Open Season

Open Season ***

After the strong downward trend in animated films of late, I was shocked to see that "Open Season" was actually a good movie. I haven't actually laughed at something I've seen in a cartoon for a long time. It may not be the most original cartoon to come out of Hollywood, but it's the funniest since "Cars." And for once, it's not even a mixture of two better animated films. We've seen the animals before, but it doesn't take the plot from anything else. For example, "The Ant Bully" was just a combination of "Over the Hedge" and "Antz." But, the kids will laugh at the kiddie jokes, and the adults with laugh at the jokes that will go way over the kids head. And it's entertaining. And short. And it looks good. And with something of this calibur, when it's not Pixar or independant, that is all that you're looking to do. Make the kids happy, and to not be bored yourself.

"Open Season" starts off with Boog the bear. A domesticated bear, who preforms in a local zoo, doing a stage show. He has the greatest life that he could imagine. He sleeps in a garage, watching television, eating crackers, and he's raised by the best owner that he could ever have: Beth. Boog's peaceful life is destroyed when he rescues Elliot from the hood of a hunters car. Elliot suddenly thinks that because Boog saved his life, Boog has to protect him from danger all the time. He shows up at the wrong times, and even convinced Boog to sneak out of the garage one night and go to the local general store. Boog, who never eats chocolate or other sweet sugars, is overjoyed by everything that he sees, and when he returns home in the middle of the night, its in the trunk of a cop car. Beth begins to think that Boog could be a danger to the rest of the town, and decides that it might be time for her to set him wild. She brings him to the center of the woods, and leaves him there. Boog wakes up in the morning confused and scared, but it only gets worse when Elliot comes out of the bag that he was in. The two are together now, forever. And the plot thickens when its revealed that its Open Season in three days, when it will be officially legal for the hunters to come in and kill whatever they want to. Boog and Elliot, especially if they are going to live in this lifestyle, decide that they have to do something about the hunters, and unite all of the forest creatures in an attempt to stop the hunters from killing them all, and to be able to life a peaceful and free life in nature.

It may be predictable, but "Open Season" is short and sweet. I don't think I checked my watch once during the entire film, which is good after some of the animated drivel I've seen all summer. It may be "yet another animated film" but this is the one to pick out of all the others that are around at the moment. It even has some laughs, and I learned that Ashton Kutcher is better when its just his voice coming out of an animal, as opposed to him actually being on the screen. Important life lessons are learned everyday. I liked many of the forest characters, including the group of squirrels who act like an Scottish military unit, and another animal that always looks at Boog and Elliot and just said "Buddy!" And it has its sappy moments, but you'd expect it too, so when Boog decides to go off and find his home on his own, and that sentimental song comes onto the soundtrack, you know that it'll be over in just a few minutes. "Open Season" is a pleasant surprise, and not the practice of torture that you'd expect it to be. The kids will love it, and the adults will be able to tolerate it. And that is all that is needed. . .