The Nut Job

Plot synopsis:
Set in the fictional town of Oakton, year 1959, a group of animals, led by a Raccoon, store food for winter in a giant tree in the park. Among these animals is a selfish purple squirrel named Surly, whose thieving reputation has made him a pariah. His only friend is his rat partner Buddy. Surley's attempt to rob a peanut cart goes haywire when it is impeded by one of Raccoon's helpers, a compassionate orange squirrel named Andie and the 'park hero', a grey squirrel named Grayson whose heroic antics prove to be incompetent. After Andie unsuccessfully tries to talk Surly into being more selfless, Surly tries to get a bag of nuts while the owner gets distracted by a bratty girl scout customer and a police officer - but this heist also gets invaded by the pet pug of the owner of the cart named Precious. After fending off Precious by having her bite the pipe of a liquid nitrogen tank, Surly and Buddy escape with the cart and Andie manages to guide it to the park. Surly threatens Andie and Grayson with a torch, unwilling to share the food, but accidentally causes it to ricochet across the park. Although the animals (except for Grayson) get off safely, the cart is sent into the tree, where it explodes-- along with the tree and the animals' food supply. When Surly is identified as the culprit, Raccoon banishes Surley from the park, forcing the squirrel to survive in the city.Although Buddy insists on being with Surly, Surly insists that Buddy leave him. After escaping from wild street rats, Surly and Buddy find a nut store and attempt to rob it to feed themselves. After entering the store, they discover that it's a criminal hideout, used by the cart owner, his associate, their mob boss King who has recently gotten out of jail, and fellow felon, Fingers. Raccoon sends Andie and Grayson to find food only for them to get separated upon Grayson fighting a rat. Precious also serves as the guard dog there. King plans to rob the Oaken Bank and replace the cash with nuts. Surley and Buddy see that the only way to get to the nuts and to avoid Precious is with a dog whistle one of the crooks has. The two of them are thrown out by Fingers since he can hear it. While trying to find the whistle, Surly crosses paths with Andie who gets the whistle and threatens to dispose of it if Surly doesn't share the food he's going to take. Reluctantly, Surly accepts and unwittingly befriends Precious after threatening her with the whistle. Andie informs the park of the plan and, although they have a lack of faith in Surly, they agree to go along with it. Andie gets help from the Bruisers, a family of Groundhogs consisting of Jimmy, Johnny, and Jamie. Also with them is Raccoon's mole henchman.When the first attempt to rob the store fails, Surly eventually learns from Andie that Raccoon planned on double crossing him and Surley leaves after an argument. Back at the park, Raccoon's true colors are revealed, a power hungry con artist who keeps food from the animals to have his leadership kept and only Mole and his Cardinal assistant know about it. He sends out Mole to sabotage the the next attempt at robbing the store by flooding the tunnels the Bruisers have dug, but Surly (after meeting up with Grayson) finds out and saves the passed out Bruisers. Precious catches Mole and he reveals Raccoon's intentions. He attempts to warn the others, but they don't believe him and after tensions rise, they part ways (with Buddy joining the animals after Surly hurts his feelings). Surly is captured by the criminals, but is let out by King's girlfriend Lana whose upset to find out that her beau is making another heist and leaves with Precious. After Surly tries to leave to with his share, he is captured by the street rats who are revealed to be working for Raccoon. After Raccoon reveals that his plan involves hurting his friends, Surly manages to escape and heads down to the store's basement to save them. He tells to Grayson to get the team to safety distracts King long enough for his friends to escape with food for King's heist. The animals (minus Grayson) meet up with Raccoon, who lies about Surly committing treachery.Raccoon eventually locks them up in a get away van used by the robbers. Surly and Grayson use pigeons to catch up and save the others. After defeating the Cardinal, the robbers find out that King double crossed them by filling up their truck with nuts instead of money. After Grayson and Surly open the door to release their friends, Raccoon appears and tries to get the others to throw Surly off, but a redeemed Mole reveals that Raccoon is the true traitor and the animals turn on