Aside from a few gags here and there, The Nut Job is an empty movie that serves mainly as children's entertainment. The plot centers around an independent squirrel who, after being banished form his park, looks to earn back the trust of the animals by organizing an heist, hence securing the food supply (nuts) for the winter. Usually I like humor in an animated movie, yet I still crave a good story and interesting characters. In this film we mainly see straight forward roles for everyone, and some characters work only as comic relief. I don't mean to complain too much about a movie like this, since it is directed at kids, but like I said, one can only take so much of a lack of substance in a feature film. In a nutshell (no pun intended), The Nut Job succeeds in its premise, as it allows kids to have their fun at the movies. For a more mature viewer, the content is well voiced, but in the long run the result is quite forgettable.

Rating: 6/10

In an Oakton city park opposite the bank, Surly the Squirrel (Will Arnett) is an outcast with his rat partner Buddy often stealing nuts from everybody. Raccoon (Liam Neeson) is the manipulating leader of the park and he finds the nut storage at a low. He sends out squirrels Andie (Katherine Heigl) and Grayson (Brendan Fraser) to take from a newly arrived nut vendor cart. Surly refuses to cooperate. The cart vendor turns out to be the lookout for a bank robbery. The stolen cart is launched into the tree burning it down. Surly is banished from the park.

Animation has advanced so far that this is really only good for a TV movie on one of those kids channels. The animation is kind of grimy at times but it's good enough for TV. Surly is a rogue character. His sidekick Buddy needs to have a comedic voice. In order to create better group chemistry, he needs to invite Andie to join him in the caper. Also they already broke into the place before which makes breaking in again and again not as interesting. The caper isn't quite as fun as it should be. The start is fine but it gets repetitive. It just gets tiresome and the short running time feels over-extended.

Surley (Will Arnett) is a hard working libertarian prepper squirrel. He comes across a big score with a wagon that vends roasted nuts. Andie (Katherine Heigl), the cute liberal squirrel wants Surley to share his find with the group, that haven't been able to save up enough food for the winter in Liberty Park of Oakton.

Through a series of circumstances, the park stash gets destroyed and Surley is blamed. The head coon (Liam Neeson) banishes Surley to the city where our resourceful libertarian discovers a horde of nuts which Andie butts in and wants him to share. He discovers the head coon wants to control the food supply so he can control the masses...or at least the 47% ers. Grayson (Brendan Fraser) is the puffed chest phoney conservative hero who takes credit for the work done by the libertarian. But only by working together can they get rid of the coon in power.

While they are planning an Ocean's Eleven heist of the nuts, the humans are planning a bank robbery.

Great film for the kids so they can tell their teacher they are "getting a nut". Also, stealing is good. Let me know how this works out for you.