Vincent

Vincent is the main antagonist of Over the Hedge. He is RJ's arch-nemesis and former best friend.

He is voiced by Nick Nolte.

In the film, Vincent orders RJ to retrieve his wagon of food after it is destroyed by a truck and gives him a week to recollect it and threatens to hunt down and kill RJ if he fails to. When the deadline arrives and RJ returns with the food, Vincent is proud of him, encouraging RJ to be selfish like him until RJ ultimately decides to help his best friends and take the food from Vincent, who becomes determined to kill RJ (and his best friends as well). In the end, Vincent is defeated when he falls into Gladys' backyard after trying to kill RJ, gets stung by the Depelter Turbo alongside Gladys and Dwayne (which makes him lose his fur), and is sent to the Rocky Mountains by Animal Control shortly afterwards.

Beginnings
It is unknown how RJ and Vincent became best friends in the first place.

In Over the Hedge
At the beginning of the film, Vincent is RJ's only friend and would occasionally hang out with him.

One night, RJ is on the hunt for food, but is unable to reach snacks in the vending machine. He soon notices Vincent's cave from afar and quietly sneaks into his cave. RJ tries to steal all of his food, which are based upon commercials. He nearly succeeds in his mission, only to accidentally wake Vincent up when opening the can of Spuddies. Noticing RJ, Vincent asks the raccoon what he is doing in his cave and says that since the moon is not full, RJ woke him up one week early. Then Vincent notices the wagon filled with his food and tells RJ he is going to have to kill him for trying to steal his stuff. RJ nonchalantly and slowly tries to escape, telling Vincent that he is just trying to feed his "family of one", but accidentally pushes the wagon of food onto the street, startling both RJ and Vincent. The wagon ends up stopping in the middle of the road and they are relieved and laugh at how they thought it was going to get ruined. Right on cue, a truck drives by and crushes the wagon of food. Shocked and angered, Vincent pursues RJ in an attempt to kill him; before he can escape, Vincent jumps in front of the raccoon, grabs him by the head, and opens his jaws to swallow him. Terrified out of his wits, RJ tells Vincent that he can get all of his food back, saying that Vincent would have to do it himself if he ate him. Thinking twice, Vincent decides to let RJ slide and lists down his possessions that RJ claims he can get, including the red wagon (which RJ suggests he can bring a redder one), the blue cooler, and Spuddies (which Vincent claims that "enough isn't enough" with). RJ exclaims that a week is too long and impossible for him to complete on his own, but immediately accepts this when Vincent threateningly squeezes his head. Then Vincent tells RJ that when he wakes up from hibernation in a week when the moon is full, his stuff had better be back where it was and to not even think about running away or he will hunt down and kill RJ. Vincent then lets him go and returns to his cave.

One night, RJ makes his own bed in a tree, using a newspaper as his blanket. As he is snoring away, Vincent's paw suddenly swipes him out of his tree (immediately waking him up) and the black bear tells him that time is now up (despite RJ saying he still has 6 more days) and opens his jaws to swallow RJ whole. Suddenly, RJ wakes up and realizes it was a nightmare. Soon, he looks up to the sky and sees the stars form Vincent, who tells RJ he will see him in the morning. He then takes the moon (which turns into a Spuddie), eats it, and vanishes.