him. After the animals evacuate the truck (minus Raccoon and Andie), the get away cars head down to a bridge where the police are waiting to detain the criminals. King and Fingers try to use dynamite to blow the police out, but the truck hangs over the bridge. Surly gets Andie off the truck as the dynamite goes off inside the truck and as it (along King and Raccoon, who are still inside it) falls down into the river, but he eventually falls down into it himself. Surly makes it to a log, but Raccoon reveals to have survived the explosion (along with King). Raccoon tries to kill Surly, but the nuts make weight that begins to break the log. The animals arrive to rescue them, but Raccoon won't give up. So Surley, deciding to be selfless in order to protect his friends, sacrifices himself by letting go of the log and going over the waterfall, killing Raccoon and Surly apparently. The animals, now seeing the good side of Surly, mourn him in honor of the most selfless act he committed in years.The food makes its way into the park, where the animals gather around in joy for their food troubles are over. King is arrested as Lana appears to end their relationship. Andie and Buddy are still mourning over Surly and when Precious finds out what happened to her friend, she eventually finds Surly's apparent dead body near the river. She has Buddy come and look at it. Doleful to see his best friend gone, Buddy says his first 2 words (best friend). Surly reveals that he was actually unconscious and hugs Buddy and Precious licks Surly's face (which she wanted to do since she got involved in Surley's heist) and leaves to Lana. Finding that Surly is alright, Andie embraces him and tries to get him to come to the other animals so he can tell of his heroism, but Surly, feeling as though it was the other animals that were the true heroes, refuses, but gains a willingness to work with others. He goes along to the city, possibly to pull off another caper, with Buddy joining him.During the credits, the animals dance with PSY as he performs "Gangnam Style."

Tags: comedy

Review:
So kudos to the people in charge of making this look the way it does.The story itself has promise: A nut heist that runs concurrently with a bank heist, the squirrel storyline paralleling the human one.
The plot centers around an independent squirrel who, after being banished form his park, looks to earn back the trust of the animals by organizing an heist, hence securing the food supply (nuts) for the winter.
Usually I like humor in an animated movie, yet I still crave a good story and interesting characters.
The animation was good, but otherwise, the movie was chaotic at best.The story line was horrible.There are two main squirrels, and they are animated so similar, you get confused what's happening between them.You can't even figure out the purpose of one squirrel.Kids movies usually have at least a few "Awww" moments.This didn't have anything.Should have jumped theaters and watched Frozen again.This is my first review I've left on here.I had to log on just to let people know how bad it was..
It is really good and I think you would like it too.This movie is all about a squirrel named Surly who, at the beginning, fends for himself and only himself (with his friend Buddy) until his actions contribute to the burning of the large tree where all the squirrels live, along with what little food they have left.
They run into a lot of obstacles such as mouse traps, rats, guns and people.The main characters in the movie are Surly (Will Arnett), King (Stephen Lang), Grayson (Brendan Fraser), Raccoon (Liam Neeson), Andie (Katherine Heigl) and Precious (Maya Rudolph).
All I say is if you're allergic to the latter, bring an EpiPen.Much like last year's animated effort Free Birds, The Nut Job is a third rate endeavor combining the ingredients of bright, vibrant, but unremarkable animation, a premise that exhausts itself despite running at only seventy-seven minutes, an unlikable lead character, charmless humor, and a heavily-emphasized but oh-so tireless moral.
Yet even with this drawback, Surly still wants to pursue the nut heist in order to obtain enough before Raccoon the Raccoon (Liam Neeson) interferes with his plans.The paradox of The Nut Job is despite the premise's main focus being a heist, something adults would likely be invested in, the film is a kids movie and, with its inclusion of childish humor, will likely please nobody.
With that in mind, I'd like to see if somebody who viewed The Nut Job and claimed it left a lasting impact on them.Now, make no mistake, I'm not saying animated films need to have an impact to be good.
