Director: Ross Venokur
Distributor: Splendid Film
Duration: 86 minutes
Get Squirrely (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
The animal kingdom has been the source of many beautiful stories, be it animated or live action. While some of these stories are memorable, there are also heaps of tacky and cheap ones which often make it hard for you to decide which one is worth the effort. This time we travel to the animal equivalent of Las Vegas to meet Frankie, a squirrel that clearly borrowed George Cloony’s persona from the Oceans’ series. This rodent Al Capone also committed a fair share of atrocities, albeit for the viewers.
Frankie (Jason Jones) has been locked up in the local wild reserve for quite some time, but finally devised a way out and thus with his renewed freedom he decides to head back home to the forest, where he hopes to pick up the shattered pieces of his life again. Upon his return he hopes to see Lola (Victoria Justice), the love of his life, who got stood up when he was captured. Everywhere everybody keeps telling him that she’s enraged by the fact that he got caught during his last shady job, and thus he wasn’t able to keep his promise of seeing her that night. While trying to assess the damage he has done, Frankie visits his old right-hand man Cody (Will Forte) who informs him of what has transpired in the forest during the period he has been gone. It seems disaster has struck, as the humans have stolen all of the forest’s acorns to grind down and use as the key component in a butt tightening cream. Of course, with winter at the forest’s doorstep, most of the rodents and other critters will need to stock up, but with all the acorns gone the chances of survival seem to be dwindling every day that passes.
Even though Frankie initially promised Lola it would be his last job ever, which eventually led to his capture, it seems he will have to get his hands dirty once again, albeit for the good of the entire forest. Sadly, the human factory is equipped with many items to deter animals, security systems and even soldiers. To accomplish his goal, Frankie will need a team to back him up, but also the necessary sponsoring which leads him to Mr. Bellwood (John Cleese), the one who will have to agree in order to lead things down the right path. After his approval, Frankie visits some old teammates and possible new ones, making sure their team has what it takes. After ending up with a snake that is able to hack computers, a bat with explosive poo, a tiny yet strong frog and the necessary digging and freerunning crew, things seem to be looking up for the ragtag group of animals. That being said, Frankie doesn’t only need to worry about the survival of the forest, but also the love of his life, Lola.
Overall the movie follows a rather predictable pattern, namely the introduction of all the characters, the training for the mission and of course the heist itself, where a very predictable ending is just around the corner. While the jokes are subpar, some do hit their marks, but overall everything feels like they did too much effort to combine a rather adult look, which is clearly based on the Oceans trilogy with… . By trying too hard to please both the younger viewers as well as their parents, many things seem to have gone lost in translation, making everything a rather bland and boring mess.
It’s a given that not every studio has the budget Pixar has and thus it’s quite normal that the graphical quality of this movie is a lot lower. That being said, some things could have been avoided, simply by paying more attention to the overall development. Many characters seem to shift in size, making them large one moment, while being just as big as a character that was half its size two scenes later. Also – things like acorns that seem to grow towards the sky are quite peculiar. The acorn factory and its soldiers were quite original and pleasant to watch.
Even though the voice acting shows a certain touch of quality, it never reach a stellar, or convincing level, making things seem like a incoherent gathering of different actors and actresses. While the ‘fifties’ vibe Jason Jones hands to Frankie has a certain kind of appeal, it doesn’t really match the things around him, or even the mission at hand. John Cleese’s cameo is amusing, but far too limited to make it a bigger part of the movie. Last but not least, it’s clear that the creators used Victoria Justice as a gimmick, rather than a full-fledged character, making things once again a lot less than it could have been.
This Blu-ray release does not come with any special features outside of some commercial trailers for other animated Splendid Film pictures, most being quite old already. That being said, a movie like this doesn’t really need any extras.
Conclusion
Even though Get Squirrely might offer some entertainment value for children, who would simply love some of the antics of certain characters, the movie is filled with cliché scenes, unlikeable characters and feels lacking in almost every department. Nonetheless, it has a few moments that offer some redemption value, but overall it misses the mark, even with some of the subtle winks to more adult sources.
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