Surly the squirrel tries to cram as many tasty treats in his cheeks as possible [PH]
(Cert U; 85 mins)
Director: Peter Lepeniotis
Starring: Will Arnett, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson
What is life without a crunchy cashew or a piquant pecan? Completely unbearable if you are a furry resident of Liberty Park in The Nut Job. The animals rely on an ample supply of nuts to tide them through a winter so when selfish squirrel Surly (voiced by Will Arnett) accidentally destroys that supply he is banished to the big city.
His shot at redemption involves robbing Maury’s Nut Shop run by a Damon Runyon-style gang of crooks using it as a front to tunnel into the bank next door. That’s the gist of this breezy, eye-popping animated feature that makes up in energy what it lacks in originality or coherence.
The mixture of old school crime caper and Looney Tunes-style slapstick lends it a pleasant retro feel for adults even if kids might find Surly a poor relation of the acorn-obsessed squirrel Scrat in the Ice Age series.
