The Nut Job is a 2014 3D computer-animated heist-comedy film directed by Peter Lepeniotis
and starring the voices of Will Arnett, Brendan Fraser, Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Dunham, Liam
Neeson and Katherine Heigl.
The film is based on Lepeniotis's 2005 short animated film Surly Squirrel.
It was released on January 17, 2014, by Open Road Films.
With a budget of $42.8 million, it is the most expensive animated film co-produced in
South Korea.
A sequel, titled The Nut Job 2, is scheduled to be released on January 15, 2016.
Plot In the fictional city of Oakton City in 1959,
a selfish purple squirrel named Surly and his rat partner Buddy who does not talk reside
in Liberty Park and their thieving reputation has made them outcasts.
A group of urban animals led by Raccoon and his Cardinal assistant store food for winter
in a giant tree in the park called Liberty Park.
Raccoon is informed by his servant Mole that there is a food shortage in the park.
Surly and Buddy's attempt to rob a peanut cart goes haywire when it is impeded by Raccoon's
helpers, a compassionate red squirrel named Andie and the 'park hero', a gray squirrel
named Grayson whose heroic antics prove to be incompetent.
A selfish Surly ignores Andie's help and tries to get a bag of nuts while the owner Lucky
and his associate Fingers gets distracted by a bratty girl scout customer and a police
officer that the girl issues her complaint to.
The heist also gets invaded by Lucky's pet pug named Precious.
After fending her off by having her bite the pipe of a propane tank, Surly and Buddy escape
with the cart and Andie manages to guide it to Liberty 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 get off safely, the cart is sent into the tree, where it explodes along
with the tree and the animals' food supply.
Grayson however, survives the ordeal.
When Surly is identified as the culprit by the Groundhog Bruisers Jimmy, Johnny, and
Jamie, Raccoon banishes him from Liberty Park following a unanimous vote forcing him to
survive in the city.
Buddy attempts to be with Surly who tells him to leave after he unknowingly contributed
to his exile.
After escaping from wild street rats, they find a nut store called Maury's Nut Shop and
attempt to rob it to feed themselves.
After entering the store, they discover that it is a criminal hideout used by Lucky, Fingers,
their mob boss Percy "King" Dimplewade who has recently gotten out of jail, his silent
partner Knuckles, and his girlfriend Lana.
Raccoon sends Andie and Grayson to find food only for them to get separated upon Grayson
fighting a street rat.
Precious also serves as the guard dog there and King plans to rob the Oaken Bank and replace
the cash with nuts.
Surly and Buddy see that the only way to get to the nuts and to avoid Precious is with
a dog whistle that Lucky has.
The two of them are thrown out by Knuckles 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 does not 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 community of the plan.
Although they have a lack of faith in Surly, Raccoon and the rest of the park community
agree to go along with it.
Andie gets help from Mole and the Bruisers.
When the first attempt to rob the store fails, Surly eventually learns from Andie that Raccoon
planned on double crossing him and Surly leaves after an argument even when Grayson catches
up to the group.
After Surly and Precious catch Mole in the act of sabotage, he confesses that Raccoon
is a power-hungry con artist who keeps food from the animals to have his leadership kept
and only Mole and Cardinal know about it.
Andie and the others are unconvinced at Raccoon's plot as King begins his heist.
After fending off the street rats that worked for Raccoon, the two squirrels ends up chasing
after King's truck that Raccoon and the other animals are on while Grayson fights off Cardinal
who is sent flying into the window of a building where the Oakton City Cat Show is being held.
While in the truck, Mole defects from Raccoon and reveals this info to the animals with
Surly resulting in Raccoon being voted out of the park community at Grayson's suggestion.
King and Knuckles uses the dynamite inside the empty truck to blow the police out, but
it hangs and falls over the bridge where it explodes, after Surly gets himself and Andie
off it before they fall into the river.
Surly makes it to a log, but finds Raccoon, King and Knuckles surviving the explosion.
Raccoon tries to kill Surly, but the nuts weight begins to break the log.
The animals arrive to rescue them, but Surly, decides to be selfless in order to protect
his friends, lets go of the log and falls down into the waterfall with Raccoon apparently.
The park community, 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 Liberty Park, where the animals gather around in joy as
their food troubles are over.
King and his associates are arrested as Lana appears to end her relationship with King.
