It's official: Martin Lawrence is no funnier voicing an animated character than he is playing a live-action one.

In "Open Season," Lawrence voices Boog the bear, a 900-pound grizzly who as a cub was adopted by a kindhearted park ranger named Beth (Debra Messing). When Boog crosses paths with an errant mule deer named Elliot (Ashton Kutcher), however, his cushy lifestyle ends, and he is dropped back into the wild, three days before hunting season starts.

With a slick visual style similar to "Monster House" (which came from the same studio), "Open Season" trots out tropes that recent animated classics have done with more wit and smarts. If Boog were painted green and his ears were pulled out, when he's hiking through a field with Elliot, the two could easily be mistaken for Shrek and Donkey.

Though "Open Season" isn't as funny as that earlier film (the humor can mostly be categorized under "poop and poop-related subjects"), neither is it entirely objectionable -- except to hunters, who haven't been this maligned since "The Iron Giant." Favorite line: "Pets are double agents. The minute you turn your back, they'll shiv ya." And, yes, alterna-fans, that's Paul Westerberg providing the lugubrious incidental songs.

-- Ann Hornaday (Sep. 29, 2006)

Contains rude humor, mild action and brief mild profanity.