For the remainder of the film, Vincent is not seen again until near the climax, where RJ brings the wagon of restored food back to the bear, who is impressed and tells RJ that if he keeps up the good work, he will be just like him one day and claiming that selfishness and greed will take him far. When RJ says he already had everything he ever wanted, Vincent says not to worry about it since RJ said himself that he is a family of one. Vincent tells RJ that he doesn't need the others. However, RJ has a change of heart and rightfully decides to help his best friends out with the food instead of giving it away to Vincent. Soon, an enraged and betrayed Vincent gives chase and makes one final attempt to kill RJ and his best friends as well. After Dwayne is knocked out from his van crashing to a halt when trying not to hit RJ on the wagon of food, Verne warns RJ of Vincent's presence and he lunges at RJ in an attempt to kill him. Immediately, Spike, Bucky, and Quillo take control behind the wheel, following instructions by the voice on the van's small screen. RJ tries several times to make the gang let him in (all the while being chased by Vincent), but they refuse to do so since they still believe him to be a traitor. Verne tells the porcupine children to lose Vincent, so they push a button that activates the hammer on the roof (which hits Vincent on the head after he pushes the rabbit off). Angered, Vincent rips off the hammer and tries to smash RJ with it, missing him and breaking the window. After Verne urges the gang to let RJ in since his tail is not tingling, Vincent tears the metal roof upwards and yells to RJ that he is dead and swipes his paw at him; then he leans toward RJ into the van, telling him that his friends are next. Quickly, Penny jumps down and sticks her quills onto Vincent's nose, making him roar in pain.

Spike, Bucky, and Quillo make an immediate left turn, driving the van into helium balloons of a jester and a knight on a horse (which catches Vincent's attention) for "bonus points". The balloons get caught to Vincent and he is dragged off the truck and up into the air as the animals are jubilant over losing Vincent. Defeated, Vincent angrily shouts RJ's name as he floats away.

After the animals run into the hedge, Hammy spots Vincent floating onto the ground with a clown balloon (which he then pops with the thorn that was stuck in his nose), and tries to kill the animals, with Gladys and Dwayne on the other side and Vincent on the other. While trying to shock the wilds with a cattle prod, Dwayne accidentally shocks Vincent, who then whacks the exterminator in the face in retaliation. Angered, Vincent, Gladys, and Dwayne keep trying to kill the animals inside the hedge. Luckily, RJ and Verne come up with a plan and RJ puts Verne's shell on and uses himself as bait to lure Vincent into Gladys' backyard by teasing and infuriating him with one of the Spuddies, telling him that he was right and that "enough just isn't enough." Meanwhile, Ozzie has Hammy drink some energy drink, which makes the whole universe freeze for a long period of time. Once everything freezes, Hammy immediately goes in Gladys' backyard past the frozen Gladys and Dwayne and activates the new extermination system, the Depelter Turbo and sets it to sting any bears that trespass. Afterwards, as everything starts to go back to normal speed, Verne pulls RJ out of Vincent's mouth and RJ waves to a shocked Vincent as he slowly dives into Gladys and Dwayne, knocking them down and making the three of them hit the lasers in Gladys' backyard. Slightly dazed from the impact, Vincent gets up and notices the Depelter Turbo coming on-line and is confused as to what it is. As Dwayne prepares to get stung and tells Vincent and Gladys about what is about to happen to them and to prepare for it, RJ and the animals get ready to watch as the machine stings the villains severely, hurting them, and causes its missiles to break the satellite dish in outer space. When the stinging finally stops, Vincent, Gladys, and Dwayne are now trapped in a large cage, all moaning in pain from the stunned attack of the Depelter Turbo. Vincent has now lost all his fur after being hit by the machine.

Afterwards, Vincent is taken away by Animal Control with a mask on him and is sent back to the Rocky Mountains.

It's currently unknown what happened to Vincent after the events of the movie; he could have remained in the Rocky Mountains for the rest of his life or he could have planned to escape and having his revenge on RJ. The second option seems more likely.

In Over the Hedge: The Video Game
In the non-canon events in the video game, after Vincent is caught by the Depelter Turbo, he doesn't get taken away by Animal Control, but is still left without his fur.

Later, RJ plans to go to his cave to steal his satellite dish and brings the whole gang with him. He is pretty sure that Vincent is not there; however, as he goes to steal the satellite dish, Vincent appears from behind his food stack with a brainwash-helmet and tries to eat the "annoying raccoon". After a fierce battle, RJ and the gang are able to knock off Vincent's helmet. Vincent regains consciousness and wonders what RJ is doing there and admits that he still wants to attack him. Verne convinces Vincent to help them on their missions so he can take revenge on Dwayne (who was recently fired by Gladys after he had failed to kill the animals) and redeem himself.