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 two words "best friend".
Surly reveals that he was actually unconscious and hugs Buddy and Precious licks Surly's
face and leaves to meet up with Lana who plans to run Maury's Nut Shop in Lucky's place.
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
yet gains a willingness to work with others.
He goes into the city with Buddy allowing Grayson to take credit for the food making
it to the park.
During the credits, the animals and humans dance with an animated PSY as he performs
"Gangnam Style."
In a mid-credits scene, Raccoon and Cardinal are shown to have survived their ordeal and
are sulking on a harbor buoy surrounded by sharks while trying to come up with another
plan.
In the post-credits, Precious chases Mole who is holding a bone that Precious wants.
Mole drives Precious away with the dog whistle.
Cast Will Arnett as Surly, a purple squirrel.
Brendan Fraser as Grayson, an incompetent Eastern gray squirrel who is considered the
"park hero."
Gabriel Iglesias as Johnny, a groundhog who is the leader of the Bruisers.
Jeff Dunham as Mole, a mole who works for Raccoon.
Liam Neeson as Raccoon, a raccoon who is a con artist and the self-proclaimed leader
of the park community.
Katherine Heigl as Andie, a compassionate red squirrel.
Stephen Lang as Percy "King" Dimplewade, a mob boss.
Maya Rudolph as Precious, a pug owned by Lucky who sides with Surly.
Sarah Gadon as Lana, King's girlfriend.
James Rankin as Fingers, King's fellow criminal who helps Lucky run "Maury's Nut Shop."
Scott Yaphe as Lucky, the owner of the peanut cart who is Precious' owner and King's associate.
Joe Pingue as Jimmy, a groundhog and a member of the Bruisers.
Annick Obonsawin as Jamie, a small groundhog and a member of the Bruisers.
Julie Lemieux as Girl Scout Robert Tinkler as Buddy, Surly's best friend
and rat partner who does not talk much.
Tinkler also voices Redline, a mouse who idolizes Grayson.
James Kee as Street Rat, Armored Truck Guard Scott McCord as Police Officer.
McCord also provides the voices of the miscellaneous animals.
Katie Griffin as Pigeon Production
On January 17, 2011, it was announced that Lorne Cameron would be writing the screenplay
for the film along with Peter Lepeniotis.
On November 15, 2012, it was announced that Katherine Heigl, Will Arnett and Brendan Fraser
joined the cast of the film.
On March 1, 2013, it was announced that Liam Neeson joined the cast of the film.
On December 19, 2013, it was announced that South Korean entertainer, PSY would make a
cameo appearance as himself during the film's ending credits which would also feature his
hit song "Gangnam Style."
Release The film was released in the United States
on January 17, 2014, and distributed by Open Road Films.
The first teaser trailer for the film was released on September 27, 2013.
International distribution will be handled by The Weinstein Company.
The film had its premiere at a Regal Cinemas theater in Los Angeles on January 11, 2014.
Home media The Nut Job was released on DVD and Blu-ray
on April 15, 2014 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
Reception Critical response
The Nut Job received negative reviews from critics.
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, gives the film a score of 11% based on reviews
from 85 critics, with an average score of 3.9/10.
The site's consensus is: "Hampered by an unlikable central character and source material stretched
too thin to cover its brief running time, The Nut Job will provoke an allergic reaction
in all but the least demanding moviegoers."
Another review aggregation website Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100
top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 36 out of 100 based on 26 reviews.
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade.
Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a negative review, saying "The Nut Job comes up short
compared with a film like Ratatouille, which, despite its less-than-adorable rodents, won
audiences over through appealing voicework and writing.
Alonso Duralde of The Wrap gave the film a negative review, saying "The Nut Job is merely
shrill and frantic, chock-full of uninspired characters and tedious wackiness."
Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, saying "A
whimsical period setting helps this 3D animated caper escape some overly familiar trappings."
Bill Goodykoontz of The Arizona Republic gave the film two out of five stars, saying "Arnett
is a great comedic actor, an acidic wit.
But here his Surly is just a selfish jerk.
If there weren't some redemption involved, this wouldn't be a by-the-numbers animated
feature.
But it is, and there is, and it is wholly predictable."
