Open Season 3 (www.the-usher.com)

"Guy's Trip"

After all his friends pull out of ‘Guy’s Trip’, Boog (Munn) decides to leave Elliot (Taylor) and the rest of the married animals behind and head out on his own. Discovering a traveling Russian Circus on the edge of town, the big friendly grizzly bear meets Alistair the llama (Snyder) and Doug, a bored performing grizzly who looks a lot like Boog. The two decide to swap places for the evening but when Doug does not return the next day, Boog is forced to become part of the circus and learn how to dance with Ursa (Torres). Doug has replaced Boog however but how long can Elliot and the rest of the animals be fooled?

Straight to DVD/Blu-Ray sequels to animated films have become a way of cashing in on a box office animated hit but does it mean that it is the same quality as the original?

Producing animated motion pictures for the silver screen is an expensive business. Hiring big name actors, hundreds of people to bring the characters to life and pushing technology to the extreme to stand out from the crowd can cost one hundred million dollars plus. Once you have a hit however or even one that has made a slight splash at the box office, a sequel is a must but that does not always mean that it heads to the big screen. Replace the big names with sound-a-likes, reduce the quality of the animation and do not tell as big a tale and you have a direct-to-DVD sequel but they always looks a little cheap and ‘Open Season 3’ is no different.

The second straight to DVD sequel sees Boog all on his own after all of his forest friends now have families, even hapless deer and his best friend Elliot. When all of his friends let him down for the ‘Guy’s’ camping trip, he decides to head out on his own only to discover another grizzly bear called Doug, a performing dancing bear in a traveling Russian circus. They decide to swap places for the night but Doug can’t wait to be king of the forest while Boog has to learn how to dance to impress resident dancing bear queen Ursa.

Of course this is a simple story of an identical switch with hilarious consequences, or so you would hope. While there is nothing really wrong with the story, the execution is basic and even the youngest fan will be disappointed. The downgrade in animation does not help also, making it more like a video game animated sequence than a full grown movie. The voice talent do their best to imitate the original cast however and younger fans won’t really notice the difference.

‘Open Season 3’ is a direct-to-DVD sequel too far. With the original movie been fun but not that memorable, you do wonder why Sony Animation keep making more adventures for Elliot and Boog instead of investing in new stories.

Progression Reel
Runaway RV Game

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2011