BEFORE: This one links to a lot of other animated films on my list, like "Ferdinand" and "The Secret Life of Pets 2" so logically you'd think it would make sense to follow this up with more films like this - only I'm not going to. I do have more animation coming up in January, but all superhero films. I'm only dropping these two "Nut Job" films in here to make the connection between "Mortal Engines" and a crime chain that's going to get me closer to "The Irishman" and "The Joker". Animated films usually have large casts, and they also tend to use the same voice actors, at least in the supporting roles, so I'm taking a chance that I can link them all together somehow later in the year. If not, I'll just keep dropping them in as needed to help make the connections between live-action films. Once I get into the February chain I'll set a new target, like Easter or Mother's Day, and then figure out a path to get me there.
Will Arnett and at least 5 or 6 other actors carry over from "The Nut Job".
THE PLOT: Surly and his friends must stop Oakton City's Mayor from destroying their home to make way for a dysfunctional amusement park.
AFTER: OK, the good news is that Grayson, the egotistical squirrel with a head injury, was not asked to return for the sequel. There's less confusion now that there aren't TWO nearly identical male squirrels, only slightly different in color. But now there are half a dozen chipmunks that all look the same, and also an army of identical white mice, with only the leader distinguishable from the rest by having a different eye color.
Plus the sequel is just as screamy as the first one, without Grayson to cock things up they added a small mouse who keeps shouting "We're ALL going to DI-EEE!" Well, yes, you are all going to die, you're small animals with very short lifespans, but you don't have to keep shouting about it.
In this film, the animals get displaced from Liberty park because it's the one piece of property that isn't making the corrupt mayor any money, so he plans to raze the park and build an amusement park. And now I realize that a running theme for my week concerns being evicted or losing one's home - both of the "Borrowers" films used this as a plot point, and in "Mortal Engines" a character got thrown out of the moving city of London, and tried desperately to get back on board. The first "Nut Job" film was all about finding nuts, but this one's about trying to save, then restore, the animals' home.
The first "Nut Job" was also about not trusting elected leaders, specifically the masked raccoon, and the sequel doubles down on this lesson with the corrupt, easily-bribable mayor character - and the rickety amusement park, with second-hand rides built by cheap contractors and no safety protocols in place serving as a great metaphor for the U.S. government. First the mayor had to "drain the swamp" - er, I mean "bulldoze the park" - and what he built in its place was far, far worse than what was there before. Get it? The park was nice, but even though it wasn't perfect, at least it wasn't a bunch of rickety roller coasters and ferris wheels that could KILL people. Since this film was made outside the U.S. by a coalition of Canadian and South Korean production companies, I have to assume that this is how the rest of the world views us, as a ramshackle wanna-be Disneyland populated by fatcat politicians, redneck exterminators, crazed golfers and spoiled children. Sounds about right.
Somebody also thinks that it's VERY easy for a vehicle to flip over - this happens three or four times in the film, often it's a piece of heavy construction equipment that gets overturned by a small pile of dirt, and kids, I just think it's probably much harder to flip over a bulldozer than this film would have you believe. Also, a hundred mice slamming into the side of a car probably wouldn't divert it from a straight path, thanks to a little thing called momentum. I'm calling a NITPICK POINT even though cartoon physics tend to have their own way of working.
I also thought that the little girl here, the mayor's daughter, was the same character as the Girl Scout seen in the first film. They've got different voice actors, and they're SLIGHTLY difference in appearance, so I have to admit that technically they're two different characters. But come on, they're both chubby little girls with bad teeth who scream a lot, so you can see why I thought they were the same, right? And this is how other countries view American children, as overweight spoiled brats who mistreat animals and bite the heads off their own dolls. Again, I'm not saying that they're WRONG, but I think collectively we should be raising better kids, just so we're not the laughing-stock of the world.
But I think this is the rare animated sequel that's (slightly) better than the first film. Still too screamy and slapsticky with an explosion every five minutes to keep the kids interested - I think we can aim a little higher and thereby put a little more faith in America's kids.
Also starring the voices of Maya Rudolph, Katherine Heigl, Jeff Dunham, Gabriel Iglesias, Robert Tinkler, Julie Lemieux (all carrying over from "The Nut Job"), Bobby Moynihan (last seen in "Adult Beginners"), Bobby Cannavale (last seen in "Movie 43"), Jackie Chan (last heard in "Kung Fu Panda 3"), Isabela Merced (last seen in "Sicario: Day of the Soldado"), Sebastian Maniscalco (last seen in "Tag"), Peter Stormare (last seen in "John Wick: Chapter 2"), Kari Wahlgren, Josh Robert Thompson, Dwayne Hill, Laraine Newman (last seen in "Love, Gilda"), Cal Brunker, Bob Barlen, Jess Harnell, Fred Tatasciore, Andrew Ortenberg, Greg Chun, Dave Fennoy
RATING: 5 out of 10 dented mailboxes
No comments:
Post a Comment