Linda Barnard of the Toronto Star gave the film two out of four stars, saying "If The
Nut Job fails to connect through its characters it deserves praise for being a visually inspired
effort, with clear homage paid to 1950s animation styles, especially Warner Bros. classics."
Lou Lumenick of the New York Post gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying
"The small-town setting of a half-century ago is beautifully animated by director Peter
Lepenotis and his team, and there are some nicely staged old-school action sequences."
Chris Cabin of Slant Magazine gave the film one out of four stars, saying "There's no
personality in the design or the script, which only renders the cynical aftertaste of this
convoluted one-squirrel-against the-world story all the more potent."
Jordan Hoffman of the New York Daily News gave the film two out of five stars, saying
"The cartoon is stuffed with exhausting visual mayhem.
Some jokes land, but most kids over 10 will roll their eyes."
Joe Williams of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave the film one and a half stars out of
four, saying "The burnished backgrounds are pleasant to look at, but finding something
to savor in the story is a tough nut to crack."
Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one out of four stars, saying "The
Nut Job fights its protagonist's own charmlessness from the first scene.
Turning a dislikable leading character a little less dislikable by the end credits sets an
awfully low bar for this sort of thing."
Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying "The
overall mood resembles a furry, nut-based version of Stanley Kubrick's The Killing."
Peter Hartlaub of The San Francisco Chronicle gave the film two out of four stars, saying
"Someone spent a lot of time making the architecture and production design match the era.
Grandparents getting dragged to The Nut Job will be appreciative."
Annlee Ellingson of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a negative review, saying "The
Nut Job features decent CG animation, especially of animals, but the writing isn't particularly
clever, relying on obvious puns and slapstick humor."
Stephanie Merry of The Washington Post gave the film two out of five stars, saying "That
feeling of been-there-done-that is pervasive, with many of the jokes sounding like they
were ripped off from other movies."
Kevin McFarland of The A.V.
Club gave the film an F, saying "The most egregious problem with The Nut Job is how
shamelessly it fills in the gaps left by expanding Lepeniotis’ short with generic and tedious
rogue-to-hero cliché."
Joel Arnold of NPR gave the film a positive review, saying "Once Surly and Buddy case
the joint, develop a plan, and deal with the inevitable surprises, The Nut Job could be
any classic caper flick."
Scott Bowles of USA Today gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying "When
the story gets stale, the movie inserts a "nuts" pun or, worse, resorts to a gas or
burp joke.
It doesn't work the first time, nor the fifth."
Miriam Bale of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, saying "The Nut Job
features muddy-colored and often ugly animation, a plot that feels too stretched out and loaded
with details to hold the attention of most children, and more flatulence jokes than anyone
deserves."
Adam Nayman of The Globe and Mail gave the film two out of four stars, saying "Only a
multilevel chase sequence involving Surly and some glowing-eyed street rats has any
real kinetic excitement, and the supporting characters lack visual distinction."
Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and a half stars out of four,
saying "The bottom line: Kids may be mildly amused by The Nut Job, but adults accompanying
them won't find much to capture their interest."
Kimberley Jones of The Austin Chronicle gave the film two out of five stars, saying "The
richly hued CG animation is quite nice – a mix of hyperdetailed character work and painterly
cityscapes and pastorals – and the script putters along with small but regular amusements."
Tom Russo of The Boston Globe gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying "The
plot doesn’t take clever turns, the visual thrills aren’t all that thrilling, and you’re
ultimately left to get your heist-movie kicks elsewhere."
Box office The Nut Job grossed $64,251,541 in North America,
and $13,212,127 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $77,463,668.
In North America, the film opened at number three in its first weekend, with $19,423,000,
behind Ride Along and Lone Survivor.
In its second weekend, the film stayed at number three grossing an additional $12,101,118.
In its third weekend, the film dropped to number four grossing $7,278,450.
In its fourth weekend, the film dropped to number eight grossing $3,753,080.
Soundtrack The film's score was composed by Paul Intson.
The soundtrack was released on January 17, 2014.
Track listing All music composed by Paul Intson.
Sequel Following the successful debut of the film,
The Nut Job 2 was announced for January 15, 2016.
References
External links Official website
The Nut Job at the Internet Movie Database The Nut Job at the Big Cartoon DataBase
The Nut Job at Rotten Tomatoes The Nut Job at Metacritic
The Nut Job at Box Office Mojo