Director: Cal Brunker
Writer: Bob Barlen, Cal Brunker (Screenplay) Scott Bindley, Peter Lepeniotis (Characters)
Starring: (Voice Talents) Will Arnett, Maya Rudolph, Bobby Cannavale, Bobby Moynihan, Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Dunham, Jackie Chan, Katherine Heigl
Plot: Following the events of the first film, Surly and his friends must stop Oakton City’s mayor from destroying their home to make way for a dysfunctional amusement park.
Tagline – A nutty adventure for the whole family!
Runtime: 1 Hour 31 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Much Better Than it Should Be
Story: The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature starts as we return to Liberty Park, Surly however has bought the animals to the now abandoned nut store, turning them lazy to surviving. Andie the love interest of Surly is still trying to make the animals use their instincts to survive in the park.
When the nut shop explodes the animals must return to the park, only the Mayor has decided to turn the park into an amusement park, the animals must fight for the park.
Thoughts on The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature
Characters – Surly is the free-thinking squirrel that the animals in the park look up to, he does want to keep life easy, but when the park is in danger he must show how willing he is to fight for it using his ability to lead. Andie wants to keep the animals in the park using instinct to survive, be the opposite to Surly and the love interest for him. Precious is back after the first film the dog that joined the park, she gets plenty of laughs. We do get plenty of animals that are used in the fight against the humans, each gets plenty of laughs, the humans are made to be villainous with some of the being close to the line of psychotic.
Story – The story is very simple and we have seen this style before, it shows the animals needing to fight for their home which the humans want to destroy. We get plenty of slapstick comedy to help with the fights, while the human characters are made to be truly villainous in their actions, giving us complete support for the animals. There are moments in the story which are going too far, the daughter of the mayor being abusive to the dogs is one of them, while we are glad that the humans get what they deserve by the end of the film, it can’t be helped but to think this can be misleading to the younger audience. The story does feel like it is easy to watch than the first one and for animation it will be a fun hour and half.
Action/Comedy/Family – The action plays into the comedy nicely, with most being slapstick which works for animation and the references to more famous fighting or action sequences will get a laugh from the older audience members which helps the whole family enjoy this one.
Settings – The film keeps us in the same city, we have the beautiful park which is getting destroyed, with have the city which is dangerous for the animals, this isn’t anything ground breaking for settings, but it is everything we need.
Animation – The animation standard is as always great to see, we can’t fault the techniques used with nothing looking out of place in the film.
Scene of the Movie – Mr Feng’s backstory.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The daughter’s treatment of the dogs.
Final Thoughts – This is a surprisingly entertaining sequel that I had zero expectations going in watching, it will get laughs and does keep the story nice and simple to follow.
Overall: Fun family film.
Rating
