The Nut Job Information

Nut job}}

The Nut Job is a 2014 Canadian-South Korean-American 3D computer-animated heist-comedy film directed by Peter Lepeniotis (who also wrote the film with Lorne Cameron) 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.

Despite being panned by critics, it was a box office success, grossing $64 million in North America for a worldwide total of $112.7 million.

A sequel, titled The Nut Job 2, is scheduled to be released on January 15, 2016.

Plot

In the fictional Oakton City, a selfish purple squirrel named Surly and his rat partner, the mute Buddy, reside in Liberty Park, where their thieving reputation has made them outcasts. A group of urban animals led by Raccoon and his cardinal assistant are running low on food for winter. Surly and Buddy's attempt to rob a peanut cart is impeded by a compassionate red squirrel, Andie, and the purported "park hero", a gray squirrel named Grayson whose heroic antics prove him incompetent. At the cart, criminal Lucky and his associate Fingers, casing a bank robbery, get distracted by a bratty Girl Scout and a police officer. Surly's attempt at robbing the cart results in his accidentally setting off its propane tank, sending it into the park where it sets afire the tree where the animals store their winter food. When Surly is identified as the culprit by the groundhog Bruisers Jimmy, Johnny and Jamie, the animals banish him following a unanimous vote.

In the city, Surly and Buddy escape from street rats and find Maury's Nut Shop and attempt to rob it to feed themselves. They discover the store, adjacent to the bank, is a criminal hideout used by Fingers, his pug Precious, Lucky, their boss Percy "King" Dimpleweed and Knuckles who plan to break through the wall to the the bank and replace its cash with nuts. King's girlfriend, Lana, believes King has gone straight and the nut store is legitimate Back in the park, Raccoon sends Andie and Grayson to find food, but they get separated when Grayson fights a street rat. When Knuckles finds that Lucky's dog whistle hurts his ears, he throws the whistle out the door. Surly retrieves it in order to use against putative guard dog Precious, but Andie, who gets the whistle, threatens to dispose of it if Surly does not share the food he is 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 lack faith in Surly, the animals 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 Mole that Raccoon, who is policy is to control the food supply in order to control the animals, plans on double crossing him and preventing the food bonanza. When Andie and Bruisers do not believe him, Surly, whom a returned Grayson has befriended, leaves. After fending off the street rats who work for Raccoon, Surly and Grayson chase the criminal gang's getaway truck, which Raccoon and the other animals are on. Surly fights off Cardinal, who is sent flying into the window of a building where a cat show is being held. While in the truck, Mole defects from Raccoon and reveals the truth to the animals, resulting in Raccoon being voted out of the park community at Grayson's suggestion. King and Knuckles use the dynamite inside the empty truck to blow up a police barricade on a dam, but a police shot punctures a tire, sending the truck over the dam, where it explodes after Surly gets himself and Andie off it, and they fall into the river below. Surly makes it to a log, but finds Raccoon, King and Knuckles survived 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 to Liberty Park. King and his associates are arrested as Lana breaks up with King. Andie and Buddy are still mourning over Surly, and when Precious learns what happened, she finds Surly's apparent body near the river. She has Buddy come look at it. Doleful to see his best friend gone, Buddy says his first two words: "best friend". Surly reveals he was actually unconscious, hugs Buddy and leaves to meet up with Lana who plans to run and work at Maury's Nut Shop. 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 a plan for revenge. In the post-credits, Precious chases Mole for holding a bone that she wants and he drives her 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 Jimmy, a groundhog and the leader of the Bruisers.
• Jeff Dunham as Mole, a mole who works for Raccoon and has eyes that are sensitive to light.
• Liam Neeson as Raccoon, 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" Dimpleweed, a mob boss.
• Maya Rudolph as Precious, a pug that is owned by Lucky.
• 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 Johnny, a groundhog and a member of the Bruisers.
• Annick Obonsawin as Jamie, a small female groundhog and a member of the Bruisers.
• Julie Lemieux as Girl Scout
• Robert Tinkler as Buddy, a rat and Surly's friend.
  • 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 made cameo appearance as himself during the film's ending credits which would also feature his hit song "Gangnam Style."

The film's production art was featured in a Brampton, Ontario exhibit.

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 was 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 largely negative reviews from critics. The review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 10% based on reviews from 88 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." The review-aggregation website Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 37 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable 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." 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 clich." 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."

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." 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."

Box office

The Nut Job grossed $64,251,541 in North America, and $48,491,709 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $112,743,250. 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.

Awards

The film is nominated for "Best Sound Editing - Feature Film" at the 2014 Directors Guild of Canada Awards. Paul Hunter won for The Nut Job in the "Best editing in animation" category at the Canadian Cinema Editors Awards.

Soundtrack

The film's score was composed by Paul Intson. The soundtrack was released on January 17, 2014.

Sequel

The Nut Job 2 was announced for January 15, 2016.