Call me nuts but I never saw “The Nut Job” which judging for the need for a sequel puts me in the minority. I say that because here we are with a sequel that has a title that might be more clever than film itself. Most animated films these days travel on a two way street, one for adults and one for children. It is managing that street that sets apart the ones us parents like to watch over and over again against the ones we would rather poke our eyes out than ever have to see it again.
Having not seen the first chapter in this story I had know idea which one of the two I had in store for me. But I am guessing from the beginning of the film that a nut shop played a big part in the first film. That nut shop is back, but since the owner was paying his employee’s peanuts it has shut down, but leaving its mountain of nuts for the animals. Those animals led by Surly (Will Arnett) have moved in and are partying like it’s 1999. While all the other cute animals have moved past the ol’ gathering for winter thing, Andie (Katherine Heigl) is still aboard that train. No matter how much Andie tries, everyone else wants to take the easy way, that is until the nut shop explodes and boom no more all you can eat nuts. If having to work to find their food wasn’t enough the town’s mayor (Bobby Moyniham) is not a fan of the park because well it’s not making money and his plan is to tear it down and replace it with an amusement park. Now it is up to Surly and his friends to save the day and to discover what is really important in this world.
Someone once said you have to take the good with the bad. With so many good animated films you knew there were going to be some not so good and ones that are just plain bad. “The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature” is not bad, but it is far from good. Instead it falls in the middle, you know one of those movies you see that don’t give you any reason to retain anything you just saw. Sure you have some funny moments, I mean it’s a film with a bunch of cute talking animals, but most of the story is a throw away. There are very few jokes that make you laugh out loud and for a film with a run time just over and hour and a half it feels a lot longer. The audience for this film is kids under five, because all they will see if cute talking animals, while anyone above that age will struggle with what they have to sit through. My suggestion to parents is to pretend this film does not exist and spare yourself. I know not every animated film can be a Pixar film, I mean some have to be “The Brave Little Toaster”, but we don’t have to watch those not so good ones. “The Nut Job 2” is a waste of time and a film that not even Jackie Chan as a cute little mouse can save.
