Open Season 3 [Blu-Ray]

Cody Cameron

BY Robert BellPublished Jan 25, 2011

Somewhere along the way, animated films started focusing more on adult male technophiles than on children, offering up didactics about parental responsibility, mortal anxiety and the drudgery of the daily grind. This most likely has something to do with the demographic of men working on these films unable to see beyond their own periphery, as well as the dominant, outspoken cultural voice, which similarly has a hard time recognizing or validating anything beyond its limited worldview. Open Season 3 is literally about parental duties interrupting the sacred spectrum of male bonding, delving into some protracted, resultant moping with the occasional joke about animal faeces. Boog, disappointed that Elliot has to look after his children during a proposed "guys' weekend," runs away from his forest abode and switches places with a bear in a circus, striking up flirtations with a Russian female grizzly. It's hard to imagine this mostly humourless romance amusing the kiddies much, but back in the forest, the Boog impersonator covers himself in poop and proceeds to order around the entire Open Season gang, which plays on that whole body-switching, Vice Versa kookiness that was so popular in 1985. Mr. Weenie and the retarded cat also provide some much-needed laughs and physical comedy, spending the film trying to escape from a camper to rescue Boog from the circus. At one point, the cat exclaims, "Meat Stick" and eats a rolled up poster, which is sheer hilarity in my books. I'm just not sure that the intended audience will get much from a film that essentially states, "If your buddies are busy with their wife and kids, go get some trim of your own." I know that was my main concern when I was seven. The Blu-Ray includes an animation progression reel, along with a "Rabbit Splat Mode," which allows the viewer to cover the screen in rabbits while watching the movie. There is also a cannon game, which works much like a rudimentary Jack Nicklaus Golf.
(Sony)

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