Verdict:
I was worried when I noticed that the bird on the shoulder of one of the characters is a Northern Cardinal, styled to resemble the one from the hit game Angry Birds. My worries were validated when the hit song Gangnam Style started playing almost out of nowhere, as the movie’s main characters suddenly started to dance to that tune. The rat character by the name of Buddy sure looked a lot like the main character from the hit animated film, Ratatouille. For that matter, all the animal characters resemble various animal characters from recent Dreamworks and Disney productions.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a cash-in. This joint venture between South Korean, US and Canadian production companies aims to capitalise on the western animation market and the pop culture of the moment. Don’t give them any money.
This is particularly regrettable when you consider that actual work was invested into this production. Despite its many shortcomings, the movie does have several highly acclaimed actors that try to do their job, and the animation is not without merit, even if it is a bit bland. There are actually a few funny moments. There are certainly worse things to watch out there, but ultimately this Nut Job….is botched.
In addition to its irritating exploitative nature, Nut Job is plagued by poor writing. The general outlines of the story are simple and clear, but the individual scenes become less and less coherent and more unnatural, as time goes by. There are many lines of dialogue that seem like they were meant to be funny, or at least there is no other discernible purpose for them to exist than to be funny, but they aren’t funny.
This film offers mild entertainment value and may appeal to younger audiences, those in tune with the cultural references of its release year, the year in which the musician PSY was still relevant, but it is unfortunate that a movie with such a cast and such a budget is so empty. It seems that the cash-in was successful. The movie more than made back its investment. Well done, shadowy businessman dressed in a suit in smoke-filled room, well done. However, I would avoid Nut Job 2. You’d have to be a bit nutty to watch that…. Eh? Eh? Shut this sh*t down.