Post by StevePulaski on Apr 16, 2014 7:01:08 GMT -5
The Nut Job (2014)
Directed by: Peter Lepeniotis
Directed by: Peter Lepeniotis
Surly the Squirrel and Precious the Pug in The Nut Job.
Rating: ★½
Last November, I discovered I have a potentially-fatal allergy to almonds and tree nuts, one that sent me to the hospital just minutes after ingesting one. For that reason, I didn't immediately seek out the new animated film The Nut Job right away because I felt it would either trigger my allergic reaction to almonds or bad films. 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. The film centers around Surly the Squirrel (voiced by Will Arnett), a pompous and selfish purple squirrel who has been ostracized by his immediate friends for being a thief, with his only real companion being Buddy the Rat (Robert Tinkler). With a shortage of nuts in the community, or at least to the access of these animals, the prime goal of the animal community is to find and store nuts of all kinds in order to see another day.
However, when Surly's selfish antics get him kicked out of the park where him and his animal friends reside, Surly concocts a plan to steal a boatload of nuts from the newly-opened Maury's Nut Shop, which also happens to be the hangout spot for mobsters from around the area. 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. And even if The Nut Job holds a child over for one afternoon, what long term effects will the film have on them? What will they gain out of seeing it? A good moral, memorable characters, something substantial? These are questions a parent should contemplate before taking their child to see any film. One may say I'm overanalyzing this process and the film itself, but The Nut Job doesn't bear anything that will likely stimulate a kid's mind in any impacting way. Past generations and time have proven that good movies etch their impact into children, given the examples of Bambi, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Toy Story, etc. 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? Why center on a film that has way too many characters where far too many serve as just rambunctious screen presences and where tired morals and ideas of a selfish cad learning the values of community and teamwork triumphs every time? 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. From the barrage of toilet humor and silly puns, this feels like a blatant exercise in "studio filmmaking," where the respective studio (in this case Toonbox Entertainment) assumes all creative control, leaving the director (in this case Peter Lepeniotis) without much ability to direct. The inclusion of celebrity voices, including many in very minor roles, suggests this too. 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. Directed by: Peter Lepeniotis.