One spring morning, Boog awakes after hibernation and plans an annual guys trip to spend time with his male best friends. Unfortunately, Elliot has distanced himself from Boog since he had started a family with Giselle. They are now the parents of three children: Gisela, Giselita, and Elvis. Boog is disappointed that everyone else wants to spend time with their families, which makes him go on the guys trip by himself with Dinkleman; however, this soon leads him to a Russian traveling circus called the Maslova Family Circus. While in the circus, Boog meets Doug, a lazy, self-centered, mean, scruffy grizzly bear who is tired of performing in the circus on the sidelines. He craves recognition as a full-fledged king of the forest, the ruler of the wildlife. Hatching a plan, Doug lies to his best friend Alistair that he won't forget his help and convinces Boog to switch his life in the forest for Doug's place at the circus. Boog accepts the offer, but the whole thing turns out to be a scam because all Doug really wanted to do was escape from the circus. Meanwhile, Boog falls madly in love with Ursa, a female grizzly bear who was born in Russia and can effortlessly walk on a tightrope, juggle, and dance, but has no luck convincing her that he isn't Doug. Ursa dares Boog to prove to her that he isn't Doug by climbing up the high wire. Boog accepts and climbs up the wire, but to his surprise, Ursa reveals she knew he wasn't Doug the moment he rode the unicycle. When Boog and Ursa begin working together, they obtain much more as a harmonious duet than it might seem at first glance. Meanwhile, Doug arrives at the forest and disguise himself as Boog by pushing his scruffy fur back with mud. However, Gisela and Giselita get suspicious when they notice Doug treating the wilds like slaves, so they report to Serge and Deni and request they find Giselle for help and they do so. Afterwards, when Boog's friends find out about Boog's disappearance when Doug's cover is accidentally exposed, they put aside their differences and plan a rescue mission to save Boog. Gisela comes up with the plan to save Boog and the gang go to the circus to go to rescue him. That night, the wilds arrive at the Maslova Family Circus. They want Boog to return home, but he does not want to leave Ursa. Suddenly, a reformed Doug arrives, apologizes to Boog for tricking him, and reunites with Alistair. While Doug performs the circus acts for the audience, Elliot tells Boog he can stay at the circus if that's what he really wants. Boog, torn between his forest friends and Ursa, invites Ursa to come and live in the forest with them, which she accepts. The next morning, Ursa begins to enjoy her new life in the forest and ultimately becomes Boog's mate along with being the honorary aunt of Elliot and Giselle's kids. Finally, Boog, Elliot, and their male friends go on their guys' trip and sing part of Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again." In the ending credits, Doug and Alistair reveal a slideshow of them enjoying their tour around the world.
Cast
Matthew J. Munn as Boog / Doug
Matthew W. Taylor as Elliot / Deni / Buddy / Ian / Reilly / Additional Voices
Melissa Sturm as Ursa / Giselle / Additional Voices
The film was animated at Reel FX Creative Studios, which also did animation for Open Season 2 along with Sony Pictures Imageworks. A teaser trailer for the sequel was released on January 5, 2010, on the Cloudy with a Chance of MeatballsDVD.
Release
Like the second film and, Open Season 3 was released theatrically in different countries:
gave the film a negative review, saying: "This tiresomely predictable tale exemplifies everything that's wrong about straight-to-DVD animated sequels to big-budget mainstream films: the plot is utterly predictable and rehashes a lot of beats from the original effort, the major voice actors have been replaced by poor substitutes and the quality of the animation has dropped dramatically ".
Sequel
A sequel premiered in theaters in Turkey on December 18, 2015, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States and Canada on March 8, 2016, which draws closer to the original movie and disregards the events and characters from the second and third films.
