DVD Review: OPEN SEASON 3

Boog and Elliot star in Sony Pictures Animation’s family comedy adventure Open Season, a Columbia Pictures release.

© 2006 Sony Pictures Animation Inc.

I really wanted to like this movie… but poor animation and a mediocre storyline leave this film trailing in the woods.

Boog  is preparing for a trip with the guys when everyone, including his best friend Elliot, decides to bail out. Angered and hurt, Boog wanders on his own until he stumbles upon a Russian circus and a beautiful lady-bear named Ursa. Boog is so enamored by Ursa that he does not realize that Doug, another circus bear, is plotting his escape by trading places with Boog. When Boog’s friends realize that Doug is an impostor, they ban together to get their friend back.

This film seems thrown together simply for profit. The jokes were bland, and the characters that were once brought to life by Martin Lawrence (Boog) and Ashton Kutcher (Elliot) have now become dull and predictable by their new voices. It was only made worse by the second rate new characters, that were almost painful to watch. Add that a lot of the voice over work was done by the same actors as they cycled through different characters and you have a major train wreck on your hands. I honestly wanted to turn this off within the first 20 minutes but powered through in the hopes that it might get better. It only got worse.

The only thing that I will give this film is that kids might leave it on. I don’t think that it was nearly as bad as ALPHA AND OMEGA at appealing to children, but this will most likely not become their favorite movie… just something to watch when they are bored.

This is really disappointing because I actually liked the first OPEN SEASON. I thought that it was funny, and that Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher were pretty darn entertaining together. Was it the best animated film that I have ever watched? No, but it was still entertaining. OPEN SEASON 2 was less than stellar, but still tolerable to watch. I think I was just excited that Crispin Glover lent his voice to the tale. Either way, it has been a downward slope since the first movie, and this one has crashed and burned. I hate to be so harsh… but this movie had no business being made. I can only describe it as a money making ploy to get as much out of the franchise as they can.

OVERALL RATING: 1 out of 5 stars