Carl Hiaasen's environmentally minded young people's best-seller about burrowing owls whose Florida home is being turned into a construction site makes its big-screen transition as a blandly generic family film. The plight of the wise old birds of "Hoot" has been dumbed down in the hands of writer-director Wil Shriner, who makes his feature debut here after building a successful career behind the camera helming numerous sitcoms. While co-presenter Walden Media would like to think it has another "Holes" on its hands, the picture, rated PG for "mild bullying" (as opposed to, say, tepid bullying) isn't likely to come close to reaching those $67.3 million heights, though its target audience may give more of a hoot when it lands on DVD shelves.

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