Squirrels (2016 movie)

Squirrels is a comedy/clay-animated/action/police/computer graphics movie by Dreamworks. It was released on July 2, 2016. It is available on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. It costs $3.44 on Amazon Prime. It costed $95 million to create. It grossed $998 million, making it one of the most successful Dreamworks movies worldwide. It was created by the creators of Shrek and ''Madagascar. It was directed by Tom McGrath. ''

Beginning
In the beginning scene, a squirrel named Nutty is walking on a tree, looking at a view of a park in a fictional large city called "Instantville". While Nutty is exploring the tree for awhile, he sees a a giant pile of nuts in a hole in the tree, He decides to check it out, but to his surprise, a another squirrel named Jay is sleeping in the hole. Nutty decides to be sneaky and slyly grab an acorn from the pile of nuts, but didnt go as planned. Instead, Jay wakes up, screaming, as Nutty screams aswell. After screaming to eachother, Jay introduces himself.

Middle of the film
Jay and Nutty decide to hang out on the tree for awhile. Later in the film, A bragging, selfish ferret named Alan steals the acorns from Jay, in order to make money for destroying the park that Nutty lives in.After Jay and Nutty find out that the acorns are gone, they ask to help six other critters, a groundhog named Emilia, a strong, sassy and kindhearted groundhog, a fox named "Fluffy", an opossum named "Explorer", an otter named "Buck", another fox named "Felicity" and another squirrel named "Sandy".

Ending
When they find Alan, rushing away from the R.A.C.C.O.O.N police, a team of police raccoons that try to find suspicious critters around the town, and arrest them. Emila, Nutty and Jay decide to join the R.A.C.C.O.O.N team to chase Alan. A few minutes later of a crazy chase, The critters finally caught Alan and arrest him. And finally, Jay gets his acorns back. The critters decide to throw a party in Jay's tree.

Credits
In the credits, it shows all of the critters dancing in Jay's tree, while the cast, storyboard artists and much more roll. The song called "Cake by the Ocean (clean)" by DNCE is playing. There are strobe lights, dance floors, and much more as Nutty and Jay are robot-dancing, as it cuts to Emilia break-dancing and the raccoons head-bobbing, then cuts to Sandy doing the worm, and then it shows Buck doing the "Twist", then Explorer also head-bobbing, then Felicity jumping happily to the song, and Fluffy also doing the robot-dance. It then finally cuts to all of the critters dancing, in one scene. During the end of the credits, it shows Alan in his jell cell, a boarded-up wooden crate. He says to himself, "Ugh, they are having so much fun...".

2010-2014
Squirrels was in early development in 2010. They decided to scrap the idea, but a few years later they decided to work on Squirrels again. Squirrels was originally going to be set to be released on ''December 10, 2014, but the producers decided to change it to July 2, 2016. ''A few years later, they were making storyboards, and improved character designs and names.

2014-2016
In late 2014, new cast members joined, as Ben Stiller as Nutty and David Schwimmer as Jay. Workers of the film started doing the 3d rendered animation for the film. They decided to do some test screenings to see if the scenes were appropriate for kids. They deleted some scenes, since the audience said it was too "frightening" for kids. On early 2015, Dreamworks officially announced on their website that Squirrels will be releasing on July 2, 2016. On August 4, Dreamworks posted a trailer of Squirrels on their official youtube channel. A few months later, DreamWorks announced that Squirrels will be releasing early in Britain. On December 4, 2015, it got released early in Britain. A few months later, in July 2, 2016, the movie got officially released in 6,000+ theaters, making it a worldwide hit. On August 2016, DreamWorks released a Blu-Ray version, resulting 16 million+ buys worldwide. It grossed over $998 million, making it the best-selling, grossing DreamWorks movie ever.

Cast
David Schwimmer as Jay

Ben Stiller as Nutty

Jada Pinkett Smith as Emilia

Alec Baldwin as Alan

Katherine Heigl as Sandy

Tom McGrath as unnamed raccoon cop 1

Chris Miller as unnamed raccoon cop 2

Christopher Knights as Explorer

Nicole Sollivan as Felicity

Nick Park as Buck

Score
The score was composed by Hans Zimmer, a composer of many movies such as Madagascar, and much more. The best-known soundtracks of Squirrels were "The Ferret Chase", "Meeting the Critters", and "Alan Steals the Acorns".

Official Score

 * 1) "Exploring the Tree"
 * 2) "Seeking the Acorns"
 * 3) "Suprised!"
 * 4) "Jay, the Squirrel"
 * 5) "Alan Steals the Acorns"
 * 6) "Finding a Critter"
 * 7) "Meeting the Critters"
 * 8) "The Ferret Chase"
 * 9) "Locked Up"
 * 10) "Party!"

Possible sequel
In early 2017, McGrath stated that "A possible sequel of Squirrels is coming soon. They may have another big adventure." It is unknown if a sequel will actually happen, but McGrath also said "It is getting a release date of May 21, 2017.". Another director stated "Squirrels 2 is in early development, but we dont have a name for the sequel yet." On May 3, 2017, DreamWorks accidentally leaked alot of information about Squirrels 2, Including storyboards, concept art, new characters, and the new name for Squirrels 2. It is apparently going to be called "Squirrels 2: Another Squirrelly Adventure". A few days later, DreamWorks stated "We are changing the release date to September 5, 2019, so we can have more time working on it.". It seems the sequel's story is about Alan breaking out of jail, so he can attempt to destroy the park one more time, but this time, the entire city. When the critters find out about this, they have to save their own city, with new characters such as a new squirrel, named "Jessica", a mole named "David", and a raccoon named "Stripes".

Critical Response
"Squirrels" gained "positive reviews" on Rotten Tomatoes, and IMDb. People said that it had "great humor, colorful graphics, amazing animation, and awesome actors". The New York Times responded "Squirrels is an overall amazing movie, with the best actors ever." .

"Squirrels has amazing humor, and some of the best actors... Like, ever."
-Vox

"Squirrels is a great movie for small animal lovers."
-The Verge