What's the bad news about Open Season? It's another half-cutesy/half-hyperactive, "talking animal" cartoon. The good news? At least the animated critters don't sing a note.

In a year of animated films featuring  homicidal houses, fractured fairy tales, and farm animals, Open Season arrives to take viewers on a trip to the great outdoors. The story revolves around Boog (voice of Martin Lawrence), a grizzly bear living the good life as the spoiled, domesticated pet of a kindly forest ranger (voice of Debra Messing), his days consisting of watching TV, eating snacks, and performing for kiddies on a unicycle. But Boog's comfortable lifestyle is in for a serious makeover. Why? Because Boog's late-night convenience store raid with one-antlered deer Elliot (voice of Ashton Kutcher) and an ensuing mishap at a nature show convince the ranger that perhaps it's time to release the big ol' bear into the wild once and for all.

Boog, on the other hand, is horrified to realize that he's been torn away from his comfy bed and yummy snacks. He has to fend for himself for the first time in his life. And, he's finding it increasingly difficult to put up with the motormouthed Elliot. But he will have to learn fast, because open season is coming to the woods, and it's going to take all his courage as well as the bravery of the other woodland creatures to put up a good fight against those encroaching hunters.

As far as animated flicks go, Open Season is a bit like A Tale of Two Cities: it's the best of times and the worst of times. On the downside, the story behind the movie offers nothing new. It's the same sort of factory-made premise with a hackneyed moral lesson that could make Aesop roll his eyes with boredom. 

For the most part, Open Season rehashes the same predictable chestnut of a plot in which the flawed main character comes to see the error of his ways with the help of a goofy sidekick who, unlike what the filmmakers would have you believe, really is as annoying as the lead thinks he is. Open Season has no surprises, and watching the film isn't so much a matter of what jokes you'll laugh at or how much you'll feel for the characters as it is a matter of how long before you'll start looking at your watch and wondering how you can bribe your kids into going home early.

However, despite its extremely familiar story and turn of events, there are surprising things to like about Open Season.  Lawrence and Kutcher do their quadrupedal Laurel & Hardy schtick, but lucky for viewers the filmmakers packed the film with a ton of quirky side characters who are a lot more interesting than the featured creatures. Gary Sinise overdoes it a bit as a trigger-happy hunter, but plenty of laughs are to be had with Billy Connolly as the voice of a leader of tough Scottish squirrels, Jon Favreau lends his vocal talents to playing a beaver construction foreman, and I got a kick out of the movie's running gag which involves inflicting all sorts of slapsticky punishment on a group of poor little bunny rabbits, from getting blasted into the air via geysers to serving as Boog's makeshift pillows. The animation looks solid, too. It's like a less-blocky version of the Madagascar animals combined with the wilderness environments of Over the Hedge.

On the feature-length cartoon ladder, Open Season ranks a few rungs below such treats as Hoodwinked and Monster House, but its more amusing elements help it stand above blah efforts like The Ant Bully and Barnyard. In any case, the kiddies will most definitely be entertained by Open Season, and although the experience won't quite be the same for their parents, there's at least some fun material here that grown-ups might enjoy. 

MY RATING: ** 1/2 (out of ****)

(Released by Columbia Pictures and rated "PG" for some rude humor, mild action and brief language.)