The Nut Job

The Nut Job is an animated film starring the voices of Will Arnett, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl and directed by Peter Lepeniotis.

The film revolves around a rather proud, selfish squirrel named Surly. He likes doing things his way and as a result he is constantly butting heads with the rest of the rodents who live in a massive oak tree. That is until he is responsible for accidentally burning down their home. Which ultimately results in him being banished from that area for good.

At the same time, a sub plot runs congruently with the main plot which deals with a bunch of crooks planning to dig their way into a bank. They have opened a shop across the road from the bank as a front. The shop sells nuts and this is where the two plots meet. While the crooks are trying to break into the bank, the squirrels are trying to break into the shop and get the nuts for themselves.

Now firstly this movie isn’t produced by Disney or Pixar and you can clearly see it in the animations. While it isn’t terrible and still watchable, the animation is just not on par with what you see in today’s animated films. 

After watching this film I decided to check Wikipedia to see what other reviewers said and this film has been universally panned. Almost every critic hated it and for good reason, they complained about character development, a thin plot and called it charmless.

However, I do agree with them on that aspect from an adult’s point of view. But to a child, this is pure gold. Trying watching this movie through the eyes of a child or put a child in front of this film and you will see pure entertainment and enjoyment.

As this is the main target audience of this movie. Families can of course watch along and the average movie goer will find a few laughs, but kids will get the biggest kick out of this movie.

So with that in mind. The Nut Job gets a salted 1 out of 10. And for the kiddies view point: The Nut Job gets a cracked 7 out of 10