Psycho's Movie Reviews #398: Open Season 3 (2010)

Open Season 3 is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation with animation provided by Reel FX Creative Studios. It is the third instalment in the Open Season film series and a sequel to Open Season 2 (2008). Directed by Cody Cameron, the film theatrically premiered in Russia on October 21, 2010 and was released as a direct-to-video in the United States and Canada on January 25, 2011.[2] The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $7 million worldwide.

When Boog the grizzly bear accidentally switches places with a lookalike circus grizzly named Doug, it is up to Boog’s best friend Elliot the mule deer and the other animals to save him before the circus returns to Russia.

Plot

One spring morning several years after the events of the previous film, Boog awakens after hibernation and plans an annual guys' trip to spend time with his male best friends. Unfortunately, Elliot has distanced himself from Boog since he had started a family with Giselle. They are now the parents of three children: Gisela, Giselita, and Elvis (with Boog now being the honorary uncle). Boog is disappointed that everyone else wants to spend time with their families (especially since he does not have a mate of his own), which makes him go on the guys trip by himself with Dinkleman; however, this soon leads him to a Russian traveling circus called the Maslova Family Circus.

While at the circus, Boog meets Doug, a lazy, self-centred, mean, scruffy grizzly bear who is unable to perform circus tricks and is tired of performing in the circus on the side-lines. He craves recognition as a full-fledged king of the forest, the ruler of the wildlife. Hatching a plan, Doug lies to his best friend Alistair that he won't forget his help and convinces Boog to switch his life in the forest for Doug's place at the circus. Boog accepts the offer, unaware of Doug's scam.

Meanwhile, Boog falls madly in love with Ursa, a female grizzly bear who was born in Russia and can effortlessly walk on a tightrope, juggle, and dance (which Boog finds to be "bearvana"), but has no luck convincing her that he isn't Doug. Ursa dares Boog to prove to her that he isn't Doug by climbing up the high wire. Boog accepts and does so, but to his surprise, Ursa reveals that she knew he wasn't Doug the moment he rode the unicycle, as Doug was incapable of doing so, though it wasn't for nothing: Boog still had to be punished for juggling a dog. When Boog and Ursa begin working together, they obtain much more as a harmonious duet than it might seem at first glance. Meanwhile, Doug arrives at the forest and disguises himself as Boog by pushing his scruffy fur back with mud.

However, Mr. Weenie, a reformed Fifi, Roberto, and various other pets, including a newcomer named Nate, spot Boog on a TV commercial for the circus and Doug treating the animals like slaves. Believing the performances in the commercial are attempts to kill Boog, they escape and try to rescue him, only to be caught by a gas station employee. They escape again, this time using Bob and Bobbie's RV to get to the circus. That night, the wilds arrive at the Maslova Family Circus, where they meet up with Mr. Weenie and the other pets and execute the plan. They want Boog to return home, but he does not want to leave Ursa. Suddenly, Doug arrives, apologizes to Boog for tricking him, and reunites with Alistair, realizing what he had done before he escaped. While Doug performs with Alistair, Elliot tells Boog that he can stay at the circus if he wants to. Torn between his forest friends and Ursa, Boog invites her to live with them in the forest, and Ursa accepts.

The next morning, Ursa begins to enjoy her new life in the forest and ultimately becomes Boog's mate and the honorary aunt of Elliot and Giselle's kids. Finally, Boog, Elliot, and their male friends go on their guys' trip and sing part of Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again." Elsewhere, Mr. Weenie and the pets travel to Devils Tower with Bob and Bobbie as the couple begin searching for aliens, and the circus begins its long journey back to Russia. In the ending credits, Doug and Alistair reveal a slideshow of themselves enjoying their tour around the world as they make their way back home.

Production

The film was animated at Reel FX Creative Studios, which also did animation for Open Season 2 along with Sony Pictures Imageworks. A teaser trailer for the film was released on January 5, 2010, on the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs DVD.

Release/Reception/Box Office

Like the second and fourth film, Open Season 3 was released theatrically in different countries:

• Russia – October 21, 2010

• Kazakhstan – October 21, 2010

• Mexico – October 29, 2010

• Turkey – December 3, 2010

• Lebanon – December 16, 2010

• United Arab Emirates – December 23, 2010

• Greece – February 24, 2011

• Colombia – March 18, 2011

The film was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and UMD Video in the United States on January 25, 2011, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (Under Columbia Pictures)

DVD Verdict gave the film a negative review, saying: "This tiresomely predictable tale exemplifies everything that's wrong about straight-to-DVD animated sequels to big-budget mainstream films: the plot is utterly predictable and rehashes a lot of beats from the original effort, the major voice actors have been replaced by poor substitutes and the quality of the animation has dropped dramatically (most of the visuals are on the level of a video game or one of those cheap CGI Saturday morning TV shows)". R.L. Shaffer of IGN gave the film a slightly positive review saying the animation is fine, and the kids are bound to enjoy it, but Open Season 3 boasts a dull story that feels like it's on autopilot.

Box office $7.5 million

My Review

Apparently, Sony Pictures Animation always becomes incompetent when it comes to making these things. I mean, the first movie was fine, but why there are not one but THREE sequels is beyond me. Open Season 3 is possibly the worst out of all the Open Season films. The entire movie itself was a disaster!

There is barely even a story, but instead, the writers decided to put nearly TEN sub plots, and I can't even tell what the real plot is! As for the animation, how should I put this? It's incredibly lazy, ugly, and unwatchable. They didn't bother to animate that many circus animals, but instead would have just two bears, a llama, and some cats and dogs, (which are just the same ones from the last movie, but are lazily copied and pasted but in a different colour) that's it! The textures are awful, some of the designs are horrible, and the colour scheme is just as entertaining as looking at puke for 80 minutes.

And just like Ice Age, they add WAY too many characters that are either irritating, stupid, or even annoying. Even the old characters are bland! But let's start with the new characters shall we? First off, for some reason, they gave Elliot three children, in which may not contribute anything to the plot, but at least they didn't annoy, or bother me as much as Elliot, which I will cover later. Then there's this Russian circus bear, Doug who has no reason to be in thee film do to how unfunny and stereotypical he is. The llama was like the one from Emperor's New Groove, but with no wit or charm. And the female bear is just there to be the love interest to Boog.

Aside from that, there's the old characters, INCLUDING Elliot, who is the worst character in the movie! He acts like a child, he doesn't shut up, and he doesn't treat his children like he's their father, in fact his kids are much more tolerable and nicer to him, yet he never keeps an eye on them, nor would he actually listen to them when they agree that rabbit fights are boring without Boog. As for Boog, he's just as bland and pointless as the rest of the characters in this abomination!

Although it was less than perfect, I enjoyed the first Open Season. The second was bland but had its moments. Apart from two characters, Roger who I've always liked and is quite fun here and Fifi mainly for Crispin Glover, Open Season 3 is a mess. The animation is mostly sub-par, the background art needed more fluidity and the character designs are blocky. The music has some jaunty moments but overall forgettable. The writing is poor, the jokes are neither clever or witty and the dialogue is a vast majority of the time unfunny. The story is thin, predictable and I think rushed too, and the characters apart from Fifi and Roger are no longer likable and cute. The voice acting is mostly lifeless, with the replacement for Billy Connolly's accent embarrassingly overdone. In conclusion, not recommended at all sadly. 2/10