Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Open Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Sir Terrence March 6, 2008

I have never seen a movie that I loved, and hated at the same time. I usually love it, or I hate it but this one left me torn. Open Season opened to mixed reviews (much like my impression), some folks applauding the excellent animation but hating the sometimes crude humor. Open Season did fairly well at the box office, opening with a surprising weekly total of $23 million dollars. It went on to do $85 million total in domestic receipts on a production budget of $85 million. Worldwide it did $189 million dollars, very respectable for an animation movie. Open Season borrows so much from other movies. Boog and Elliot could have easily been Shrek and Donkey from Shrek, Sulley and Mike from Monsters Inc., or Alex and Marty from Madagascar. The storyline could have been right out of the script of these movies as well. The rabbits jumping from the holes could have been borrowed from Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Ware Rabbit. While Open Season borrows heavily from these titles and partnerships, it does have some unique characteristic that sets it aside from those, instead of the traditional hunter attacks and kills animals, we see the animals plotting and attacking the humans. You talk about a flip the script moment!

Boog (Martin Lawrence) has it real good. He has a warm home in a garage, an owner Beth (Debra Messing) who protects him, feeds and nurtures him. Beth rescued Boog as a cub, and has raised him essentially as a pet all his life. He has no bear-like fierce instincts and his daily chores include doing circus tricks for visitors to the national park. His life is perfect until he meets Elliot (Ashton Krutcher), a deer captured by evil hunter Shaw (Gary Sinese). Once he meets up with Elliot, Boogs life changes for the worse eventually leading to Boog being released in the wild while unconscious. In the wild Boog has to deal with a mouthy, aggressive Scottish squirrel McSquizzy (Billy Connolly) and his band of squirrels, rabbits that are everywhere, ethnic Black and Puerto Rican skunks that fire on him, hunger, dam building beavers, loneliness, and the desire to return home to his garage. The worst thing that Boog has to deal with is Open Season in the forest. However Boog plans to deal with the hunters, and his new animal friends are going to help him. Open Season will never be the same when Boog is finished with the hunters.

Open Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Open Season is presented in 1080p with a 1:85:1 aspect ratio, encoded in AVC, and is the first of Sony titles to use AVC. Good choice because it is absolutely stunning to look at, nearly perfect in every way. There is absolutely no video or chroma noise to be found anywhere. The amount of detail is positively outstanding by any measure. Blacks are inky, contrast superb, and the color gamut is explored to the fullest. A lot of CGI based direct to digital animation uses post tools to make their video look more like film, here that is not the case. The picture is sharp as a tack, which gives you the ability to see the individual hairs on Boog's coat, even the smallest bit of detail on clothing, skin, and in the background shots as well. Individual blades of grass are finely rendered. Unlike some animation titles I have seen, there is no color banding to be found. Colors had pop, but lacked the fine gradations of let's say a Pixar presentation. I do not think I have seen any HD titles that have a look as consistently clean as Open Season does. Even the night scenes have a clean blue look to them with nary a bit of video noise to be found.

Open Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While the video completely wowed me, the audio was a little underwhelming. First what I liked. The film score by Ramin Djawadi sounds quite good, is nicely balanced, and is a great support to the film. Sound effects are nicely rendered, especially notable is the dam break, and giant water flow that proceeds it. The highs are nice and open revealing rustling wind, the faint movement of the animal fur and during the more quiescent moments an occasional forest sound. The LFE is used sparingly, only supporting the mains bass with additional punch and amplitude. Now here comes the rub. I hated the original songs by Paul Westerberg. I felt they were a distraction, and added nothing to the story telling. As Paul began to sing, I cringed, (his singing is really bad to me) and that snapped me out of the movie. I would have preferred they stay with the theme of the film score rather than going this direction. Second, so many opportunities were lost in creating a nice supporting sound field for the outdoor scenes. I have recorded audio in a forest, and it is not a quiet place, even at night. One would be left feeling like there were no animals in the forest other than what our eyes were looking at. The soundtrack is a little front heavy, with not enough support in the surrounds to fill out the mix dimensionally. Dialog was always clear and natural, but is not well integrated within each scene, or with the mix overall. I was always aware I was hearing dialog spoken in an ADR booth, and not spoken outdoors. Overall this entire soundtrack would have been better served without the original music

Open Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras on this disc represent a mixed bag of HD content, and SD content. The extras presented in high definition, include the bonus animated short Midnight Bun Run is a fun watch. Also in high definition we have the Wheel of Fortune: Forest Edition game, and Voice-A-Rama feature, both aimed at younger viewers. The rest of the goodies aren't high definition. In Swept Away, you can watch as the entire scene is broken down, showing us just how the creative process unfolds. Also explored are the animals in the movie and the voices behind them, in two separate, brief featurettes. Then you can listen as directors Roger Allers and Jill Culton talk about their animated creation.. The usual production stories are heard, anecdotes about the cast, and of course, the process of bringing the concept to the screen. This disc also includes some deleted scenes, a few more promotional featurettes, production artwork, and the music video for I Want to Lose Control.

Open Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Open Season is a good flick that overcomes the things I dislike about it. It's a fun popcorn-eating flick that can sometimes falls on its on weight. Kids will love it, it has plenty of cute moments that will keep them laughing. I do not think adults will share their kid's enjoyment, as this is no Pixar movie. If you have kids in your house, I would recommend it as a purchase. For those who enjoy the more mature twist of Pixar's animation, this is a sure rental.