Parents' Guide to Open Season

Parents need to know that Open Season is a 2006 animated movie in which a tamed bear who ends up in the wild finds his true place. This movie is rife with bathroom humor involving toilets, poop, farts, spit, snot, and underwear. Younger kids will laugh at the obvious stuff and won't get the edgier humor aimed at older audiences. Plays on words such as "nuts," "Mr. Happy," and "Mr. Weenee" are abundant. Without the benefit of subtitles, it sounds to some as if a squirrel with a thick Scottish accent is saying "f--k" when he's actually saying "bucktoothed." Much of the humor is also rooted in stereotypes of Scottish men and Latinas, as well as groups like hunters and hippies. Some little ones might find the hunting-themed images -- guns, deer strapped to the front of trucks, hunters swarming the woods for fresh meat -- a bit disturbing. There's cartoonish violence throughout. Animals do battle with acorns, porcupine quills, skunk spray, etc. A hunter in a truck tries to run over a deer he had kept strapped to his hood. This hunter is often shown shooting at the characters. A truck gets blown up with a propane gas tank; running gag about rabbits being abused (tossed about, thrown against windows). Also, a bear is shown behaving as if drunk after consuming too much sugar; he stumbles around and slurs his speech and acts as if he's suffering a painful hangover the next day. On the plus side, the movie might encourage older kids to put themselves in Boog's paws and consider what life is like outside their own neighborhood.

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