Psycho's Movie Reviews #397: Open Season 2 (2008)

Open Season 2 is a 2008 American computer-animated comedy film and the sequel to the 2006 film Open Season, produced by Sony Pictures Animation. It was directed by Matthew O'Callaghan, co-directed by Todd Wilderman, and produced by Kirk Bodyfelt and Matthew O'Callaghan. It was released theatrically in other countries starting in South Africa on September 24, 2008, and direct-to-video in the United States on January 27, 2009. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $8.7 million worldwide.

Plot

In the spring, Elliot the deer has grown giant new antlers and is about to marry Giselle. However, Elliot's new antlers are cracked off in an accident, which upsets him. Luckily, his best friend, Boog the bear, and the others manage to cheer Elliot up by having a rabbit fight. After hearing words being spoken by Ian during the wedding ceremony, Elliot begins to have second thoughts. Meanwhile, Mr. Weenie finds a dog biscuit trail that his previous owners left behind and follows it. At the climax of the wedding, Elliot witnesses Mr. Weenie being taken away by his old owners, Bob and Bobbie. Elliot tells an exaggerated story to the other forest animals (made possible by his misinterpretation of Bobbie's excessive affections toward Mr. Weenie) and decides to make a rescue mission to save him. The other animals that go on Elliot's rescue mission are Boog, Giselle, squirrel McSquizzy, Buddy the porcupine, and ducks Serge and Deni.

Meanwhile, the pets of Bob and Bobbie's friends - on their way to Pet Paradiso, a resort for humans and their pets - meet at a rest stop. There is Fifi, a toy poodle and his basset hound companion Roberto, two cats named Stanley and Roger, and two Southern dogs named Rufus and Charlene. Fifi discusses his hatred for wild animals, describing how he claims they got him shocked by a bug zapper. He then tries to maul a nearby rabbit, until he's stopped by his owner. Meanwhile, the wilds find Weenie, much to Elliot's dismay, who does not want to marry Giselle. They try to free him while his owners stop at a gas station. They free him from his chains, but accidentally leave him stuck in the RV along with Buddy. Elliot and Giselle have an argument, and eventually leave Elliot to search for Mr. Weenie himself, while Serge and Deni fly to look for him.

The owners reach the pet camp with Mr. Weenie and Buddy. The other pets meet with Weenie, and Fifi tries to revert Weenie back into his pet state, but Weenie resists. Buddy helps Weenie escape and Buddy tries to free Weenie from his shock collar. During the chase, Fifi gets shocked by the collar and gets the fur on his forehead burned, causing him to lose most of his sanity and vow revenge.

Meanwhile, Serge and Deni return and explain they found Weenie and Buddy at a pet camp, unaware that the two have already escaped. Boog and the others set up camp, and Boog fails to convince Giselle that Elliot is a good person and that they belong together. The wilds realize that they have gone to Pet Paradiso. Weenie and Buddy find Elliot in the woods and convince him to go to Pet Paradiso to save his friends.

The wilds and try to sneak into Pet Paradiso by disguising themselves as pets, with Giselle as a Dalmatian and McSquizzy as a chihuahua. Boog attempts to sneak in as a cat, but proves to be too large to pass off as one. He then changes his disguise to a sheepdog. After Elliot, Mr. Weenie, and Buddy meet up with Boog, Elliot also disguises himself as Boog's human owner and they sneak in. Giselle and McSquizzy walk around Pet Paradiso looking for Mr. Weenie, but their cover is blown and are captured by Fifi and the other pets and taken to their secret lair beneath the resort's waterslide. Elliot, Buddy and Mr. Weenie attempt to go inside to save Giselle and McSquizzy, but Mr. Weenie, missing being a pet again, goes to play on the waterslide, leaving the rest except Boog to be captured by Fifi, while Boog tries to catch Mr. Weenie.

Fifi tries to kill them all with a pile of shock collars. As Boog tries to stop Mr. Weenie from going down the waterslide, his cover is blown and security attempts to tranquilize him. Before Fifi shocks the wilds into submission, Elliot tries to profess his love for Giselle, only to be berated by her for leaving her at the altar. As Fifi is about to kill them, Boog enters the lair via the water slide and the liquid flushes everyone out.

