Customer Reviews

Open Season

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

"Open Season" is the coming-of-age story of a very unlikely friendship. Boog (Voice by Martin Lawrence), the Bear, has lived a very sheltered life in the garage of Beth, the game ranger who rescued him. Elliott (voice by Ashton Kutcher), the mule deer, has had a very bad day. He's just gotten expelled from his pack by the Alpha Buck, gotten hit by a truck, lost an antler and ended up strapped to the hood of an insane hunter's truck.

When Boog saves Elliott's life, Elliott comes to join him in his garage haven--and they end up on a night on the town that gets Boog sent to the wilderness earlier than his game-ranger Mom would have preferred--and sadly, at the beginning of "Open Season."

To stay safe, the two must band together--and along the way, they learn a lot about friendship and teamwork. This is a great lesson film for kids as well as having some wonderful moments for adults, too.

Plus, the making of videos are fascinating. Viewers have the chance to learn about how animation is drawn and how the directors help bring the voices to life.

This is a fairly safe film that the whole family can enjoy. A little bathroom humor, a beaver saying "dam", and a fairly intense hunter are the only questionable parts of the movie. The movie involves a bear named Boog who has been taken in by a park ranger and lives in her garage like a pet. Everything is fine until he rescues a deer named Elliot who becomes his friend whether he wants it or not. Elliot gets Boog kicked out into the wild, where the movie follows the familar fish out of water plot as Boog tries to find his way into the wild. It ends with Boog leading the animals of the forest against the hunters during open season to save all of his new friends. The animation is nice, and the voice work is pretty strong. This is not quite a Pixar quality film, but it is not a cheapo movie. I think this is a good one to see with the kids.

I've had my Xbox HD-DVD player for 6 months and love it - hooked on HD movies. I was frustrated at not being able to get all the High Def movies available so I broke down and got the 100 dollar discounted PS3 as soon as the price break hit. For my first Blu-ray movie I selected Open Season, hoping I had made a good choice and felt comforted by the quality reviews I read on here (Amazon).
Sure enough the reviews were true the picture is amazing in 1080P High Def. The movie was more entertaining than I expected. With the quality of the picture and the decent animation story you certainly won't regret your purchase. I wasn't blown away by the uncompressed audio, but it also didn't disappoint - just didn't really stand out where as the picture certainly did.
I dunno if it's because this is an animated movie, but I can say that this is the best quality High Def content I've seen to date, better picture than the HD-DVD movies I've seen.

This is absolutely the best animated feature I have ever seen and I love these things! Martin Lawrence is brilliant as the voice of Boog the Grizzly Bear. He deserves an Oscar for his touching, hilarious vocalizations. And Ashton Kutcher will blow you away as Elliott the buck with one antler. Wait until you hear Gary Sinise as the evil hunter. Incredibly funny. Other performances include Debra Messing as the park ranger who adopted Boog and Patrick Warburton (Puddy from Seinfeld) as the lead buck in the deer herd. Buy it, you will watch it again and again. Super musical soundtrack is also a must have. Highly recommended!

My Son watches it every night before he goes to sleep I find that it calms him down and it makes him laugh so much so he can get a good nights rest...

I don't normally write reviews. While I do read reviews when I'm considering a purchase or doing research, I always take them with a grain of salt.

In this case, I'm writing the review to say that the although the movie does have its funny moments, it's definitely not a movie that the *whole* family can enjoy. I have 3 year old twin boys and I thought the movie might be fun to watch. My wife and I don't mind the adult humor, indeed it usually makes the movies more enjoyable, and the euphemisms generally go right over childrens' heads. However, unlike many other animated movies with adult humor such as Shrek, this movie has some downright crude humor and unacceptable language.

In terms of entertainment quality I'd probably rate it a 3 1/2 or 4. But, for the language it gets 2 stars. Why does an animated PG movie need to use "panty waste"? I understand that it's PG but there are too many "craps", "I'm going to kill you", and that "panty waste". Not something I want my kids, whether they're 3 or 8, running around repeating.

Of course there's a wide range between G and PG-13, so I'll admit that its intended audience is likely for the upper-end of the rating such as 10 to 12 year olds.

Making short,

Hilarity : 5 out of five
Color : 5 out of five
Story : 4 out of five
Details in pictures : 5 out of five
Voices : 5 out of five

improvement required : none

Okay, so it wasn't Toy Story or some other breaking edge type of movie, but it was quite enjoyable to both myself and the kids. And the kids asked to watch it several more times, which is always my logic when I outright purchase a movie - that it get watched more than once.

I enjoyed it as much as the kids and I'm a Grandmother. Go ahead and get it if you are considering it!

As animation has taken a digital turn over the past 10 years, many movies have been turned out, but quite a few have adult humor snuck in to them, ultimately aiming them at an older viewing base. This is one that to me reminded me of a good classic film of the past. Boog the Bear, pet bear to a park ranger Beth, befriends a cast out deer, Elliot, who lead Boog down the wrong path and ultimatly gets Boog sent back to the wild...with Elliot. The fun takes off from their as Boog tries to find his way back to his cozy spot in the ranger Beth's garage. How does a domesticated bear survive? I think this is probably the best family cartoon of last year, right up there with Cars. No adult jokes thrown in, just good clean humor, and great life leason. This is one to buy, good for generations to enjoy.

Two things I should probably say before I get any deeper: 1) saw it in iMax & 2) I missed the onslaught of cookie-cutter animal-CGI cartoons that have supposedly been recycling each other shamelessly. While we here at "The Rotten Review" instantly spotted parallels between this flick and "Toy Story" (odd couple heroes who begin in a safe area from which they are exiled; psychotic and destructive villain; messianic owner/protector) which we DID see, "Open Season" was careless, exciting, oft-senseless (if forgettable) fun. The "heroes" are Boog, a tamed Grizzly bear voiced by Martin Lawrence, and Elliot, an irritating deer who looks like a cross between deer and donkey. In fact, Elliot looks like something of a cross between any number of sidekicks - including "Donkey" from "Shreck" - and Ashton Kutcher. Unsurprisingly, Elliot IS voiced by Ashton Kutcher, while Boog is the streetwise/forest-dumb Boog. Early in the film, Boog saves Elliot - who's been banned from his herd for reasons undetermined, and subsequently run down by Shaw, the ostensible villain. Elliot insists on returning the favor, a course which will see Boog exiled from a cozy experience with the ever-goody-goody Beth (Deborah Messing). Beth has raised Boog for years, eventually having him star in a "wilderness" show she runs for the small number of non-hunting tourists who come to her small northwestern town of Timberline. When finally forced to "release" Boog to the wild, the bear must fend for himself - which means he'll have to team up with the ineffectual Elliot as well as contend with a forest filled with animals who know that Boog is all growl/no maul. Not unlike Boog, "Open Season" is more growl then maul, but it's still a lethally fun. It's darker than most of these CGI animal fests (there's a great fight scene in the backwoods redoubt of the film's villain/hunter; the flick climaxes in a battle scene that sends up the epic Hollywood flicks of the recent era - from "The Patriot" to "Narnia", and manages to match those films in looking lively). Even if you can predict how it'll end up, "Open Season" has enough firepower to make you at least feel surprised.

FOR KIDS!?!? There are many scenes in which serious assault appear imminent; knives and guns are ever present, and rabbits are repeatedly exploited by man and beast (more by beast, actually). There's a fast-moving scene set in a flash-flood (likely included for iMax screenings, and possibly to nail the flick a ride at Disney) which may be fast for many younger viewers. HOWEVER, The Rotten Review lab-tested this flick on a 3-year older who sat through the entire thing.