But in a world where Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks have effectively raised the animated filmmaking bar several considerable notches, why settle for a film like Free Birds or The Nut Job?
It seems for every great animated film we get, like The LEGO Movie or Monsters University, we have to sit through about four awful ones just to even the score.The Nut Job, in summation, feels like several corporate executives banded together and spitballed ideas, quips, and characters they thought kids would like to see rather than thinking about what kids and adults actually want to see.
In a time where films are getting more and more expensive and subpar films like this are getting made, one needs to round up some loyalist friends and support the works of John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Andrew Stanton, people who actually are thinking about what kids and adults want out of their animated films.Voiced by: Will Arnett, Robert Tinkler, Brendan Fraser, Gabriel Iglesias, Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl, and Maya Rudolph.
Yes, as most of the professional (and a few of the amateur) reviews pointed out, the political satire in THE NUT JOB is extremely heavy handed if you go in looking for it, and the "cuddly/comfort level" one initially expects when seeing furry creatures this well animated is lower than what we have come to expect from the Disney films which are usually the only ones which approach this level of polish - but when one looks at the actual PLOT these film makers have chosen to tell, a kid-friendly riff on the kind of film noir caper films where different gangs are fighting over access to the same crime scene and ultimately (contrary to a couple earlier reviewers who clearly didn't want a Korean helmed film to succeed) arrived at exactly the "aww," and "we CAN fix any problems" moment any film like this must build toward.No child over 10 will have any problems distinguishing between the various squirrel characters of varying hew, although an insistent naturalist might be pulling out their hair at the various species populating and co-operating in this "never-never-land" unidentified city park in a city living below a non-threatening dam which may or may not be destroyed by the end of the film (the illogic here - betraying the producers' lack of experience for all their technological finesse) is ultimately the film's greatest weakness - but will bother few of those the film is actually aimed at).The flaws ultimately fade while the adventure and the over-all successes linger in the memory - which is one reason I'm glad I waited a day to review this film.
The animation was nice and very colorful, and the actors voicing there characters is well done, this movie was trying to be satire of heist films but from a squirrels point of view.
It's not quite Over The Hedge(2006), but all in all not terrible.Now the problem I had is that I feel that the movie could not decide if it wanted to be for kids or adults, unlike the Toy Story films which it was for both.
Will Arnett, Brendan Fraser, Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Dunham, Maya Rudolph, Liam Neeson, Stephan Lang and Katherine Heigl provide some of the voices for "The Nut Job," an animated film that has, for its characters, an assortment of rodents and human mobsters, all fighting over a supply of nuts during a shortage.The little ones might be entranced by the bug-eyed critters and pretty colors (though I wouldn't count on it), but a weak, humorless and confused script, along with indifferent animation, makes it an uninteresting affair for viewers over the age of, say, seven-and-a-half.Even though the movie runs only 86 minutes, through some inverse law of physics, it seems to last an eternity..
1. Character clichés - cute squirrel love interest, narcissistic squirrel, sidekick rat (goofy, but comes through at crucial moments), lots of animals working together to collect winter food.
It wasn't a complete disaster and there are worse animated films around, but The Nut Job was lacking in a lot of ways and from my point of view the weakest of the handful of animations seen so far.
The Nut Job does have some good things, the best thing being the animation which was great, very colourful and vibrant with a lot of admirable detail and the characters look cute(even if Buddy looks eerily looks like Remy from Ratatouille).
As if it's one to one animation from script and made a list of "these 40 things should be included this these 50 seconds."The personalities are completely lacking and non-convincing; besides the main character, with the vague love interest (or the potential) and the sympathetic mouse who reminds us of Ratatouille (which seems the most realistic qua emotions and reactions in a universe he seems to find as strange as surreal as the viewer) others pop in and out in flashes and remain complete strangers to the viewer...This makes me suspect this team has experience in shorter animation films and got "a break to go big" and...
