Dir. Roger Allers, Jill Culton, Anthony Stacchi, US, 2006, 99 mins
Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Martin Lawrence, Jon Favreau, Gary Sinise, Jane Krakowski
Review by Matt Rodgers
Computer generated 'toons have occupied a large number of our multiplex screens since Buzz and Woody first captured our collective imaginations all those years ago in Toy Story. So much so that when the latest talking furry animal movies – Over the Hedge and the upcoming Barnyard – were announced the level of anticipation is in a steady decline.
Open Season does little to restore faith in any originality for the genre as it focuses on the oft recycled tale of a “fish out of water”. The characters are forced to adjust to their surroundings and become a better person or in this case critter for it. It's a tale seen in everything from the aforementioned Toy Story to the neon soaked, damp squib that was Shark Tale. It’s a shame that this precedent has been set because Open Season, plot aside, has some extremely funny moments to compliment the obligatory fantastic animation.
Boog (voiced by Bad Boy Martin Lawrence) is the backwater town's resident bear (go with it...), known to the locals and adored by screaming kids who attend his daily performances. (Animal activists can relax because he performs voluntary dance routines without a ring through his nose before returning home to domestic bliss – even Poo didn’t have it this good.)
That is until road kill survivor Elliot the deer (voiced by the ever irritating Ashton Kutcher) enters the equation causing enough havoc for our mild-mannered grizzly that they are both bumped back into the wild three days before the shotguns are cocked for hunting season.
On the surface Open Season is visually stunning and has the same aesthetics, particularly in the rendering of the humans, as the brilliant Monster House. With Boog, the animators have created the second most impressive CGI character next to Monsters Inc.'s Sully. The attention to detail of the giant bear's fur coat is breathtaking on the big screen with each individual hair beautifully realised, but that alone isn’t worth the ticket price?
Open Season does have some very funny moments – the night in the convenience store in which the pair act like drunks after a sugar binge is a stand-out – and praise must go to both Lawrence and Kutcher – a rarity in any film review – who perfectly match the characterisations of Elliot and Boog.
Kutcher in particular channels his tolerance challenging Punk’d persona through Elliot's second-rate “Donkey from Shrek shtick” with funny results. The real star in the roll call of woodland creatures is Billy Connolly’s angry tree-dwelling squirrel. Every line he psychotically spits hits the mark and he is used sparingly enough for the effect to be doubled.
Okay, it suffers from over familiarity and the target audience are ankle biters (although there are some surprisingly dark moments for the mostly disinterested adult), but you could do much worse if your intention is to keep the kids quiet for a while.
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