2008 Woodie Awards
Open Season for all ages
This predictable but entertaining animated cartoon still gets laughs
Owen Larkin '07
Issue date: 10/5/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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What's better on a hazy afternoon than watching animated animals run amuck on a movie screen, as children laugh and parents give you distrustful looks? Well, a few things [insert your imagination here], but Open Season is still a great way to nurse oneself back to health after a long Friday night, in preparation for the impending Saturday night onslaught.
Open Season, Sony Pictures Animation's latest crack at the 3D animation genre, is full of slapstick humor, clever one-liners, and enough double entendres and simple puns to make Groucho Marx roll over in his grave and eat his sweet, sweet mustache. While many of these are aimed at the little ones, the writers mixed in plenty of adult humor. Seeing as I fall somewhere between the two, I must admit I enjoyed this film.
The movie follows Boog (voice of Martin Lawrence), a half-ton grizzly bear that lives with Beth (Debra Messing), a park ranger who dons some incredibly awkward shorts, even for an animated ginger. Boog lives in the lap of luxury, watching Wheel Of Fortune, eating crackers and performing shows for the local redneck chillun'. Life takes on a drastic change for Boog when he saves Elliot (Ashton Kutcher) from a mean spirited hunter that has strapped the deer to the hood of his truck. To make a long story short (and this movie did drag on a bit) the two get drunk on candy bars and squishies and destroy a local business. Beth is forced to liberate Boog into the wild, offering a drawn out and heart-melting scene. . . aw.
Two immediate problems: Boog is a sally that has never learned the skill set necessary for a grizzly to survive, and hunting season starts in three days. What comes next? Moderate amounts of hilarity, that's what.
The rest of the movie chronicles Boog and Elliot picking up various friends, endangering them countless times, and generally interacting with the great outdoors. An army of surly Scottish squirrels, led by McSquizzy (Billy Connolly) and a whole bunch of rabbits are among their new friends.
Open Season, Sony Pictures Animation's latest crack at the 3D animation genre, is full of slapstick humor, clever one-liners, and enough double entendres and simple puns to make Groucho Marx roll over in his grave and eat his sweet, sweet mustache. While many of these are aimed at the little ones, the writers mixed in plenty of adult humor. Seeing as I fall somewhere between the two, I must admit I enjoyed this film.
The movie follows Boog (voice of Martin Lawrence), a half-ton grizzly bear that lives with Beth (Debra Messing), a park ranger who dons some incredibly awkward shorts, even for an animated ginger. Boog lives in the lap of luxury, watching Wheel Of Fortune, eating crackers and performing shows for the local redneck chillun'. Life takes on a drastic change for Boog when he saves Elliot (Ashton Kutcher) from a mean spirited hunter that has strapped the deer to the hood of his truck. To make a long story short (and this movie did drag on a bit) the two get drunk on candy bars and squishies and destroy a local business. Beth is forced to liberate Boog into the wild, offering a drawn out and heart-melting scene. . . aw.
Two immediate problems: Boog is a sally that has never learned the skill set necessary for a grizzly to survive, and hunting season starts in three days. What comes next? Moderate amounts of hilarity, that's what.
The rest of the movie chronicles Boog and Elliot picking up various friends, endangering them countless times, and generally interacting with the great outdoors. An army of surly Scottish squirrels, led by McSquizzy (Billy Connolly) and a whole bunch of rabbits are among their new friends.