''Open Season'' is a 2006 American animated
adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
comedy film directed by
Jill Culton and
Roger Allers
Roger Allers (born June 29, 1949) is an American film director, screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist, and playwright. He is best known for co-directing Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney's ''The Lion King'' (1994), the highest-grossing t ...
from a screenplay by Nat Mauldin,
Steve Bencich and
Ron J. Friedman, and features the voices of
Martin Lawrence
Martin Fitzgerald LawrenceStated in interview on '' Inside the Actors Studio'' (born April 16, 1965) is an American actor and comedian. Lawrence began his career doing comedy shows, including in '' The Improv''. After his first acting role in t ...
,
Ashton Kutcher
Christopher Ashton Kutcher (; born February 7, 1978) is an American actor, producer and entrepreneur. His accolades include a People's Choice Award and fifteen Teen Choice Awards, in addition to a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
K ...
,
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise (; born March 17, 1955) is an American actor, director, producer, musician and humanitarian. Among other awards, he has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has ...
, and
Debra Messing
Debra Lynn Messing (born August 15, 1968) is an American actress. After graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Messing starred in the television series ''Ned and Stacey'' on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox (1995–1997) an ...
. Produced by
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
and
Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation Inc. (also referred to as Sony Animation Studios and abbreviated to SPA) is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and found ...
(as its first feature film), and distributed by
Sony Pictures Releasing
Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group (formerly known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group until 2013, and abbreviated as SPMPG) is a division of Sony Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment to manage its motion picture operatio ...
, the plot follows Boog, a domesticated
grizzly bear
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...
, who is let go into the woods, and teams up with a one-antlered
mule deer
The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer.
Unlike the related whit ...
named Elliot to return to his old home before
open season starts.
''Open Season'' premiered at the
Greek Theatre on September 25, 2006, and was released in theaters in the United States on September 29. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office success, earning $201 million against an $85 million budget. The first in the
''Open Season'' film series, it was followed by ''
Open Season 2'' (2008), ''
Open Season 3'' (2010), and ''
Open Season: Scared Silly'' (2015). A
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
based on the film was released, and a television series, ''
Open Season: Call of Nature'', was released in 2023.
Plot
In a
small town
"Small Town" is a 1985 song written by John Mellencamp and released on his eighth album ''Scarecrow (John Mellencamp album), Scarecrow''. The song reached #6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and #13 on the Adult Contempo ...
called Timberline,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, a domesticated
grizzly bear
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horr ...
named Boog lives with his adoptive caretaker, a
park ranger
A ranger, park ranger, park warden, field ranger, or forest ranger is a person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands and Protected area, protected areas – private, national, state, provincial, or local parks. Their duties include ( ...
named Beth, who has raised him since he was a cub, and spends his days as the star attraction of the town's nature show. One day, hunting fanatic Shaw drives into Timberline with a one-antlered
mule deer
The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer.
Unlike the related whit ...
named Elliot tied to the hood of his truck. After Beth confronts Shaw, Boog frees Elliot, who becomes convinced that they are friends, and that night, Elliot finds Boog sleeping in the garage and convinces him to sneak out, and the two end up raiding PuniMart, a local convenience store in town. Eventually, Elliot runs away while Boog is caught by Gordy, the town's sheriff and Beth's best friend, who returns Boog to Beth and tells her that Boog's feral instincts may be emerging and it may be time to release Boog into the wild.
The next morning, Elliot is being chased by Shaw, and goes to Boog for help at the nature show. Boog tries to get rid of him, but the audience mistakes him for attacking Elliot and goes into a panic. Beth tranquilizes them both just before Shaw fires his own gun, then flees before Gordy can arrest him, and taking Gordy's advice, Beth relocates Boog and Elliot into the Timberline
National Forest two days before
open season. They are relocated above the waterfalls, where they will be legally safe from hunters.
Boog is initially enraged to have lost his home, but lacking outdoor survival skills, he reluctantly takes Elliot as his guide to get him back home to reunite with Beth. They encounter unwelcoming forest animals, including a
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
-accented
squirrel
Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae (), a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrel ...
named McSquizzy and his gang of fellow acorn-throwing squirrels,
beaver
Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...
