Nut Job 2, The: Nutty by Nature

Story

The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature is an animated movie in which Surly (voice of Will Arnett), a squirrel, leads a group of forest animals who have been living a life of luxury in a derelict nut shop. The animals have become lazy and fat, so Andie (Katherine Heigl) tries to make a difference by teaching the young squirrels to forage for their food. They’re reluctant to learn, however, because it’s so easy to get food in the nut shop. This all changes one day when the nut shop explodes and the animals have to learn how find food in the park.

Unfortunately for the animals, the Mayor of Oakton (Bobby Moynihan) decides to turn the park into an amusement park, mainly to please his spoiled daughter Heather (Isabella Moner). The animals are trapped by animal controllers and forced out of the park. The animals decide to fight for their park. Mayhem ensues when they attack the amusement park to win back their territory.

Themes

Conservation versus development

Violence

The Nut Job 2 has a lot of violence and accidental harm, mostly done for laughs. For example:

Surly is chased by kids and gets hit by a bicycle.
Surly and his friend Buddy (Tom Kenny) try to steal food and get run over by a police car.
Surly jumps off the back of a taxi and slams into a mailbox (a few times).
A tractor runs over Surly and he hangs on to a fuel line, which he cuts with his teeth. The he gets electrocuted.
A dog called Precious accidentally swallows one of the forest animals.
Golfers chase the animals and hit at them with golf clubs.
The animals fire ketchup and mustard at the Mayor and his guests in the amusement park.
The nut shop explodes in flames.
Heather has a catapult, which she frequently uses to shoot at Precious and Surly.
An animal controller puts a stick of dynamite into Mole’s hole and blows him up into the sky.
The Mayor drives his vehicle onto the footpath because he doesn’t want to wait in a queue. People have to scramble from the road, and a man is stuck to his windscreen. The Mayor wipes him away with the wipers. He also makes many cars crash.
Mr Feng is a cute-looking but vicious mouse. He punches Surly and throws him against a wall.
Heather plays violently with her dolls, making them fight each other.
The Mayor fires a crossbow at Surly and Buddy.
The animal controllers suck up the animals in large vacuums.
Andie is hit by a dart and knocked out.
Heather and an animal controller use a huge gun to fire darts at Precious and Frankie, and then Heather starts attacking them with a mallet.
Heather gets shot with a dart.

Sexual references

The Nut Job 2 has some sexual references. For example, Frankie is attracted to Precious. His tongue hangs out and he starts to drool.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

The Nut Job 2 shows some use of substances. For example:

The Mayor drinks champagne.
Heather looks as if she’s ‘high’ after being hit with a dart.

Nudity and sexual activity

Nothing of concern

Product placement

Nothing of concern

Coarse language

The Nut Job 2 has some coarse language, including name-calling.

Ideas to discuss with your children

The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature is an animated comedy with some quite dark humour. It’s also action packed but quite intense and scary for younger viewers. It isn’t recommended for children under seven years, but older children will probably enjoy it.

The main messages from this movie are that ‘individually we might be tiny but together we are giants’ and that nothing in life is free – we have to work to live.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include:

teamwork and collaboration
loyalty
friendship
protection of the environment and animals.

You could also talk about Heather as an example of how not to behave.