REVIEWED - OPEN SEASON: WHEN future civilisations plough through the remaining relics of our own time, what conclusions will they draw as regards their ancestors' recreational pursuits? Noticing yellowing articles on reality TV, they may remark on our odd predilection for vicariously living lives less interesting than our own. Discovering landfills stuffed with Dan Brown novels, they should wonder why we ignored the era's genuine conspiracies to speculate on imaginary ones.
But boffins of the future may reserve their most aghast bewilderment for our absurd obsession with using computers to create animals that - most often adopting the demotic of the US inner city - live life to shake their bottoms at popular dance hits. Anthropomorphic computer-animated features have been so thick on the ground these last few years that they have begun to take on the quality of surrounding atmosphere or background noise. Reviewing them is like reviewing air. They are around. They are. Little else can be said.
Open Season is exactly as you would expect it to be. A bear and a deer, both almost as unfamiliar with the great outdoors as were the heroes of Madagascar and The Wild, find themselves transported to a mountain region where, aided by other fauna whose voices you can't quite recognise, they seek to avoid the unwelcome attention of hunters.
The animation is fair but not spectacular. The vocal talent is adequate though not exceptional. The script is functional without offering any surprises.
Uninspiring as it all sounds, there is more to come. Next week, Barnyard, in which cows ride motorbikes, comes our way. Take note, historians of the 28th century.
Donald Clarke