Reilly and his construction worker team, and Elliot's estranged herd, led by Ian, and Giselle, a doe that Elliot has a crush on. Eventually, Boog and Elliot start to bond after realizing they are both outcasts, and Boog considers letting Elliot stay with him when they get back home.
The next day, Elliot attempts to help Boog leave the forest, but it becomes evident he has no clue where they are going. The two are confronted by Shaw and accidentally destroy Reilly's dam trying to get away, causing a
flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice and snow. Flash f ...
which sends the animals and Shaw plummeting down the waterfall into the hunting grounds. Everyone at first blames Boog for sending them into the hunting grounds but Elliot manages to defend Boog from them. Boog then accuses him of lying about knowing the way, leading him to confess that he thought if Boog spent time with him, he would befriend him. Realizing Elliot has betrayed him, Boog ends his friendship with him and angrily storms off, but ends up in Shaw's log cabin. Upon discovering Shaw's taxidermy collection and Shaw returning and discovering him, Boog escapes and finds a nearby road leading back to Timberline. Realizing the danger the animals are in and seeing a few hunters pass by in their trucks, Boog returns to the woods, reconciles with Elliot, and rallies the animals to defend themselves against the hunters. They scavenge supplies from an RV owned by a traveling couple named Bob, who is
mute and Bobbie, who are looking for
Bigfoot
Bigfoot (), also commonly referred to as Sasquatch (), is a large, hairy Mythic humanoids, mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.Example definitions include:
*"A large, hairy, manlike ...
, while their pet
dachshund
The dachshund ( or ; German: 'badger dog'), also known as the wiener dog or sausage dog, badger dog, doxen and doxie, is a short-legged, long-bodied, hound-type dog breed. The dog may be smooth-haired, wire-haired, or long-haired, with varie ...
Mr. Weenie joins the forest animals.
The next day, Boog leads a revolution against the hunters, ending with them running away after McSquizzy blows up their trucks with a large propane tank. Shaw returns for a final showdown with Boog, but before he can shoot Boog, Elliot throws himself in front of Boog and takes the shot, prompting Boog to confront Shaw and tie him up with his own gun. Afterwards, Boog discovers that Elliot survived, only losing his other antler. The forest animals thank Boog for his help and take out their vengeance on Shaw by
smothering him with honey and pillow feathers, sending him fleeing into the woods. Beth later returns in a helicopter to take Boog back home, but, having learned to appreciate his new home, he decides to stay in the forest with Beth's blessing.
In a pre-credits scene, Shaw, still tarred and feathered, emerges from the woods that night, and gets run into by Bob and Bobbie, who humorously mistake him for Bigfoot.
Cast
Production
The ideas for ''Open Season'' came from cartoonist
Steve Moore, who is known for his comic strip ''
In the Bleachers''. Moore and producer John Carls submitted the story to Sony in June 2002, and the film immediately went into development. On February 29, 2004,
Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation Inc. (also referred to as Sony Animation Studios and abbreviated to SPA) is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and found ...
announced the beginning of the production on ''Open Season'', its first
CGI-animated
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Modern c ...
film.
The film location was inspired by the towns of
Sun Valley, Idaho
Sun Valley is a resort city in the western United States, in Blaine County, Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in the Wood River valley. The population was 1,783 at the 2020 census. The elevation of Sun Valley (at the Lodge) is above se ...
and
McCall, Idaho, and the
Sawtooth National Forest
Sawtooth National Forest is a United States National Forest, National Forest that covers 2,110,408 acres (854,052 ha) in the U.S. states of Idaho (~96 percent) and Utah (~4 percent). Managed by the U.S. Forest Service in the United States Depart ...
. References to the
Lawn Lake, Colorado, Dam flood,
Longs Peak
Longs Peak is a mountain in the northern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The fourteener is located in the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness, southwest by south ( bearing 209°) of the Town of Estes Park, Colorado, ...
, and other points of interest in the area are depicted in the film.
The rendering services used were
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...
and Alias
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (East Africa), a p ...
.
The Sony animation team developed a digital tool called shapers that allowed the animators to reshape the character models into stronger poses and silhouettes and subtle distortions such as squash, stretch, and smears, typical of traditional, hand drawn animation.
To choose the voice cast, Culton blindly listened to audition tapes, unknowingly picking Lawrence and Kutcher for the lead roles.
