Once again, I was pleasantly surprised by another animated movie. That’s happening a lot, these days.
The movie is set in prehistoric times, and is about a family of cavemen named the Croods (could you have guessed?). The rules of the family, as established by the dad, are as follows: going outside the cave is bad, anything new is bad, and curiosity is bad. The dad’s motto is “never not be afraid”. As you could imagine, when the world starts falling apart around them and they have no cave to hide in, it’s not going to be easy for them to step outside their comfort zone.
Firstly, the family itself is pretty cool. The chemistry between all of them is good, the banter is funny and relatable, and each one of them is enjoyable. The usual case for movies about families of any kind is that maybe one or two of the characters are okay, but the rest are annoying. This is not the case with The Croods. Everyone in the family is a good, enjoyable character.
The family consists of a mom and dad, a grandma, 2 daughters and a son. The main character is the teenage daughter, Eep, voiced by Emma Stone. She is the curious one of the paranoid family. She’s the one who wants to go out and explore the world. But her father, voiced by Nicolas Cage, is not too happy about that. He’s the overprotective dad who made up all the rules. His character is my favorite out of all of them. He’s the most dynamic. He only wants to keep his family alive, but has trouble adjusting to the new things.
When the family has to leave their wrecked home, they (kinda) follow the lead of Guy. Guy is voiced by Ryan Reynolds, and he knows how to use fire and comes up with all the smart ideas, and Eep has a huge crush on him. Their little romance thing is cute and not as annoying as I thought it would be, given how a lot of animated movies handle this sort of thing.
Ultimately, it’s a movie about stepping outside your comfort zone and not being afraid to do so. It’s a really well executed message for the kids. It’s got a lot of meaning and heart behind it. The emotional scenes were done pretty well, too. Dreamworks is awesome with stuff like that.
But if there was one problem I had with the movie, it would mostly be within the final 20 minutes or so. I don’t know what happened with the flow of the story there. It felt a bit rushed for a few minutes. The flow just got disrupted. But the disruption only lasts for a few minutes, and I wouldn’t say it brings down the movie that much. There’s plenty that makes up for it. The comedy, the animation- oh, I almost forgot to mention: the animation is fantastic!
I’ve seen a lot of well animated films in recent years. How to Train Your Dragon, Big Hero 6, The Lego Movie… and in terms of quality, I’d rank it up there with them. The environments look absolutely gorgeous! Even in the beginning, where it’s all rock and dirt, even that looks great! But it explodes with color and creativity not long after the 20 minute mark. The environments are simply amazing to look at, and the animals are weird and awesome. There’s turtle birds, elephant mice, bright and colorful sabre tooth cats, a goat-bird, a skunk-alligator thing, and a lot of other creatures. To say that the movie looks impressive is an understatement like never before. If you end up not liking the characters or the story, then at the very least you’ll love the animation.
I really want to own this one on Blu-Ray now. I highly recommend it to all families who want a fun movie to watch together. It’s good for anyone of any age.
FINAL RATING: 47 / 50
STORY: 4 / 5
VOICE ACTING: 5 / 5
CHARACTERS: 5 / 5
ANIMATION: 5 / 5
COMEDY/ADVENTURE: 5 / 5
SOUNDTRACK: 3 / 5
TONE: 5 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 5 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 5 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 5 / 5
Here's the trailer, in case you need more convincing.
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