Verne is a cautious and a naturally tentative box turtle, who appears in the comics and film Over the Hedge. He is the former leader of the group and is RJ, Hammy and Stella's best friend.
He is voiced by the late Garry Shandling.
Biography[]
Beginnings[]
Very little is known about Verne's background prior to the events of the film. It's possible he grew up in forest that El Rancho Camelot now inhabits. He has most likely been acquainted with the other foragers for a very long time, being their de factor leader and instructing them on gathering food for the winter.
In Over the Hedge[]
Verne awakens from hibernation at the start of the film alongside the other animals; Hammy, Stella, Ozzie, Heater, Lou, Penny, and his triplets (Bucky, Quillo and Spike). As they wake up from their hibernation, they realize the forest where they lived has been mostly cut down in order to build human suburbs, with the only remaining wooded area being surrounded by a large hedge. This leads the group unable to find a sufficient amount of food for the winter.
While Verne finds the humans to be destructive and dangerous, RJ takes this as an opportunity to get the rest of the group to aid him in collecting food for Vincent by making the humans and their food supply seem easy and helpful to their problem.
Throughout the film, Verne's concerns are dismissed by the rest of the group, who feel RJ is genuinely trying to help them. This reaches its peak when Gladys, the HOA president, calls up an exterminator named Dwayne Lafontant to get rid of the animals, after which Verne unsuccessfully attempts to return the stolen food, leading to both him and RJ getting attacked by Nugent. The others are furious with Verne and accuse him of just being jealous of RJ, to which Verne accidentally refers to them as stupid and naive.
Verne starts to believe they were right and he joins in RJ's plan to enter Gladys' house for food, only for RJ's plan to give the food to Vincent to get exposed. The Verminator catches the group to have them put down, but RJ returns to save them, leading to Gladys, the Verminator, and Vincent getting caught in the Depelter Turbo the Verminator installed in Gladys' yard. Vincent is taken away, The Verminator and Gladys are arrested, and the gang are able to forgive and adopt RJ into the family.
In Over the Hedge: The Video Game[]
Coming soon!
Personality[]
Verne is a very overly cautious and paranoid person. He described himself as "naturally tentative." He is straightforward as a leader and truly does care for his family, as he tries to keep them on track when it comes to preparing for winter and keeping them out of trouble.
Verne is not without his flaws: It's possible he has a somewhat low opinion of his family, referring to them as "stupid and naive" in the heat of the moment when arguing about RJ. In addition, he is paranoid at times and does not enjoy trying out new things or straying too far from his preferred method of doing things, leaving little room for argument or compromise.
With that said, Verne's paranoia is often well-founded: He does not want any interaction with the humans of El Rancho Camelot because his first experience with them proved to him that they are dangerous. This is mostly likely how Verne knew RJ had ulterior motives due to his desire to encourage the group to steal from humans.
Verne can also be humbled at times. When his family chastises him for taking the food they worked so hard to get and starts getting upset with RJ, Verne starts to wonder if perhaps they were right about him being jealous and he willingly plans to step down from his position as leader, feeling that RJ was what's best for the family.
Appearance[]
He is a short turtle, with green scaly skin, brown eyes, arms that are a bit longer than his legs, stubby fingers, short legs, pointy tail and a shell that conforms to his body. When he's completely naked, Verne's butt resembled a human's, in real life, a turtle's shell inside is actually muscle, so it is attached to them.
Trivia[]
- Verne was originally the leader of the animals before RJ arrived.
- Verne's ability to shed his shell comes from the comic strips (which is also a running gag in the film).
- Along with RJ, Hammy and Rufus, are the only characters that appear in the original comic strip, meanwhile the other ones were created for the movie.
- When he felt something bad was about to happen, he had a habit of saying his tail was tingling.
- He is the only character in the film that is not a mammal.
- A running gag in the film is that Verne is constantly mistaken for an amphibian.
- Orginally, Verne was going to be voiced by Harold Ramis before Garry Shandling.
- Verne's personality is based on his voice actor; Garry Shandling.
- Verne is Garry Shandling's first animated role and also one of the two only animated roles before his death in 2016. speaking of that, both Verne and Ikki are animals.
- Similar to how Verne losing his shell is not realistic for real turtles, how Verne hibernates is also not accurate to real turtles.
- Real turtles enter a state of "brumation" the hibernation equivalent for cold-blooded animals. Most turtles will bury themselves in mud in a lake when the temperature drops instead of sleeping in a log with other creatures.
Gallery[]
