When I first heard about The Nut Job, I stayed away from the cinema and waited for TV. Now that I found it playing on Movie Central, I decided to give it a watch. I thought this movie was going to be really bad. Somewhere along the lines of Free Birds. But I was wrong. Even though the jokes can be lame, there are like 15 nut puns and the main character is unlikable at first, the movie really is decent. I would even watch it again.
So Surly is this Squirrel. He is a narcissist who works with his partner buddy. After an accident that blows up the whole Oak Tree he is banished from the park. Now with nowhere to go, he finds a nut store in which at first he has to himself but then works with Andie and the others to bring back the nuts to the park. But they are oblivious to another Story line where burglars are attempting to rob a bank from the underground.
A bit of history first. The Nut Job is based on animator Peter Lepeniotis' debut short film Surly Squirrel and was an animator for Disney and Pixar at one point. This is also the most expensive animated film co produced in South Korea which I found to be very surprising.
Now to my thoughts. The animation is brilliantly done and the detail of the characters are amazing and it is a pretty fast paced movie also which helps the animation do much zany things that work unlike other animated films.
The Character of Surly (Will Arnett) starts out unlikable and I was like really? This is who we are routing for? But after watching more of the movie, I felt sympathy for him which is odd but daring for a movie to do when we start with such a hack. Brendan Fraser's Grayson is possibly the funniest thing in the movie. He is this flamboyant Grey squirrel who gets all the best lines even if it only has him screaming in fear of rats. Jeff Dunham is a mole named... Mole and does a great job at hiding his actual voice and having the character have a different voice.
But the jokes. If you didn't think the fart and burp jokes and nut puns weren't funny the first time. Don't worry, they slam them in your face 15 times more. You can't just have fart and burping without context. Seriously there has got to be a reason for it or we don't get it! Either way the jokes suck or should I say are a kick to the......... Nuts?
So that's really all I have to say. It made 98 million dollars worldwide, it was a sleeper hit, the animation is wonderful and it kind of gets better. Its nothing that's really harmful for kids cause it has some good morals about sharing and being a team and what not. So the kids will enjoy it, but adults might have a hard time watching this because of humor. I would actually see the next one.
64/100 C+
So Surly is this Squirrel. He is a narcissist who works with his partner buddy. After an accident that blows up the whole Oak Tree he is banished from the park. Now with nowhere to go, he finds a nut store in which at first he has to himself but then works with Andie and the others to bring back the nuts to the park. But they are oblivious to another Story line where burglars are attempting to rob a bank from the underground.
A bit of history first. The Nut Job is based on animator Peter Lepeniotis' debut short film Surly Squirrel and was an animator for Disney and Pixar at one point. This is also the most expensive animated film co produced in South Korea which I found to be very surprising.
Now to my thoughts. The animation is brilliantly done and the detail of the characters are amazing and it is a pretty fast paced movie also which helps the animation do much zany things that work unlike other animated films.
The Character of Surly (Will Arnett) starts out unlikable and I was like really? This is who we are routing for? But after watching more of the movie, I felt sympathy for him which is odd but daring for a movie to do when we start with such a hack. Brendan Fraser's Grayson is possibly the funniest thing in the movie. He is this flamboyant Grey squirrel who gets all the best lines even if it only has him screaming in fear of rats. Jeff Dunham is a mole named... Mole and does a great job at hiding his actual voice and having the character have a different voice.
But the jokes. If you didn't think the fart and burp jokes and nut puns weren't funny the first time. Don't worry, they slam them in your face 15 times more. You can't just have fart and burping without context. Seriously there has got to be a reason for it or we don't get it! Either way the jokes suck or should I say are a kick to the......... Nuts?
So that's really all I have to say. It made 98 million dollars worldwide, it was a sleeper hit, the animation is wonderful and it kind of gets better. Its nothing that's really harmful for kids cause it has some good morals about sharing and being a team and what not. So the kids will enjoy it, but adults might have a hard time watching this because of humor. I would actually see the next one.
64/100 C+