"Open Season" a film soon to be at a theater near you starring Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher is about a Bear and Mule deer who enlist an army of forest animals in a battle against hunters who are portrayed as inbred, redneck, mullet-haired drunks. Is the image we want our children and others to have of hunters? Hollywood has historically been to the left and opposed to hunting. This film is just another move on their part to portray hunters as heels and animals as humanized heroes. Do you know what your kids are watching?

I know! hollywood is full of vegie eating liberals and idiots. Bambi came out when I was a youngster and I watched it a million times. today I shoot bambi's dad and mom so maybe there is still hope  

Thing is when we were kids we weren't pummeled with images that made hunters look like fools on television as much also. When was the last time on a mainstream TV show that you saw a hunter portrayed in a good light or even in a movie? Newspaper? Magazine?

Some links for those who think it is just nothing.

http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews.../05/33277.html

http://www.hsus.org/about_us/hsus_hollywood_office/

The ARA's have a huge Hollywood presence

I'm glad this was posted because I have the same concerns. Open Season, Bambi, and Brother Bear are so anti hunting that it sickens me. It is sad that the human race is pulling away from the natural instinct that God has given us: the ability to hunt.
It's o.k. for these Hollywood Nazi's to eat something that was killed by another person whom they have never seen. Or eat an animal that was penned up with hundreds of others and walking through knee deep manure.Yummy! Worse yet are those PETA nuts who are vegatarians and think the animals are their friends. Now in saying that I have the utmost respect for all animals, but I will not share my picnic basket with Yogi!
Without hunting we would have an overpopulation of starving animals. Hollywood would rather a child watch something like Broke Back Mountain, instead of partaking in what God intended us to do. Why the heck do you think he gave us those two pointy canines. Certainly not for cleaning the crud from beneath our fingernails!

It is sad, but true, that for those people who have been, "sitting on the fence" on hunting, will eventually be convinced that the images the media presents as authentic, will be the ones that prevail.  I think we as a community must be educators and role models, everyday!  We may be the ONLY book on conservation that some people will ever read.
               PEACE,
                 Frank

It seems that hunters are one of a few groups of people that there is  open season on in Hollywood. None of the many librals across our country even raise an eyebrow when we are portrayed as fools and drunken murderers of defenceless animals. Please excuse me if i sound racist with the following remarks, i assure I'm not I'm just stating what i believe to be fact. If a movie were made portraying blacks as dumb mindless drones or worse all hell would break lose including riots and looting. I could go on and on about gays and any other races religion or group of people. I hope that someday just such a movie is made i want to see the reaction then. The problem is that a movie with drunken hunters etc. will be hyped up even if it stinks. And many people will see it and belive it.

On the HSUS link you provided I went to the story about Genesis Award winners....and saw, guess who? PRINCE

Prince is an animal rights activist.
Hmmmm

Last week on the Outdoor Channel I saw four separate advertisements for a collection of Prince's greatest hits...on the freakin' OUTDOOR CHANNEL. Now that's funny right there!

I agree, it is sickening. Popular media is killing hunting faster than legislation. The first is a flash flood, the second is a glacier. Some old timers (which is scary, because it's only the old timers) on a blackpowder board I read say that a large reason they ever started hunting, especially with blackpowder, is because of movies and tv shows about Davey Crockett or mountainmen in general.

These days, is it that pro-hunting popular shows just don't sell? Can mountainmen be popular again? At least with laws we can lobby and sue, etc. How do we influence the media?

Don't spend your dollars on films by studios or with actors who support anti-hunting. Buy newspapers that are objective, watch news and television programs that are supportive of our lifestyle. Without $$$ these kind of folks go away. An awards program developed by hunters that recognize those who work to further our cause would be a big boon also. A lot of these Hollywood types do what they do for publicity and popularity, so they can sell more tickets.

I lived for many years with a woman who was totally against Hunting. She even mentioned joining PETA once. Those people are Crazy. I was a hunter before I was with her. And I am a Hunter now.

   I can't count the amount of times I have been accused "You Kill Bambi". All I tell them is "Bambi is a fictional Disney Character". I have even watched Bambi with my daughter and my niece and explained to them all the discrepencies in the movie.

    I agree with promoting Programs the show Hunting for what it is. A good clean way of life that teaches about nature and promotes good family values. A family that Hunts together, Stays Together. But where do you draw the line with the Bean Counters between proper family values and Crap like World Hunt. IMHO.. turn off the TV and take your kids outdoors... show them the REAL wilderness... Not some Movie or "Reality TV"

I saw the promo for this movie and thought "another Disney movie that make hunters look like fools". When I am told that "I kill Bambi" I always say yes I do because Bambi tastes good and was never shot full of growth hormone !!!  LOL

John III

I will let my girls watch it, I watched GI JOE when I was growing up every morning before school and the "Experts" said that this would make me violent. I am willing to bet you anything in the world if you ask my girls after they watch this film, they will still tell you that they want to hunt with there Daddy when I are big enough(kids do not speak to well english sometimes)And besides, Martin Lawerance as a bear, that has to be funny. And thanks for moving this topic while I was still typing Azstickman.

Chris what you need to realize is that your children are exposed to hunting and it's values, 95% of the children out there aren't. What they see on TV and in movies is what they will base their "reality" of hunting on. These movies breed anti's from nonhunters, plain and simple. If we watch/buy/rent them, we help finance the creation of them.

AS long as they are funny, heck I do not care. There are more hunters now than there has ever been, and more deer than there has ever been, a few cartoon movies is not going to move the country to stop hunting. I am a realist and I am sure that this movies is made as Fiction movie that is funny. You can read things that are going to say they are against hunting, and you will also probably find article that some of the same people are for hunting it is just whos stuff you read.

Hunter numbers, especially population percentage wise, have been dropping steadily for the last 20 years. 2004 had .4% gain in license sales nationally, first gain in a decade.

Chris K,

I'm sorry but you haven't thought this through very well if your posts reflect your true attitude.

I do not know why you would say that, numbers in my state and neighboring states are on the incline. Movie companies are just like any big corps. they have there money everywhere. You are going to give money to the anti's and the pro hunters, the keep it 50-50 so they can be on both sides. So if it is funny which it looks very funny and my girls and wife want to watch this fiction cartoon, I would not have any problem going and watching it.

I remember seeing a promo for it,quite some time ago,On peta's website.

This year Indiana sold 303,217 licenses compared to 291,876 in 1988. Population was 5,544,159 then 6,215,296 now. License sales have increased 4% while population has increased 11%. But the license sales include out of state license buyers also.