August 2017 - Parks & Recreation - 46

ARTS UNLEASHED

When Art Imitates Park Life
" The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature " animates land conservation

By Vitisia Paynich

ach summer, people in towns across
America flock to their local parks to partake in an evening of fun and entertainment. Armed with folding chairs, blankets
and picnic baskets, families and friends gather outdoors to socialize and enjoy a movie
experience under the stars. It's the best of
both worlds: arts and nature uniting as one.
But how would you feel if the same venue
that hosts " Movies in the Park " were to suddenly disappear? More to the point, imagine
your park overtaken by a greedy developer
intending to demolish your neighborhood
green space in order to make way for a dangerous amusement park. That's exactly what
Surly and his fellow animal friends encounter
in the animated feature film, " The Nut Job 2:
Nutty by Nature. "
Opening in theaters on August 11, 2017,
this much-anticipated sequel to the 2014
hit movie, " The Nut Job, " presented by Open
Road Films, reunites most of the original cast,
including Will Arnett as the voice of Surly, the
smart-aleck, self-serving squirrel; Katherine
Heigl as Andie, his problem-solving partner;
and Precious, the lovable bulldog voiced by
" Saturday Night Live " alum Maya Rudolph.
" The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature " also wel-

Parks & Recreation

comes new characters like, Mr. Feng, played
by action star Jackie Chan, and the mayor,
voiced by Bobby Moynihan.
Cal Brunker, known for his work on " Despicable Me, " " Escape from Planet Earth " and
" Minions, " directed this latest incarnation of
" The Nut Job " story - and even cowrote the
screenplay with fellow writers Scott Bindley
and Bob Barlen.
" I really liked the characters in the first film,
and this was an opportunity to tell a story
with my own spin on those characters, " explains Brunker. He adds that the studio wanted to take the " Nut Job " franchise in a slightly
new direction, thus giving him " the freedom
to do that with [these] amazing actors that
are in the movie. "
While the story, again, takes place in Liberty Park located in the fictional city of Oakton,
the antagonist this time is a nefarious mayor
with a scheme to bulldoze the animals' home
and replace it with a poorly constructed
amusement park. This prompts Surly and his
furry friends to join forces in a fight to save
their home from destruction.

Tapping Universal Themes
Although " The Nut Job 2 " is chiefly meant to
entertain audiences, Brunker points out the

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movie's universal theme of protecting one's
home. He explains that people might empathize with these animals' predicament because it, perhaps, reflects their personal experiences. " And while the [characters'] home
happens to be a park, " says Brunker, " we think
about our own homes. "
The movie's plot " is all about preserving
green space in our cities, " explains Jeffrey
Dickson, the film's storyboard supervisor.
However, doing so could prove challenging.
Yet in order to be triumphant, " you should
not be intimidated by overwhelming odds
against you. That's another important theme
that comes across, " he says.
Brunker admits that his own park experiences as a child influenced the storyline
somewhat. " Growing up, most of my friends
and I spent a lot of time outside; we went to
camps in the summer. " Brunker, who lives in
Canada, often visited Algonquin Provincial
Park in Ontario. " I think all of that time in nature really makes you appreciate this amazing planet that we live on. And...when you
see the destruction of the park in the movie, you're really rooting for the characters to
fight back and protect [their home], " he says.

Breathing Life into the Story
Developing an animated film is a creative endeavor that could take months, if not years,
to complete. For Brunker and his team, " The
Nut Job 2 " was a three-year project - from
beginning the script to handing over the finished movie. Before working on any of the
animation or storyboards, he concentrates
on the first draft of the screenplay. " Once
we've got that, we start working on the storyboard process so that we can start to see the
visuals come to life and see these characters
acting in the situations that they are going
to be in, " he says. It's at that point when you
actually begin to see the film take shape and
make changes accordingly.
When it comes to the animation, the devil is in the details. " We're really interested in
how things look in the animal world, so we
would go to parks and shoot photographs
close up of little clusters of animals and [observe] how they interact because all of it has
to be built by hand by an artist and then by
computer, " Brunker says.
" Our research, which took place in actual

August 2017 - Parks & Recreation

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