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Yet another CGI-animated creature feature,
Open Season has a leg up with likeable characters and an expressive animation style comparable to what we expect from a hand-drawn film. Martin Lawrence is the voice of Boog, a domesticated grizzly who lives with a park ranger and stars in an outdoor stage show for kids. When he reluctantly becomes the buddy of mule deer Elliott, voiced by Ashton Kutcher, Boog gets into trouble and accelerates his keeper's long-delayed plan to return him to the wild. Will Boog and Elliott survive hunting season? Lawrence brings equal aplomb to smooth charm and antic frustration, and Kutcher's jangly energy befits Elliott, the Donkey to Lawrence's Shrek. The problem is that
Open Season's few funny bits stand out rather glaringly against the broader impression of mild amusement and a poorly developed plot.