Their ability to improvise significantly contributed to the creative process. "They really became meshed with the characters", said Culton.
Until the film's premiere, Lawrence and Kutcher never met during production.
Reception
Critical response
Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data.
Background
Ed Mintz, who ...
gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He came to prominence with the low-budget buddy comedy film ''Clerks (film), Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted i ...
gave the film a thumbs up during an appearance as a guest critic on ''
Ebert and Roeper'', saying: "If your kids like poop jokes as much as I do, ''Open Season'' will put a big smile on their faces". However,
Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the '' Chicago Sun-Times'', where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television s ...
gave the film a thumbs down, saying, "It's just okay, the animation is uninspired".
Box office
''Open Season'' opened number one with $23 million on its opening weekend. It grossed $88.6 million in the United States and $112.2 million in foreign countries, making $200.8 million worldwide.
The film was released in the United Kingdom on October 13, 2006, and opened at number three, behind ''
The Departed
''The Departed'' is a 2006 crime film, crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is both an English-language remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film ''Infernal Affairs'' and also loosely based on the real-lif ...
'' and ''
The Devil Wears Prada''.
Accolades
The film was nominated for six
Annie Award
The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in American cinema and television. Origina ...
s, including Best Animated Feature (lost to ''
Cars
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...
''), Best Animated Effects, Best Character Design in a Feature Production, Best Production Design in a Feature Production, and Best Storyboarding in a Feature Production.
Home media
''Open Season'' was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
,
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
, and
UMD Video
The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is a discontinued optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on its PlayStation Portable handheld video game, gaming and multimedia platform. It can hold up to 1.8 gigabytes of data and is capable of stori ...
on January 30, 2007. It includes an animated short called ''Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run''. The film was later released to
3D Blu-ray on November 16, 2010.
Video game
A
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
based on the film was released on September 18, 2006 for
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
,
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...
,
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...
,
Nintendo DS
The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...
,
GameCube
The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...
,
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...
,
PlayStation Portable
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...
, and
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
. For
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
, it was released on November 19, 2006, together with the console's launch.
Music
The soundtrack includes an original
film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
by
Ramin Djawadi
Ramin Djawadi (born 19 July 1974) is an Iranian-German film score composer, conductor, and record producer. He is known for his scores for the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', for which he was nominated for Grammy Awards in 2018 and 2020. He is al ...
and several original songs by
Paul Westerberg
Paul Harold Westerberg (born December 31, 1959) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the Replacements. Following the breakup of the Replacements, Westerberg launched a solo career that saw him r ...
, formerly of
The Replacements. ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' gave the film's soundtrack three stars out of five, as did
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
.
''Open Season—Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (10″ LP)'' includes three songs that did not appear on the soundtrack CD: An alternative version of "I Belong", Paul Westerberg's own version of "Wild as I Wanna Be", and
Reyli's "Tú eres el amor", which played during the credits in the Latin American Spanish dubbed version of the film. In the dubbing of the same language, Reyli also performed the voice of Boog.
The theme song of the Japanese version is called "Tookage" by
Chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
.
Franchise
''Open Season'' was followed by three
direct-to-video
Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...
sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
s: ''
Open Season 2'' (2008), ''
Open Season 3'' (2010), and ''
Open Season: Scared Silly'' (2015). A majority of the characters' voices were recast, with Michelle Murdocca (Maria) being the only cast member to appear in all sequels.
A 2D animated series ''Open Season: Call of Nature'' was released in 2023.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{Portal bar, Film, United States, Speculative fiction, Comedy, Cartoon, Animation, Animals, 2000s
2006 films
2006 children's films
2006 computer-animated films
2006 3D films
3D animated films
2006 American animated films
Animated films about talking animals
American children's animated adventure films
American children's animated comedy films
American 3D films
American computer-animated films
Animated buddy films
Films adapted into television shows
Animated films set in forests
Films set in Oregon
Columbia Pictures animated films
Columbia Pictures films
Films about hunting
Films scored by Ramin Djawadi
Films directed by Jill Culton
Films directed by Roger Allers
Films produced by Michelle Murdocca
IMAX films
Sony Pictures Animation films
2006 directorial debut films
2000s English-language films
Animated films set in the Western United States
Films with screenplays by Steve Bencich
Films with screenplays by Ron J. Friedman