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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 49 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
5 OK for kids 5+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    New York Daily News | Elizabeth Weitzman

    Given that so many people have dismissed Ashton Kutcher as a superficial pretty boy, it seems a little ironic that his best work this week is two-dimensional: He makes a passable action hero in "The Guardian," but he's downright adorable in Open Season, a cheerful animated comedy built on his winningly loose voice performance. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety | Justin Chang

    A witty, warmly crafted chestnut. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    Despite that nagging whiff of familiarity, there are enough character quirks and inspired bits of funny business to carry this amiable if slight tale. Read full review

  • 60
    Los Angeles Times | Kevin Crust

    An amusing if slight excursion into nature with a group of animals who turn the tables on their collective nemeses, the hunters. Read full review

  • 60
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    With a slick visual style similar to "Monster House", Open Season trots out tropes that recent animated classics have done with more wit and smarts. Read full review

  • 58
    Entertainment Weekly |

    The overfamiliar Open Season feels like just another CG 'toon in our 'toon-glutted times. Read full review

  • 50
    Boston Globe | Janice Page

    As cartoon rip-offs go, Open Season can be surprisingly entertaining, in a made-for-6-year-olds kind of way. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | Laura Kern

    Periodic bursts of cleverness and eye-popping imagery, further enhanced in the 3-D Imax version, can't disguise that this is just another movie full of jive-talking computer-generated animals with little new to say. Read full review

  • 30
    Austin Chronicle |

    Little more than paint-by-numbers filmmaking, and it fails in the most important charge of any children's movie: to transport its young and impressionable audience to a world where anything is possible, rather than to one where everything's been thought of already. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Peter Hartlaub

    This is the animated children's film equivalent of "Another 48 Hours." Read full review

View more reviews for Open Season on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 5+ Animated animal buddy flick is crude but funny.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this movie is rife with bathroom humor involving toilets, poop, farts, spit, snot, and underwear. Younger kids will laugh at the obvious stuff and won't get the edgier humor aimed at older audiences. That said, some little ones might find the hunting-themed images -- guns, deer strapped to the front of trucks, hunters swarming the woods for fresh meat -- a bit disturbing. On the plus side, the movie might encourage older kids to put themselves in Boog's paws and consider what life is like outside their own neighborhood.
  • Families can talk about the importance of putting yourself in others' shoes. What if you went from a comfortable life -- like Boog's -- to having to fight for survival? Maybe that's a little weighty for kids under 10, but they'll get the message that it's good to nurture friendships and lean on each other through tough times. Families can also discuss the practice of hunting. Why do some people love hunting and others hate it? Why does hunting have to be regulated?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Characters break into a convenience store and binge on junk food; characters laugh at others' misfortunes; lots of bathroom humor involving toilets, butts, farts, spit, snot, underwear, and defecating. On the plus side, the main characters develop self reliance and self respect over the course of the movie, which also has messages about friendship, loyalty, and finding peace in a violent world.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence and scariness: A truck gets blown up with a propane gas tank; running gag about rabbits being abused (tossed about, thrown against windows); a character has acorns fired at him; wild scene involving characters going over a waterfall; slapstick violence throughout.
  • sex false0 Sexy stuff: Double entendres involving sex, flirting.
  • language false0 Language: "Butt," "bummer," "hairless pink pahookey."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Chevy trucks, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, candy items.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Boog is tempted by candy; characters are shown "high" on sugar and coffee ("It's like freedom in a cup!"); some smoking and drinking among characters.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

3.5

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