Had the computer-animated Open Season appeared in a different year, it might be more highly regarded. But in 2006, competing with such witty and innovative CGI features as Over the Hedge, Monster House, and The Ant Bully, it can barely hold its own, since it is derivative of all of them, and of many past movies as well.

Boog, a warm and fuzzy grizzly bear who has been the pet of a forest ranger, is turned loose in the wild so that he can be where he ought to be. If you’ve seen Werner Herzog’s documentary Grizzly Man, you’ll know what a stretch it is for a grizzly to be made sweet. It’s a long trip from teddy to grizzly bear, but this griz is more of a teddy -- he even takes ridicule from the local deer. Part of the conceit of animated-animal films is that we suspend disbelief, but I felt this was going a bit far and wondered what kind of message it sent to children. Yes, you’re ahead of me in thinking of Yogi Bear, but Yogi was not a grizzly -- and Boog, even if he doesn’t look like one, is identified as a grizzly in the script. There are also too many scatological bear-in-the-woods jokes for good taste, though the idea of elevating the commode to the status of porcelain god is somewhat funny.

Set loose in the woods to fend for himself, Boog (voiced by Martin Lawrence) finds that his city attitudes no longer work. He meets Elliot (Ashton Kutcher), a single-antlered mule deer who has escaped from being an ornament on the hood of a pickup truck driven by the archetypal redneck, Shaw (Gary Sinise). Shaw talks to his rifle as if it is his lover and thinks the animals are all revolting against him. This might be funny to adults, but again, I wonder what sort of message it sends to impressionable kids. And I must bring up the rabbits. Throughout Open Season, rabbits are used as weapons -- thrown, tossed, and abused so often that a disclaimer at the end of the movie claims that no rabbits were harmed during its filming. Again, what it the message here? Thumper would be pissed and turn militant.

Boog encounters an international group of animals in the forest. For some reason, in this movie the squirrels are Scots (Billy Connolly, no less), the ducks French, the skunks Puerto Rican. After many missteps, Boog learns the laws of the forest, and much about friendship and loyalty, and ends up uniting the forest residents against a large group of hunters in a grand-finale battle. The hunters are there because, you guessed it, it is "open season."

Open Season will be better remembered for its moments than for its entirety. That final battle is really quite funny: bras are stretched between deer antlers to make up a primeval crossbow, and ducks drop skunks atop hunters in acts of chemical warfare. Earlier, there is the memorable sight of a veritable field of rabbits in sunglasses. The animation is good, and at times outstanding. After Boog eats a "fish cracker" his forest-ranger "mom" has put in his teddy-bear lunchbox, you can see the crumbs in Boog’s fur.

Lawrence and Kutcher are quite good at voicing their roles. Not only does each character emerge as an individual, their chemistry as feuding friends is almost palatable. Casting Sinise, now known to millions as the lead of CSI New York, as the redneck hunter was a stroke of genius, and Sinise sounds as if he had a ball. The other voices are excellent, including the seeming United Nations of beasts living in this particular forest.

Open Season breaks no new ground and throws up a few issues of dubious taste, but it has its moments and is worth a viewing.

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