I've seen a lot of the reviews, and many of the negative ones seem to be negative primarily for reasons that I find to be superficial. I'll mention two of the biggest ones to explain what I mean. First is the one you just mentioned....that it's "another talking animal" movie. This is most easily addressed by simply saying that I've never seen a review complaining about "another talking human drama", or "another cowboy movie", etc. A film's quality has very little to do with things like what this complaint says.
Another complaint I've seen with some frequency is that it's "just another movie with poop humor". I'll say it straight up....we have a couple poop jokes. But viewed in context of the film and the characters, reviewers who complain about it have missed the fact that our poop jokes actually serve important story and character points. Boog is a bear who's grown up in a domestic setting, with all the comforts of home that we know. Suddenly, he ends up in a completely foreign environment when he's relocated to the wilderness. If you were suddenly thrust into that environment, what would some of your biggest concerns be? What to eat, what might eat you, and where to go to the bathroom. Having gone camping in the rainforests of Thailand, I know those were concerns I've had to deal with before, and they're very realistic. So in Open Season, Boog has to go poop and can't manage it because he's so out of his element, while Elliot is so
in his element that he doesn't even realize when he's doing it. Informative and fun at the same time.
So overall, it seems to me that we're largely suffering from the fact that we're like the 12th animated film to come out this year. Not much that can be done about that. Personally, I'm proud of this film and think it's fun to watch....and I'll admit when a film I work on is a stinker. Hell, I worked on The King and I and Quest For Camelot....we all knew those sucked while we were working on them, but they paid the bills. So as always, I'd say go decide for yourself. I totally understand the subjective tastes that will lead people to like or dislike it, but don't skip it just because it's "another talking animal film with poop jokes" or some such nonsense.