The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Universal is not known for being a well of unlimited great animated films, but they do have their good hits. Despicable Me and it’s subsequent sequels are certainly a load of fun, but more often then they really shoot, Universal spits out a crummy film. Films like The Secret Life of Pets, which looked hilarious from the trailer, down to 2014’s The Nut Job. Now, I wasn’t nearly as turned off by The Nut Job as many other reviewers were, and actually found it pretty entertaining for an animated heist movie. The cast was great, the action decent, but in the end it was a fairly forgettable film that just worked as fun little watch that just faded off into my movie catalog. Never to be seen again. Being that I was fairly entertained by the first film, I was willing to give The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature the good old college try. Unfortunately, even with the fairly low standards set by the original, this sequel just laid on the floor and is almost looking at the audience saying “do I really have to try? Ok, I’ll give it a shot”. Jokes fell flat, Actors really weren’t giving it a whole lot of effort, and the script was so repetitious that it made the 91 minute film feel as if it was about 2 hours plus.

It’s been a while since we left the animals of Liberty Park. Last time we left off, they had followed Surly (Will Arnett) to the promised land. E.g., the nut shop, where they were living large with a life time supply of nuts to tide them over. However, the promised land and a life of leisure has its downsides. Downsides that Andie the squirrel (played by Katherine Heigl) can see coming a mile away. The animals of the park have gotten fat and lazy without having to forage for food, and are now just putzing around having eating contests instead of keeping their senses sharp. A freak accident ends up demolishing the nut shop, leaving all of the animals to once again look to Surly for advice. Well, Surly begrudgingly tries to go out and look for food in the park again, but even his attempts at foraging are going to be for naught, as there is a darker force at work.

Mayor Muldoon (Bobby Moynihan) is loving being Mayor. He’s lining his pockets with piles of cash, and everything in the town is working for him. That is, except for Liberty Park. Deciding that it too needs to make him some good old fashioned profit, Muldoon orders the park torn down and a theme park built in its place. Now, that means Surly and the rest of the park creatures have to fight back and wage war against the most dangerous of predators, man. This plan naturally goes sideways in a hurry, as Mayor Muldoon employs a myriad of bulldozers, animal catchers (played by the king of scenery chewing himself, Peter Stormare), and all sorts of sleazy tactics to get his miserable way.

Lets look at the bright side here. The film is only 91 minutes (including credits)! However, that is also a death sentence for the film as well, as I was sitting at the run thing thinking “this has to be almost over, right?”, and seeing there was almost 40 minutes left on the clock. For some reason, The Nut Job 2 really feels like it has about 3 different points that it can end. Each time the park animals seemingly gain a lead in the race, it gets pushed back 2 steps and they have to start all over again. This makes the film feel like its really going on for much longer than it should. I guess it’s a sort of psychological “gotcha!” from the film makers, laughing all the way to the bank at the poor suckers who are forced to sit down and actually watch the film with their children.

Action is rather tepid, and the voice acting fairly weak. Will Arnett is a master at playing brash and abrasive, and in that regards he plays Surly to a T. Even Maya Rudolph puts in a decent performance as precious, but the rest of the actors are nearly unrecognizable among all the rest. Jackie Chan phones in a weird cameo as a kung-fu mouse, and Jeff Dunham’s usually lively performances gets lost in the sea of fairly recognizable actors. My biggest disappointment was with Peter Stormare, who usually is so hammy and full of scenery munching goodness that you LOOOOOOOOOVE everything he does. Unfortunately his role as Gunther is incredibly flat and stale, with the actor just tossing his lines into the microphone and hobbling back to the trailer to bemoan the fact that he actually signed up for this film.





Rating:

Rated PG for action and some rude humor




Video:

Universals usually does an excellent job with their day and date animated films, and like the first The Nut Job, this one is resplendent with digital colors and wonderfully animated characters. For a lower budget animated film, I was really surprised at how finely detailed the movie was. The first scene with Andie trying to get the nut out of the tree was amazing with how much you could see. Each fiber of her fur was distinct and noticeable, and the crash to earth shows her colliding with dirt that had its own distinct texture and showed each and every grain of sand crushing into her face. The colors are bright and shiny, with every shade of green, blue, red, yellow and pretty much every primary you can think of bursting with vibrant saturation. There’s a few flickers of banding here and there, but the film is devoid of most artifacting besides that and little bit of black crush in the nut shop. Other than that, it is a stunning presentation by Universal as an excellent Blu-ray, straight from the proverbial digital tap.





Audio:

Like The Nut Job, The Nut Job 2’s 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is good, but nothing stellar. It’s a bit lighter in the depth department than I was expecting, with bass that manages to be good, but leaves you with the feeling that there really should have been more punch and pizzazz to the experience. Dialog is nice and clean, with a solid anchoring in the front of the room, while the surrounds get some good activity as the animals try to fight for their place in the park. The dynamic range seems to be pretty mild this time around, with the explosions carrying weight, but never enough to really make that low end roar. The thuds and bangs seem to be a bit on the powder puff side, but the immersiveness is actually pretty impressive with the cacophony of action swirling around. As a result of the decreased mid and low end of the spectrum, the technically sound track is “good”, but never is really great in the sonic department.
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Extras:

• Deleted Scene
• Animation Progression Reels: Watch as two key scenes are brought to life, from storyboard and pre-visualization, to final animation, lighting and effects.
• Concept Art Reel: See the concept art that inspired animators to create the world of The Nut Job 2.
• Feature Commentary with Director/Co-Writer Cal Brunker and Producer/Co-Writer Bob Barlen

Final Score: ​

The Nut Job 2 has a desire to be a big screen animated hit, but ends up feeling like it should have been made straight for home video instead of limping through the theatrical arena as badly as it did. It lumbers around, stumbling over itself more often than not, and ends up just going on for WAAAAAAAAYYYYY too long, despite being a 91 minute film INCLUDING credits. I wasn’t wildly impressed with The Nut Job, but the sequel ends up being worse than the original, and nothing more than a digital babysitter for non discerning kids in the single digits. The pretty encode, and the decent sound will at least be amenable for those who want to check the film out, but for all others I would just recommending skipping it altogether.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Maya Rudolph
Directed by: Cal Brunker
Written by: Cal Brunker, Bob Barlen
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG
Runtime: 91 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 14th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Skip It

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will skip this one..