Memories of “Grizzly Man” might be the only real obstacle to enjoying “Open Season,” an otherwise agreeable animated movie. In “Grizzly Man,” we witnessed the life of Timothy Treadwell, a bear enthusiast who ended up getting killed by grizzlies. He saw them as friends. They saw him as lunch.
“Open Season” is about a big bear named Boog (voiced by Martin Lawrence) who is treated as a house pet by a park ranger (Debra Messing). When it becomes clear that this giant creature needs to live in the wild, he’s helicoptered to a remote spot and left there. Since Boog prefers eating cookies to smacking salmon out of a river, he’s out of place.
But he’s not alone: A hyperactive mule deer (Ashton Kutcher) has decided that the two of them are best friends. And there you have the movie’s basic set-up, originally dreamed up by newspaper cartoonist Steve Moore (“In the Bleachers”).
The film is full of gags about porcupines and skunks, which might seem predictable but should fall on the receptive ears of the kiddie audience. And the old joke about a bear pooping in the woods is not overlooked, although perhaps it should have been.
It all works because of a genial spirit, some amusing computer animation (a flood following a beaver dam collapse is especially good), and a handful of songs by Paul Westerberg.
The two leads are fun: Martin Lawrence has put on the attitude of a giant bear just as surely as he donned women’s clothes for “Big Momma’s House.” Ashton Kutcher is zingy as the deer, whose loss of a horn has him panicking about being a unicorn.
“Open Season” has a villain, a hunter (Gary Sinise) who wants to shoot the bear, and the deer, and anything else that moves. This is the biggest anti-hunting movie since “Bambi.”
It’s also the first movie from a new animated unit at Sony Pictures, entering the fray of expensive but potentially profitable cartoons. One would have a hard time distinguishing it from other recent non-Pixar films.
Overall, a fun outing for a young audience. But tell the kids that if they run into a 900-pound grizzly bear, don’t offer it a cookie.
Elliott the mule deer (left) and Boog the grizzly bear in “Open Season.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
