Open Season

Featuring the voices of Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, and Debra Messing. Rated general.

Call it the Shrek factor. These days, it’s no longer enough for an animated feature to suck in the lunch-kit crowd. If you want the fat returns of a crossover hit, you’ve got to charm everyone from obliging parents to nostalgic preteens. This calls for an eclectic mix that typically includes everything from poo jokes to channelling the vintage buddy shtick of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Open Season—the story of an unlikely partnership between a laid-back grizzly bear named Boog and a hyperactive, mangy mule deer named Elliot—works the crossover formula with satisfying results. Codirectors Roger Allers, Jill Culton, and Anthony Stacchi make sure kids get cool riffs on pee-pee and junk food while Grandpa can appreciate a premise that’s basically The Road to Morocco with fur.

Boog (Martin Lawrence, who sounds like he’s paying homage to Dave Chapelle) is a performing grizzly who’s best friends with his costar Beth (a chilled-out Debra Messing). Because Beth raised Boog from an orphaned cub, he’s perfectly content to shack up in her garage. Fully domesticated, he uses the toilet and shares his grizzly-sized doggie bed with a stuffed toy named Dingleman. Beth knows that Boog has to be reintroduced to the wild, but because the opening of hunting season is just days away, she wants to keep him safe for one more summer.

Beth’s plans are spoiled when Boog saves Elliot’s life (Ashton Kutcher, whose nimble voice has an infectious energy that carries the movie). After Elliot convinces his new pal to break into a convenience store and go on a junk-food frenzy, Beth is forced to transplant Boog to the woods sooner than expected. Boog is clearly out of his element, especially since he’s being stalked by an evil hunter named Shaw (Gary Sinise). A demented redneck with a Far Side complex, Shaw is convinced that animals are poised to take over the world.

Boog is desperate to find his way home. So when Elliot tells him he knows the way back to town, they begin a journey through the woods just as hunting season is gearing up. Along the way, they meet a number of forest creatures who force Boog to reevaluate his role as a bear. Easy on sentiment and heavy on fun, Open Season should please kids and whoever they can get to tag along.

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