At a time when amazing animated films like "Frozen" are released, a film like "The Nut Job" is barely able to hold your attention for the 85 minutes it runs.
An incorrigibly self-serving exiled squirrel (Will Arnett) finds himself helping his former park brethren raid a nut store to survive, that is also the front for a human gang's bank robbery.Critics are generally opposed to this film, and one can see why.
The plot is pretty weak (though the attempt to parallel the two stories was interesting), none of the characters is particularly likable, and it is just rather bland.Some apologists have tried to say there is a good political message here about the flaws of a centralized government, or having one man decide where food is stored and how it is divided up.
Surly, an exiled, selfish and self-centered squirrel teams up with some other animals to raid a nut shop in other to help the exact same park which threw him away.
The Nut Job is everything that is wrong with animated films made to cash in on adolescence without bothering to add substance, heart or charm.Released in the dead zone of January, The Nut Job follows a self-serving squirrel in a city park as he attempts to raid a nut store for the biggest food haul of his life.The Nut Job is a deplorable film because it exploits the childhood market for financial gains without even bothering to be a decent movie.
The plot stumbles around with no sense of clear though, it is rough, boring, messy and lacks any and all charm typical of a truly good animated film.The characters are irredeemably underdeveloped and have no sense of camaraderie.
Katherine Heigl, Liam Neeson, Maya Rudolph, and Brendan Fraser voice the blandly basic personalities in animal form.Overall The Nut Job is a waste of a film that even babysitters wishing to save their sanity by popping a DVD in to satiate the most unmanageable children should avoid.
Some of the best I've seen have included the lorax and despicable me.This film isn't good, it isn't overly entertaining and in my opinion is solely for kids, the joy of most animated films is parents and kids can all enjoy them, this isn't one though.Like hop, bolt and now the nut job, you cant just make any animal you think of a good character, the plot isn't overly interesting and there is nothing that would make me recommend this film to anyone over the age of 6.I've seen better straight to TV animated movies, this will be available for next to nothing on DVD in a few months, please don't spend your hard earned money on it.I never give spoilers, but with this film its hard to spoil as its already pretty awful.
Also, pretty much all the animations involving water are awkward.The fact that the graphics (and Gangnam Style references) look a little dated could be easily forgiven if the story would have been gripping and entertaining, but alas: the film fails terribly at that.
Although the movie certainly has other problems, to be discussed shortly, the film does have a plot, it has a number of highly acclaimed actors that do a relatively good job at portraying their characters (however poorly those characters may have been written), and the animation is not terrible, even if rather bland.
Featuring a star studded cast with the likes of Will Arnett as the main character Surly, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl or the stern Stephen Lang, the nutty film brings out a wonderful adventure of friendship and betrayal with plenty of good qualities for the kids to learn and understand.It's not the funniest movie, but it manages to touch one's heart and make them become sympathetic for the honesty of the characters, especially the mute rat Buddy.
I can't remember the last time I watched an animated film and couldn't wait for it to finish, but that's how I felt about 'The Nut Job'.The animation in this film is great, but it's not enough to distract away from the complete lack of a plot.
Characters often make or break animated films and, writing this review a day after watching the film, I can't remember any of the characters or their names.'The Nut Job' is watchable but will probably be enjoyed much more by kids.
Well what go wrong with a film called "The Nut Job"?.Well pretty much everything Is wrong with this, the characters (apart from Andie and Buddy) are so mean-spirited and unlike able, the story is a ripoff of Over the Hedge, the jokes are just nut puns and the humor pretty low brow.Only good thing?, the animation looks pretty decent, It got nice lighting, nice character designs and the backgrounds look pretty good, but yet again, that's the ONLY GOOD THING about this movie.This is not suitable for kids, not suitable for families, It's not suitable for ANYONE.This get a 2/10..
The Nut Job us an animated movie, it has quite a bit of action that young children would enjoy.
