Open Season

Open Season is a 2006 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation as its debut film. It was directed by Roger Allers and Jill Culton and co-directed by Anthony Stacchi, from a screenplay by Nat Mauldin and the writing team of Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman, and a screen story by Culton and Stacchi, based on an original idea by Steve Moore and John B. Carls. The film stars the voices of Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Gary Sinise, Debra Messing, Billy Connolly, Jon Favreau, Georgia Engel, Jane Krakowski, Gordon Tootoosis, and Patrick Warburton. Its plot follows Boog, a domesticated grizzly bear, who teams up with a one-antlered mule deer named Elliot and other woodland animals to defeat human hunters. Open Season was released to theaters in the United States by Columbia Pictures under Sony Pictures Releasing on September 29, 2006. It has also been released in the IMAX 3D format. Despite receiving mixed reviews from both film critics and audiences, it was a box office success, earning $200.8 million on an $85 million budget. A video game for the film was released on multiple platforms. The film was followed by two direct-to-video sequels and one direct-to-video prequel: Open Season 2 (2008), Open Season 3 (2010), and Open Season: Scared Silly (2015). A 2D animated series Open Season: Call of Nature will be released in 2024. Plot In the small town of Timberline, a grizzly bear named Boog enjoys a pampered life and spends his days as the star attraction of the town's nature show, while at night, he lives in the garage of park ranger Beth, who has raised Boog since he was a cub. One day, hunting fanatic Shaw drives into Timberline with a one-antlered deer named Elliot tied to the hood of his truck. Boog frees Elliot, who becomes convinced that they are friends, and that night, Elliot finds Boog and convinces him to sneak out, and the two end up raiding a convenience store. Eventually, Elliot runs away while Boog is caught by Gordy, the town's sheriff and Beth's best friend, who returns Boog to Beth and tells her that Boog's feral instincts may be emerging and it may be time to release Boog into the wild.