Rating of
2.5/4
Good to Be Crood
Chris Kavan - wrote on 04/01/13
I'm conflicted over The Croods. While I though the design and animation was quite well done - the story and characters just didn't connect with me. What you have is really a basic family adventure mixed with the requisite comedy/drama quotient and wrapped up in a caveman skin. While it isn't done badly - it's pretty standard in my eyes.
Early on we meet our modern caveman family - father Grug (Nicolas Cage), mother Ugga (Catherine Keener), daughter Eep (Emma Stone), son Thunk (Clark Duke), Gran (Cloris Leachman) and the animalistic toddler Sandy. Grug is overprotective to the point where anything involving leaving their cave is forbidden - his nightly bedtime stories always end in death - usually due to "curiosity". But his daughter Eep is the polar opposite - she just wants to live her life - or at least get out of the cave every once in awhile. Of course, when breakfast involves trekking for miles and escaping a hungry feline - maybe the cave isn't so bad. But the daily grind is about to change. Eep meets the somewhat more evolved Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who introduces her to fire, and his pet slot "Belt" which he uses as a belt (hey, no one said he was that much more evolved) - and also tells her the world is going to end and she should really come with him.
Of course she stays with her family - but fate is about to change everything. When their cave is destroyed, The Croods are forced to leave and are introduces to a whole new world teeming with life and Grug sees danger around ever corner. Guy shows up to save them only to be log-knapped as they make their way towards a mountain - Grug just wants a new cave for everyone to live in, but Guy is convinced the mountain is the only place that will be safe from impending doom. Along the way we get shoes, the invention of the hug and a few snappy one-liners.
Where The Croods shines is in its design - the creatures especially from land-bound whales to a swarm of carnivorous birds - is very well done. Likewise, the characters also have a great design - I especially liked the lizard tail on Gran. The vocal talent is well done - Duke is given the best lines as the somewhat thick-headed son and provides most of the comic relief (along with the musical Belt who chimes in at just the right times). Cage comes off very nice as the overprotective father figure while Leachman is a hoot as the never-quite-dead-yet Gran. Stone and Reynolds may sound like a bizarre live-action couple - but as voices both work together well.
The main problem lies in that The Croods just isn't all that original when it come to character development or plot. Sure, the surroundings look great - but all the typical family cliches are there - including the super saccharine ending that would make Spielberg go into diabetic shock. This is one of those animated films I think the kids will like more than the adults simply because it just doesn't have that extra layer of depth. Everything is right there on the surface - it works, but it's way too simple.
In the end, this is an enjoyable animated film - it looks amazing for sure - but it's just not as memorable as I was hoping.
