Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Boog, Elliot and all their forest friends return with an all-new adventure that is their fastest and furriest yet - this time in a big top circus! When Boog's buddies can't make their annual guys-only getaway, he decides to take a trip by himself. Stumbling across a visiting circus, Boog switches places with a look-alike circus grizzly and takes over his part in the act. But when the circus decides to go back to Russia, it's a race against time for Elliot, McSquizzy, Mr. Weenie and the gang to rescue Boog before it's too late.

This is another straight to video feature from the Open Season franchise. While still created by Sony Pictures Animation, it lacks the refinement and eye-popping quality of their feature film work. Still, this is a very colorful animated production with plenty of pop and decent detail. Backgrounds can look a bit flat though and the overall dimensionality falls short of the better CG animated titles out there. I would put this more in line with the better-produced TV animation. The soundtrack is offered in lossless audio but the overall experience is a tad lacking. Dialogue sounds good enough but overall dynamics are lacking and the sound design comes off a bit cookie cutter. Given that this is a straight to video release, the presentation overall is about what I expected and shouldn’t come off as a surprise to anyone.

Sony has included a DVD copy of the film along with some fun games for the kids in the household. You also get a rabbit splat mode that lets you throw rabbits at the screen with the remote during playback. Some trailers are also included.

At just over an hour in length this one feels more like a TV show than a feature. The animation falls short of the better Sony Animation titles, but still gets the job done. The story has some decent moral lessons for the little ones and manages to spark a laugh or two from the grown ups.