Voice casting was good (with Liam Neeson having obviously a lot of fun) and if you can overlook a few flaws and the fact that this is not as clean cut as other animated kids movies (the nut puns alone throughout the movie, will either annoy or delight you), you will have fun with this.
After the total winter render of food is destroyed, the animal community blames and banishes a covetous egoistical squirrel named Surly (voiced by Will Arnett) from the park.Exclusively, bored, and frightened in the big city, Surly bumbles upon a ambition come true: a nut shop.
One of the things, though, that got me the most was the effectiveness of one of the rats--the one who is a friend of our main character, Surly, the squirrel who gets the idea of knocking over a nut shop.
This is a fun movie and kids will enjoy it but it's not great like some other animated movies and it does not have as much as those great cartoons have going for them as far as entertainment value and jokes for the adults.The two main squirrels should have looked less similar as the kids sometimes seemed confused so far as which squirrel was doing what or when they were talking together.Will Arnett is very funny and we loved his voice, such a unique and throaty voiced guy.I would recommend it but no need to rush to see it at the movies, wait for it on DVD, cheaper and you won't be missing anything not seeing it on the big screen.Frozen is better for sure!.
The Nut Job(2014) Starring: Will Arnnet, Katherine Heigel, Brendan Frasier, Sara Gadon, Maya Rudolph, Stephen Lang, Jeff Dunham and Liam Nesson Directed By: Peter Lepeniotis Review You know I am not a big fan of animated stuff, unless to me it's nostalgic, from Pixar or Ghibli.
When he destroys the tree where the animals live in the park he is banished to our side and has a hard time getting until he sees a Nut shop that is owned by thieves trying to rob a bank next door.
Despite surprises, clear characters, and several funny moments from the thugs, this movie offers no effort in story line or neatness in animation.
Surly is banished from the park.Animation has advanced so far that this is really only good for a TV movie on one of those kids channels.
This animated film tells the story of a squirrel who is banished from the park because he is blamed for destroying the food supply for the winter.
Since this is a PG movie there really aren't that many nut puns, which was quite disappointing.As for the plot line, it's pretty much the usual clichéd family movie setup: Main character is really self-centered, main character goes out on his own to prove he doesn't need anybody (actually this time he gets kicked out but you get the idea), main villain plots evil scheme against main character's former friends, main character has a change of heart, main character reconciles with friends and saves the day.Despite these shortcomings, I actually kind of enjoyed this one, the animation was good, and some parts were kind of funny.
After watching "The Nut Job," I couldn't help but wonder if, even  though it is a kid's film, could kids really enjoy this movie?
Let's start off with the story.It's about a purple squirrel thief named Surly who planned to steal nuts from a vending cart with his best friend buddy the rat.
The only difference is Over The Hedge actually looks like a good movie.Possibly something that happens in the movie spoiler alert: The squirrels and all the other animals will get the nuts they need for the upcoming season and they'll all celebrate.
The only character I kind of liked was Buddy (the rat) because no matter how mean Surly was to him, he would always be a good friend.I don't have anything else to say, I personally didn't enjoy the movie and had to stop it at a point because I was dying of boredom but if you are into rushed cheesy animated movies, be my guest and watch it!.
I like the idea of squirrels trying to steal nuts from a shop to survive winter, but the fact is that this was based on the director's five minute student film.
However, it's not a strong compliment."The Nut Job" is one of the most mean spirited animated movies I've seen.
The Nut Job (2014): Dir: Peter Lepeniotis / Voices: Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson, Maya Rudolph: Animation about creative minds and merging ideas for the greater good.
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.
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.
The animation is wonderful and the casting is great, but the coupling of a storyline that feels rushed and tries to intertwine two stories in a short time feels crowded along with mediocre jokes just seems too "eh it's not bad, but not good" and that's how you feel after you finish watching The Nut Job. Overall, I give the film a 6/10The_Kansan.