Afterwards, Vincent is seen in the Outdoor Woods watching movies with the porcupines. Later, when the animals return to the woods with Gladys' PDA, Vincent is holding off the brainwashed animals while the animals fight some of them off.

At the end of the video game, Vincent is enjoying the victory party with everyone else.

Personality
Vincent is diabolical, nasty, cruel, greedy, heartless, short-tempered, and extremely selfish. His ruthless behavior intimidates RJ and later, the other animals. Vincent told RJ he is going to end up just like him by having everything he ever wanted; but at the last moment, RJ decided to save his friends, making himself a better person.

Vincent will not hesitate to harm or kill anyone who stands in his way.

Appearance
Vincent is a tall, muscular American black bear. He has brown eyes, a black nose, and sleek fur, and cream muzzle.

Trivia

 * Vincent is constantly believed to be the secondary or tertiary antagonist of the film. However, this isn't true as Vincent is the one who drives the plot of the film, constantly stressing RJ out while he is with the gang, and having more malicious traits. However, what really makes him the main villain is the fact that he opposes RJ and the others out of personal contempt while Gladys and Dwayne merely see them as vermin.
 * However, these mistakes aren't without justification as Vincent has less screen-time and dialogue than the other two, combined with the fact that all three of them are defeated simultaneously.
 * Also not to mentioned, it's also confirmed by the writers that Vincent is the main antagonist of Over the Hedge.
 * He is similar to Raccoon from The Nut Job, despite being the main antagonist of his film, he was less violent and had less screen time than the secondary and tertiary antagonists.
 * In the film, Vincent was taken away by animal control and remained the animals' enemy. However, in the video game adaption of the film, Vincent stayed in the outdoor woods and reformed.
 * His praise towards RJ near the film's climax where he compliments him on his deceitfulness to get what he desires (methods he frequently employed himself) was added into the film by the directors to justify Vincent's status as a villain since, for all his viciousness, he wasn't an especially villainous figure, only trying to survive as he had worked personally to acquire his necessitates and was perfectly reasonable to negotiate a settlement with RJ after he both greedily and unnecessarily tried to take and accidentally caused the destruction of what was rightfully the bear's.
 * To avoid having portrayed Vincent as too sympathetic to audiences, it was added that he manipulated, betrayed, and even murdered his best friends to fulfill his needs and takes a remorseless pride in his cruelty. He also attempted to kill the others as well as RJ for no actual good reason at all.
 * Vincent acts as a foil to RJ. Both are introduced as selfish, avaricious, independent loners who take human food to survive, but RJ later redeems himself after coming in contact with Verne, Hammy, and the other animals, considering them the family he had long sought. Vincent (on the other hand) is a greedy and manipulative control freak who never redeemed himself and only wanted to get his food back, even if it meant killing RJ and the others.
 * Vincent made a cameo appearance in Bee Movie when he was in the courtroom.
 * In order to prepare for his role as Vincent, Nick Nolte researched information about bears in order to give the right vocal tone and performance to his character.
 * He is the complete opposite of RJ: RJ is a self-centered con artist, but is really a kindhearted person. Vincent, however, is truly evil as he wanted RJ to give the food back to him and takes pleasure in getting what he wants.
 * Vincent's personality is similar to Gaston from Beauty and the Beast: Both were originally admired heroes, but have an arrogant attitude. They both stroke deals with RJ / Da'rque for an exchange for thinking that the animals / Maurice are dangerously crazy. However, Vincent's / Gaston's promises were broken and proved themselves wrong.
 * Vincent serves as a dark parallel to RJ: They are both tough and independent loners that care about themselves and love food for survival. However, RJ learned to accept that family is important than thievery. Vincent serves as an example of what RJ would become if the latter let his pride and greed consume him. It is likely that RJ's former cunning behavior stemmed from Vincent.