Featuring The Voices Of: Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson, Maya Rudolph, Stephen Lang, Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Dunham.
Written By: Lorne Cameron
Directed By: Peter Lepeniotis
Will not be nominated for an Oscar next year for Best Animated Feature. This is one of those forgettable animated features, like Gnomeo and Juliet or Escape From Planet Earth, that is merely there to fill a hole in the calendar so your kids have something to watch in theatres. Honestly, you’ve probably seen Frozen a few times already, and Walking With Dinosaurs has probably been pulled, so what else are you going to watch over the LOOOONG three day weekend off of school? Exactly.
Luckily, the animation is solid. This isn’t Hoodwinked, so you’re not looking at some of the worst CGI you’ve ever seen. This looks on par with most average animated films. The film centers around Surly (because that’s a name now), a loner squirrel looking for nuts. He’s up against the rest of the critters in the park, who have all banded together, who take orders from a raccoon named Raccoon, and who are also out of food. They send out Andie and Grayson to find some more food.
There’s a side-plot involving the nuts that Surly finds being owned by a group of bank robbers, who plot out a heist similar to the one the animals are plotting during the film. It’s all very predictable. I did laugh a few times, and Maya Rudolph does some hilarious voice over work. I didn’t even recognize her voice until I saw her on IMDB. Why do some animals have names, and others don’t? Why is Raccoon simply named Raccoon, and Mole is Mole? Were the writers too lazy to think up names? Also, and I don’t know if this was a presentation error or not, but when I saw the film… Surly was purple. Purple squirrels? Really?
Not a horrible way to spend time with your kids, but I can’t imagine they’re going to be wanting the DVD for Christmas either.
FINAL GRADE: C+