What to Know Before You Go: The Nut Job

The story's protagonist, Surly squirrel (voiced by Will Arnett), is a controversial member of the city's animal community. Constantly embarking upon mischievous antics, he's excommunicated from his home, the park, after getting into trouble one too many times.

When the animals discover that there's a shortage of food and they won't be able to survive the upcoming Winter, two of the group's more honorable members, Grayson and Andie, are tasked with procuring nuts. They run into Surly on the streets and join forces for a heist that's full of constant twists and turns.

The plot leads to lots of wire-swinging, hole-digging, car-chasing adventure, which is lots of fun to watch through 3-D lenses. No boredom here!

From the get-go, scrappy Surly is out for himself. He undervalues his undyingly loyal pal, Buddy (an endearing, big-toothed rat), until he finds himself alone on the mean city streets. When the going gets tough, the importance of a reliable friend becomes apparent, a lesson that we're definitely down with imparting upon our kids.

Do-gooder Andie, an extremely capable and well-liked squirrel, aims to please. On multiple instances, she's tasked with embarking upon missions by the park animals' leader, Raccoon, then told that she'll play second-in-command to Grayson, a narcissistic male.

Grayson is under the impression that the two are a romantically linked couple, but Andie puts her pompous pal in his place.

Once the nut heist is officially under way, no one is who they seem. Once rivals, Grayson and Surly become cohorts. The mobsters who own the nut store that the animals are raiding (it's a cover for their illegal endeavors, of course) turn out to be duping one another. And the biggest surprise of all comes from the leader of the animal pack, Raccoon, who turns out to be not at all who he seems.

When the double-crossing begins, things get a little complicated. At one point during the film, I had to force myself to focus in order to keep track of who was tricking who, so I'd imagine that younger kids would find themselves a bit lost as well.

From Surly's introductory stunt to steal from a nut cart to the cameo from a surprise pop star during the credits (it's worth staying for, we promise!), The Nut Job is full of excitement and hilarity that'll keep kids laughing. There are a handful of grown-up references that mom and dad will appreciate, and it moves along pretty quickly.

While there are a few scary scenes — the evil rat gang is one of the creepiest groups of animated animals out there — the movie's reasonably lighthearted.

For the most part, the kids will be on the edge of their seats and (at some points) having full-on giggle fits.