Vincent is RJ's arch-nemesis and former ally and the main antagonist of the film Over the Hedge. He became enemies with both RJ and Verne's family. He starts the main conflict by forcing RJ to go out and recollect all of his food that RJ had destroyed. Most of the conflict is centered around him, and he is also an exposition character. He makes an appearance in Bee Movie.
He is voiced by Nick Nolte.
Biography[]
Beginnings[]
It is unknown how RJ and Vincent became best friends in the first place. Following the death of RJ's family, Vincent likely stepped in and taught RJ how to survive on his own by scamming everyone else. To RJ, this was the only way for him to survive alone. This means they've probably been together for a long time.
In Over the Hedge[]
One night, RJ is on the hunt for food, but cannot reach snacks in the vending machine. Hungry and desperate, he sneaks into Vincent's cave nearby to steal from Vincent's massive mountain of food he saved for hibernation. Vincent is still hibernating. RJ tells himself to only take what he needs, but he ends up trying to roll Vincent's entire stash of food out of the cave on a wagon, including a can of Spuddies in Vincent's arms. By trying to steal the Spuddies, RJ wakes up Vincent a week early from his hibernation.
Vincent quickly notices what RJ is doing and laughs it off before telling RJ that he'll have to kill him. RJ backpedals and accidentally bumps the wagon of food into the street, where it gets run over by a passing truck. Vincent becomes furious.
Right as Vincent prepares to eat RJ after catching him, RJ tells Vincent that he can get all the food back, as Vincent would have to do it all himself if he ate RJ. Vincent agrees, giving RJ his last week of hibernation to recollect absolutely everything that RJ destroyed, otherwise Vincent will hunt him down. RJ realizes that his only option is to find a group of animals he can trick into helping him. This sparks the main conflict of the film.
The next night, after failing to sway Verne's family, 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 still having 6 more days) and opens his jaws to swallow RJ whole. Suddenly, RJ wakes up and realizes it was a nightmare.
A fight between RJ and Verne destroys all the food RJ recollected with the help of the other animals. This happens on his final day, which leaves him hopeless. He looks up to the sky and sees the stars form Vincent, who tells RJ that the moon is full and he will see him in the morning. He then takes the moon (which morphs into a Spuddie) and eats it before fading away.
RJ's last chance is to steal everything all over again in one night by raiding the inside of Gladys' house with Verne and the others. Doing so, through certain circumstances, RJ is forced to reveal to the family that he had been using them the whole time, and that he needed all this food to repay Vincent. He escapes with the wagon full of food, leaving the foragers to be captured by the Verminator.
RJ brings the wagon back to Vincent, and finds him on a cliff. Vincent was on his way to kill RJ but stopped to watch him at the heist, and was impressed that RJ left everyone for dead to make off with the food. He claims to RJ that selfishness will take him far, and that anyone who gets hurt in the process is simply a part of life. Vincent says RJ will have everything he ever wanted. RJ, having been mended by the family, says he already had it. Vincent insists that RJ will always be a family of one and doesn't need the others. But RJ has a change of heart. He decides to run the wagon of food down the cliff to stop the Verminator's truck and free the other animals. They take control of the truck, but an enraged and betrayed Vincent makes an attempt to kill RJ and his new family as well. At first, the family tries to keep RJ out of the truck and leave him to Vincent, seeing RJ as a traitor. Verne convinces them that RJ has good intentions now, and they help him. Vincent attacks them as they drive into the suburbs. Spike, Bucky, and Quillo drive the van into some helium balloons for "bonus points". Vincent gets caught in the balloons and dragged into the air as the animals are jubilant over losing 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. The animals celebrate, but before long, they crash into Gladys' house.
In the climax, RJ escapes with the others into the woods only for Hammy to spot Vincent floating down towards them on that side of the hedge. With quills from the porcupines stuck in him, Vincent pops the balloons and tries to attack them one last time. The animals are now stuck inside the hedge, caught between Vincent on the side of the forest and Gladys and Dwayne on the side of Gladys' yard. While trying to shock the critters 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. RJ puts Verne's shell on for protection and uses himself as bait to lure Vincent into Gladys' backyard. He teases and infuriates him with one of the Spuddies, telling him that he was right about the Spuddies and that "enough just isn't enough" before eating it. Outraged, Vincent shouts RJ's name and roars angrily as he lunges himself at RJ to finish him off. Meanwhile, the family has Hammy drink an energy drink, which makes the whole universe freeze for a long period of time. Once everything freezes, Hammy immediately goes in Gladys' backyard past Gladys and Dwayne and activates the new extermination system, the Depelter Turbo.
Everything starts to go back to normal speed. Being saved from Vincent's jaws by Verne's shell, Verne pulls RJ out of Vincent's mouth with a fishing rod and RJ waves to a shocked Vincent as he slowly dives into Gladys and Dwayne, knocking them down and making the three of them activate the laser grid in Gladys' backyard. Slightly dazed from the impact, the antagonists get up and notice the Depelter Turbo. RJ and the animals get ready to watch as the machine stings the villains severely and launches a pillar of light straight into the sky. The machine traps the three of them in a large cage after the fact, all moaning in pain. Gladys lost her hair, Dwayne’s sleeves are half-ripped and Vincent lost almost all of his fur.
Afterwards, Vincent is sedated and taken away by Animal Control and is allegedly sent back to the Rocky Mountains.
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 not afraid to kill and betray anyone he needs to in order to get what he wants. He is heartless and greedy, as well as short-tempered, making him a lethal threat. He holds no sort of sympathy for those he harms, and looks to get the most out of life by taking it from everyone else. His ruthless behavior intimidates RJ and later, the other animals.
Appearance[]
Vincent is a tall, muscular American black bear. He has brown eyes, a black nose, sleek fur, and a cream muzzle. He has a large jaw with sharp teeth.
Trivia[]
- Out of the 3 antagonists, Vincent is the only true villain. While Gladys is strict, she's simply trying to protect her home and maintain cleanliness within the suburbs. The Verminator is only doing his job. Meanwhile, Vincent has malevolent intentions, wanting to take advantage of everyone.
- Vincent's character model was used in the court scene of The Bee Movie, where a ferocious bear is brought into the room. Weirdly, the bear in this scene is brown, while Vincent is a black bear in Over the Hedge.
- Vincent is just about the only animal in the movie to make traditional animal noises, being bear growls. This is to convey his savageness and make him more intimidating and distinct from the good-hearted foragers.
- Despite having the lowest presence of the antagonists for most of the movie, Vincent is the most important one and remains a constant threat to RJ even in his absence. He puts a time limit on the film, which is what pushes the entire plot along.
- In the film, Vincent was taken away by animal control and presumably 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 other animals besides RJ for no good reason at all.
- Vincent serves as a dark parallel to RJ. Both are introduced as selfish, avaricious, and independent loners who take human food to survive. However, 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. If RJ would have let his pride and greed consume him, he would've ended up like Vincent, just like Vincent himself mentioned in the climax.
- During the scene where Dwayne installs the Depelter Turbo for Gladys, Dwayne tests the laser grid by throwing a plush bear onto it. This would later foreshadow Vincent's defeat in the movie.
- 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.