OPEN SEASON
A bright, hilarious animal adventure with heart and spectacular animation.
Should You Watch It?
OPEN SEASON is an animated comedy with enough visual wonder and comic energy to delight the whole family. The animation is wonderful, the characters are lively and appealing, and the voice cast does superb work. In IMAX 3-D, the images are especially spectacular.
The movie also gives families something worthwhile to discuss. It values friendship, rebukes lying, and suggests that wild animals belong in the natural setting God intended for them. The tradeoff is some toilet humor, strong slapstick violence, and scary moments involving a fanatical hunter.
If your children are older and can handle those elements, this is a joyful, well-made choice. For very young or easily frightened children, choose something gentler.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESBoog is a genial grizzly bear who enjoys human comforts in a private garage, thanks to Beth, the kindhearted forest ranger who rescued him as a cub. He is also the star of Beth’s nature show in the peaceful town of Timberline.
Everything changes when Elliot, a fast-talking mule deer missing an antler, enters Boog’s life. After Elliot gets Boog into trouble, Beth relocates them to the deep forest, where their misadventures put the animals above the falls in danger from human hunters.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means OPEN SEASON is an excellent family entertainment. It is clever, very funny, lively, and appealing, with marvelous animation that looks spectacular in 3-D on a large IMAX screen.
The voice cast, led by Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Debra Messing, and Gary Sinise, does a superb job. Billy Connolly is brilliant as the Scottish-sounding leader of a pack of angry squirrels, while ducks, beavers, skunks, rabbits, and other side characters add to the comic mayhem.
The Worldview
OPEN SEASON strongly values friendship and openly rebukes lying. Boog and Elliot do not always get along, but they learn that true friends must be honest with one another and work together to accomplish positive things.
The film also affirms a natural order in which wild animals belong in the forest and wilderness rather than living as domesticated pets. Boog and Beth both have to learn this lesson. The movie also includes light environmentalist content about hunting, with the most fanatical hunter presented as the story’s one real villain.
That idea aligns with the biblical view that God made the world and its creatures with order and purpose. The movie’s longing for the right home points toward the Creator’s wisdom: “O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures” (Psalm 104:24).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Strong moral worldview extolling the value of friendship, rebuking lying at one point and validating the view that it is natural for wild animals to live in the forest and wilderness where they belong and not as domesticated pets, plus some light environmentalist content about hunting where the most fanatical hunter is the story's one real villain, and one animal starts to sing "Amazing Grace" at one point; three very light obscenities such as the word "butt" and animated grizzly bear dismisses a beaver's "dang dam," one "My God" light profanity, bear vomits junk food, jokes about bear using human toilet, double entendre joke about squirrels and their nuts, and jokes about beer and mule deer going to the bathroom in the woods; lots of light slapstick violence and some strong slapstick violence, such as truck knocks mule deer unconscious, mule deer throws rabbits against garage window to get grizzly bear's attention, mule deer and bear crash into convenience store and gorge themselves, mule deer and bear fight and struggle behind stage curtain but audience in front of curtain see shadows that suggest bear is mauling and disemboweling deer, tranquilizer darts hit bear and mule deer, large flood sweeps animals away, pratfalls, large beaver dam breaks, explosions, squirrels whack other animals with thrown nuts, squirrels whack hunters with thrown nuts, animals hit hunters, animals fire large forks with flaming marshmallows at hunters, and hunters point guns at animals; no sex; no nudity; no alcohol use, but bear acts drunk when he gets a sugar high after gorging himself; no smoking; and, some miscellaneous immorality such as lying rebuked, vandalism and stealing.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Boog and Elliot learn that friendship requires honesty and cooperation. Why can lying damage a friendship, and what does it take to rebuild trust?
Proverbs 12:22 · Ephesians 4:25Boog must learn where a wild animal truly belongs. What responsibilities do people have toward the animals and world God created?
Genesis 1:26–28 · Psalm 24:1The story presents the fanatical hunter as a villain. When can a good activity become sinful through obsession or cruelty?
1 Corinthians 10:31 · Proverbs 12:10One animal begins singing “Amazing Grace.” What does grace mean, and why do people need it?
Ephesians 2:8–9 · Titus 2:11The Final Word
OPEN SEASON is bright, funny, clever, and beautifully animated, with positive lessons about friendship, honesty, and the natural order of creation. Its off-color humor, strong slapstick violence, and scary moments call for parental discernment with younger children. For older children and adults, it is WORTH THE TRIP — OLDER CHILDREN AND UP.
