Watched Open Season last week. Would’ve been worth it if I’d seen it at the dollar theater instead of paying eight bucks for it. Regardless of what I paid, this movie is well-made, the characters are somewhat interesting, and there are several laugh-out-loud moments that make the movie worth seeing. I just wish they had been able to keep up the comic pacing that those gem moments had.

The weaknesses of this movie are the weaknesses of almost every other movie that goes through the studio pipeline: predictability. The plot was so stereotyped that the friend I went with kept calling the plot points before the movie got to them. And I was doing the same thing. This is where the sidekick reveals that he’s really a loser. Here’s the point where the friends break up. Here’s the point where they get back together. Here the hero changes and gains acceptance.

If you go see this one, realize that it doesn’t just rely on a stereotypical plot, but on other stereotypes as well. The hunters in the movie are shown as buffoons and idiots who want to destroy the outdoors. And maybe there are a few of those types around. However, from my experience, hunters are usually care a lot about the environment. My father hunted for sport, but by golly, we ate almost everything he shot, despite the gamey taste, etc, etc.

Despite its flaws, I still enjoyed the movie.

My question is, whatever happened to 2D animation? Filmmakers didn’t address the real problem by killing their 2D animation studios because “2D doesn’t sell any more. 3D is where the big bucks are.” The real problem wasn’t the medium the story was told in—the problem was the story itself.

We’ve reached a point where the quality of 3D animation is largely taken for granted. Gone are the days of poorly-rendered mediocrity from the large studios. But still, Pixar is the only studio doing it right by striking at what a movie is all about—the characters and the story. Wish the other studios would take a page from the Pixar book of story telling.