Although it's beginning is pretty mediocre and its fish out of water formula can feel predictable at times- Open Season manages to be a very entertaining and often pretty funny little animated endeavor. Being the first film from Sony Pictures animation, I was honestly surprised at how little effort was made to make this a big franchise like Toy Story for Pixar, Shrek for Dreamworks, or hell even Hoodwinked had a sequel that made it to theaters! Somehow though, this franchise truly ended up getting the boot with nothing but straight to DVD sequels and quite horrible ones at that. Thinking back on how awful the third one was that I accidentally caught year ago on Cartoon Network, I had some serious doubts about the quality of this one going in. Its beginning is incredibly lackluster, perhaps the most generic buildup I have ever seen for an animated film- which is quite shocking because once the film gets going- it pulls a total 180 and manages to be quite fun. I enjoyed the look of the animals and creatures throughout, and found its animation style a little dated but quite fun to watch- certainly pretty good for the time. The plot has its ups and downs and ends up feeling like a bit of a discount Over the Hedge at times, but some of the jokes throughout are absolutely hilarious- not to mention it's incredibly wild moments (especially with its fight scene at the end), and a surprisingly touching ending that surprisingly somehow made me cry. In the end, Open Season isn't no masterpiece, nor does it challenge Sony's other great works like Arthur Christmas or even Surf's Up, but it does manage to be a rather good watch and certainly deserves less hate than what it got.
My Rating: 7.1/10.
My Rating: 7.1/10.