Surprise in ‘Nut Job 2’ is its radical theme
You never know where you’ll find the most radical ideas. Somehow, a subpar animated- film kiddie sequel — “The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature,” intended to amuse children for awhile on a weekend afternoon — burns with a proletarian rage.
First, for the sake of truth in advertising, there is no nut job in this film. But the city- dwelling rodents at the story’s center may indeed be “nutty by nature,” in terms their predilection for the crunchy, protein-packed treats, though most of the nut-related con- tent, seen in the film’s first few minutes, falls flat.
Surly the Squirrel ( Will Arnett) and his rodent pals enjoy a Dionysian feast of nuts, seeds and legumes in the basement of a closed nut shop.
This abundance of free food, however, is all too easy to acquire, and one moral of “The Nut Job 2” turns out to be that there is very little value in “easy” — with no hard work, no character building.
This ethos is espoused by Andie (Katherine Heigl), a finger-wagging nag of a squirrel who is opposed to Surly’s grifter tendencies. So it’s back to the scrounge ‘ n’ gather way of life for Surly and pals, if that way continues to exist.
“The Nut Job 2,” directed and co- written by Cal Brunker, is a searing indictment of capitalistic corruption, seen in the cravenly,
larcenous Mayor of Oakton City ( Bobby Moynihan). To wring every drop of profit from his province, he destroys the city park, where these rodents enjoy a collective lifestyle, to build an amusement park.
But Liberty Land turns out to be a monument to crass consumerism and cutting corners. When the rodents resist, the Mayor unleashes exterminators to put down the uprising.
That’s not the story’s only revolutionary element. Just wait until you see the army of kung futrained Chinese mice, led by the furry, ferocious Mr. Feng (Jackie Chan), who help bolster the rodent insurgency.
The most terrifying, sadistic villain, however, turns out to be not the mayor, but his daughter, Heather ( Isabela Moner), a fiery- haired bourgeois demon in a small child’s body.