A battle between the wilds and pets ensues, with the Pet Paradiso security focused on tranquilizing the wilds. While Boog tricks security into tranquilizing themselves, Elliot saves Giselle, accidentally placing all the shock collars on himself. He wrestles Fifi in the pool for the shock collar remote; Fifi eventually grabs the remote and activates the collars, only to realize that Elliot has attached the collars to him. Fifi survives the electrocution but loses all his fur, humiliating him further. The pets and the wilds settle their differences and decide to become friends. Mr. Weenie, wanting to be a pet again, decides to join the pets and returns to his owners in rejoice. Returning to the woods, Elliot finally professes his true feelings for Giselle, and they get married.

Production

Sony announced a sequel to Open Season in September 2007. Although the original grossed $85.1 million in the United States and $115.7 million in foreign countries, Sony felt the film performed much better on DVD, thus, making a direct-to-DVD sequel. Sony Pictures Digital president said that "the studio will keep Open Season 2's costs low by utilizing Imageworks' satellite facilities in India and New Mexico".

Release/Reception/Box Office

Although Open Season 2 was released direct-to-video in the United States and the United Kingdom, it was released theatrically in some countries. In South Africa on its opening day, the film grossed $84,244 from 26 screens with an $2,081 average. In Russia, it opened with $2,835,600 from 360 screens with a $7,877 average. In Poland, it opened with $194,339 from 75 screens with an $2,591 average. In total, the film grossed $8,716,950.

Critic at DVD Verdict claimed, "Open Season 2 is no classic (neither was the original), but it's a competent check-your-brain-at-the-door comedy for children of all ages. The animation and storytelling may not stack up against Pixar's (whose does?), but the flick offers something that Pixar movies generally don't: old cartoon slapstick and sight gags in the mold of Bugs Bunny".

Box office $8.7 million

My Review

Firstly, I've seen the first Open Season and enjoyed it. So when sitting down for the second part, there were mediocre hopes. The movie started off O.K. and the initial jokes would maybe bring a smile or two. But as the story moved forward, the dialogs got wittier and wittier. So much, that I actually paused the movie in between 2-3 times and had to take a minute to end my laughter. The Owl-like character, whose name evade my memory now, had the best lines put out for him.

The art direction is of a medium quality- not very good and not very bad. Also missing at times, were the facial expressions, which could very well be seen in Disney movies. Although Disney movies go over the top with the sense of caring and motions in between characters, which sometimes makes me puke, Open Season 2 keeps it at a proper place by not going overboard with it. It has a good pace, but too much for little kids to keep up at times. So maybe, I guess the movie makers missed the point in between as to which age group are they actually targeting.

The plot revolves around Mr Weenie, my favourite character from the first movie, being captured by his old owners, and our forest gang bringing him back to the woods. Meanwhile, there's an evil leader of the pets Fifi (Believe it or not is Male (AND IS VOICED BY CRISPIN GLOVER?!?!?! - He is by far the best character in the film... and not just because he's the villain)) who hates wild animals and plans revenge on them. He's so insane, that it makes Shaw from the the first movie seem normal by comparison to Fifi.

As for the original characters who came back, I noticed Gisele received an upgrade in her personality, she became smart and came up with plans to save Weenie and tried to support her Future husband Elliot. In the first one, she was just a love interest without a personality. Boog is still a nice bear who's Elliot's best friend and supporter. He's ok.

But what happened to Elliot in this? He acts so differently! Not only it's because he's more selfish and only cares about himself and Weenie, but his voice actor changed too. From funny Ashton Kutcher to annoying Joel McHale. His performance was awful, especially when compared to it's predecessor, what's even worse, he participates in the conclusion singing a good song "Close to you" which he can't sing well. Why couldn't Sony bring back Kutcher? He was perfect for Elliot, yet Sony decided to replace him for no reason. Most likely because of the downgrade in budget.

But enough of Elliot, let's talk about the humour. It was somehow more hilarious than the first. I laughed even more than before.

But it's missing Beth (Boog's owner), Woohoo chocolate bars (for some reason, they became Smoores and have marshmallows), and it just feels different. My recommendation is to watch only the first movie and if you enjoy it enough, you can proceed to Open season 2, but it's your average DVD sequel, so expect nothing spectacular or awesome. 6.3/10

{Apart from Joel McHale's abysmal singing, the ending is pretty funny}

{I still can't believe CRISPIN GLOVER is in this movie... it's fine though, because he's the best damn character in this film - that's probably where most of the budget went to, paying him!}