The Nut Job: Blu-ray Review

13 April 2014 Last Updated on 13 April 2014 Written by David Cantu 0 Comments

The Movie:

Surly (Arnett) is a mischievous squirrel with a mission: to find the tastiest nuts for winter. When he discovers a whole store filled with his favorite food, he plans a heist of nutrageous proportions. But the place turns out to be owned by ruthless bank robbers, so it’s up to Surly and his furry friends to stop the nearby bank heist and save the town.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a squirrel heist film let alone a squirrel heist film that involves a heist within a heist. Right from the start it establishes the story without dragging along but at the same time jumping right into the action and comedy. The story was unique and featured an awesome voice cast that included Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Liam Neeson and Brendan Fraser. Arnett was fantastic as Surly! A lot of it has to do with his vocal delivery and the way he can easily play off of other peoples performances. Not only that but Arnett’s deep voice just sounds hilarious coming out of a small squirrel. Neeson is always so good at what he does and voice acting is no different. He was Raccoon, who is leader of the park animals in the film and his voice can be so powerful and demanding that it matched the character spot on. Before reviewing this film I decided that I was going to have my 3 year old son help me. He watched the film and couldn’t take his eyes off the screen which immediately told me that this was going to be a winner. Just the simple fact that animals were running around being sometimes is more than enough to keep kids entertained. I was pretty impressed on how vibrant the colors were in the film and how it made everything “pop” so to speak. The animation looked fantastic and it just goes to show how everything has evolved as far as CG animation. This really is a fun movie that kids and adults will equally enjoy without the feeling of it slowing down or becoming stale. If you’re a big kid then you’ll dig this and if you have kids then they’ll want to see this multiple times for sure.

Special Features:

Deleted scenes – A few scenes here that were actually pretty good.
Storyboards – A few select scenes being shown in their original pre-planned stage.
The Great Nut Heist – Will Arnett talks a bit about the film and including the premise.
Dance-off End Credits – A cute dance battle that includes a special guest.

Animated Shorts – Two very funny shorts titled “Surely Squirrel” and “Nuts & Robbers”.