bus"

Gallery[]

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