The Croods
(2013)Meet the first modern family.
Prehistoric animated feature from DreamWorks (Shrek), featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone and Catherine Keener. When their cave is destroyed, the Crood family set out to find a new home and encounter a strange, new territory. Struggling already to keep order amongst his litter, things get worse for patriarch Grug (Cage) when they encounter an imaginative nomad named Guy (Reynolds) - a new romantic interest for daughter Eep (Stone). From the director of How to Train Your Dragon.
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Directed by Kirk De Micco, Chris Sanders
Starring Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, Cloris Leachman
Written by Kirk De Micco, Chris Sanders
Studio DreamWorks Animation
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 5 providers
Flicks Review
BY Liam Maguren Flicks Writer
Making his distinctive style known with Lilo & Stitch, animation veteran Chris Sanders proved his children’s storytelling abilities with the superb How to Train Your Dragon. However, his latest outing takes him to the same tier as Pixar filmmaking warlocks Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter and Brad Bird.... More
When continental shifts cause the land around them to crumble, a family of cavemen, women and children are forced out of their cave of safety and solitude – much to the daughter’s delight and the father’s horror. Strangers to the world they inhabit, they come across Guy, a fellow Neanderthal whose lack of ignorance is their key to both survival and to living.
From the delightfully oddball creature designs to the plethora of visual gags, the Darwinian creativity on display is absorbing. Guy’s long-armed sloth pet Belt alone is going to reignite the plush toy industry and I literally laughed out loud when they took their family ‘photo’. Aside from perhaps the mother, each of the Croods brim with personality, characters complemented by the film’s surprisingly well-suited cast of A-listers.
The Croods didn’t just strike a chord in me; it played a harmony. Along with the film’s laughs and hijinks it also expresses the lessons I’d want my own children to learn – how fear of the unknown can be extinguished with understanding and that true beauty can be revealed through knowledge and experience. It’s a tight balancing act mixing this sort of heart with family-centric hilarity, but The Croods nails it. This is pure DreamWorks magic.Hide
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The Croods
BY Sean-Oconnor1 nobody
From the first frantic 5 minutes, this movie had great character development, humour for both kids and adults alike. My 12 year old loved it and so did I!
BY jaynine superstar
I loved every single character presented. The film was colourful, adorable, and super funny. The hybrid animals were interesting to see but lacked originality. My brother predicting a sequel to this film and that got me a bit worried - this film was wonderful enough but if they opened it to sequels I feel like it'll meet with Ice Age 10.
I enjoyed the film and its great to watch with the family!
BY delarge101 superstar
Crug, Eep, Ugga, Thunk, Gran and Sandy make up the members of the boisterous, clumsy but, I guess, vernacularly bright, Croods family. The Croods are a pre-historic, hunting and gathering family, who fear 'new things' and curiosity, and live by the motto, "never not be afraid". The 'teenage girl' of the family, Eep (Emma Stone), ends up betraying this rule, and delves into her adventurous side. She escapes the... More family's beloved cave-home, and meets a cave-boy called Guy (Ryan Reynolds). Guy carries with him advanced practical techniques, and preaches Eep a forthcoming apocalypse. The movie follows The Croods' journey for refuge in a dangerous but exotic land.
The Croods, the 26th Dreamworks Animation release, plays more like a children's adventure story, rather than a slapstick, animated comedy that everybody can enjoy. It is a visual treat, and features the best animation work Dreamworks has done since How to Train Your Dragon, but it does nothing for us emotionally. The storytelling is bland and ordinary, and the voice acting contains more groans, yells and typical Nic Cage freakouts, than quirky and tongue-in-cheek humour seen in such superior animated comedies such as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and the Toy Story trilogy.
Although, the animation at work here is bold and mesmerising in its use of animation and textures; rivalling the visual spectacular seen in Pixar's Wall-E and Disney's Wreck-it Ralph. The exotic but crumbling environment plays like a battleground for the Neanderthal family's life, and the creation and blending of pre-historic creatures was creative and entertaining.
Though sure to captivate the kids, the film's lack of cheeky humour and instead a direct approach to an overburdened sense of sentiment and peril, leave meagre rewards for teenagers and adults.Hide
BY Mo-Mo nobody
This was definitely the best animated movie I've seen in a long time. The combination of animals was genius, the idea of overcoming fear of the unknown was brilliant and the humour was through and through magnificent. "Belt" was hilarious and the protectiveness Grug showed towards Eep was heart warming. Watch it, you won't regret it!!
BY Roo grader
Really well done animated film, did find it dragging a little, expected a little more comedy for the kids, the lasting impression with my four year old was the "belt" character. Really excellent feel good family movie.
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The Press Reviews
69%
of critics recommend.
Rotten Tomatoes Score. More reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Bold visually but thumpingly ordinary storytelling. Full Review
A sort of methadone for die-hard Ice Age fans. Full Review
Lagging in the comedy stakes, this sweet Stone Age clan nonetheless will captivate the youngsters. Full Review
Like the continents, it's a little too easy to drift away. Full Review
But for the most part it’s Neanderthal compared to the Pixar stable. Full Review
Although state-of-the-art in its rendering of textures, movement and stereography, The Croods adopts a relatively primitive approach to storytelling. Full Review
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