NOBODY can accuse Sony Pictures Ani mation of aiming high with its maiden offering, "Open Season" - an ugly, painfully derivative and sleep-inducing talking-animals cartoon laced with potty humor.

Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher vie for the honor of the year's most obnoxious voice performance.

Lawrence plays a domesticated, fearful grizzly bear who is released into the wild - shades of "Madagascar" - by his longtime human keeper (Debra Messing).

Kutcher is a motormouth, supposedly forest-wise deer who tries to help - and delivers an excruciating rendition of "The Teddy Bears' Picnic." (Think Eddie Murphy's Donkey in "Shrek" minus the charm.)

Reams of witless dialogue delivered by the likes of Gary Sinese (as a redneck hunter), Jon Favreau (a beaver) and Billy Connolly (a squirrel) make an excellent case for euthanizing the entire talking-animals genre.