Open Season (Blu-ray) (2006)

"...stunning visuals, a catchy soundtrack and charming characters that are family-friendly crowd-pleasers.  Angel Cohn, TV Guide
"...a cheerful animated comedy built on [Kutcher's] winningly loose voice performance.  Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
"Hilariously witty and absolutely entertaining!  Film Advisory Board

Editor's Note OPEN SEASON, an animated action-adventure, follows the fortunes of two forest-animal misfits. Boog (Martin Lawrence) is a gentle and domesticated bear; Elliot (Ashton Kutcher) is an absentminded and accident-prone deer who has been shunned by his herd. Together, they struggle to adapt to the ways of life in the wild and on their own. Boog longs to return to the cushy conditions he had with Beth (Debra Messing), an animal-loving park ranger who rescued him and raised him as a pet from the time he was a cub. Desperate to please his new friend, who spared him from an overzealous hunter (Gary Sinise), Elliot tries to help lead Boog back to the mountainside town, but instead they are met with hostility by their fellow forest creatures, including a combative squirrel, McSquizzy (Billy Connelly); a perfectionist beaver, Reilly (Jon Favreau); and a machismo-fueled deer, Ian (Patrick Warburton), who is Elliot's nemesis. Now, with hunting season upon them, they must all align to defend themselves against the hunters that annually plague their domain.  While obviously geared toward kids, OPEN SEASON covers quite a few adult themes, including the comparison of man and beast. By pitting animals against hunters, the film operates from a pro-animal and pro-environment stance. It also conveys the importance of getting along with those different from ourselves, and encourages teamwork and acceptance of others. The PG-rated film includes some mature references, including rude humor and mild violence, but overall offers entertainment appropriate for the whole family.

	Ashton Kutcher - Voice Of
	Billy Connolly - Voice Of
	Debra Messing - Voice Of
	Gary Sinise - Voice Of
	Jane Krakowski - Voice Of
	John B. Carls - Executive Producer
	Jon Favreau - Voice Of
	Ken Solomon - Editor
	Martin Lawrence - Voice Of
	Michelle Murdocca - Producer
	Pam Ziegenhagen - Editor
	Patrick Warburton - Voice Of
	Ramin Djawadi - Original Music By
	Roger Allers, et. al. - Director
	Steve Bencich, et. al. - Writer

New York Times
"[With] periodic bursts of cleverness and eye-popping imagery....There are probably enough action-packed animal-versus-hunter battles and gross-out gags to keep the kiddies amused." 09/29/2006 p.E19

Sight and Sound
"[A] set-piece involving a huge flood is suitably dynamic, and there's a suspenseful sequence when Boog finds he's stumbled into the house of his hunter-nemesis." 12/01/2006 p.65

Variety 8 of 10
Though hardly the first animated film to tackle the plight of domesticated animals returning to the wild, "Open Season" is a witty, warmly crafted chestnut that reps a promising feature debut from Sony's upstart toon division...Animation is first-rate, not only in the finely detailed backdrops (which came across especially vividly in an Imax 3-D screening) and the obvious pains taken to convincingly render the animals' fur, but in the way throwaway jokes are smartly and subtly embedded at the edge of the frame, Pixar style. Rabbits, in particular, haven't been deployed this cutely and inventively since "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." - Justin Chang

Reel.com 6 of 10
In Madagascar, tame zoo animals are forced to fend for themselves when they wash ashore on the titular island. In The Wild, zoo animals travel to Africa to find their friend, a domesticated lion mistakenly set "free." Now, in Open Season, a grizzly bear that was hand raised by a ranger is left to fend for itself in the forest just prior to the start of hunting season. This flaccid family cartoon is the handiwork of Sony Pictures Animation, and it hardly bodes well for the company's future that the best it could come up with for its inaugural project is this derivative piece of mediocrity...The story is old. The anthropomorphized animals are overly familiar. That Sony wants to break into feature animation may be an admirable goal, but unless future efforts are fresher than this, it begs the question, why bother? - Pam Grady