The Croods Review

Animation ancestry---Emma Stone as a cave girl and Ryan Reynolds as a more modern gentleman in The Croods

                        Ever since Pixar came along...animation has never been the same. Audiences have experience Up, Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo among others and therefore have been less accepting of animation from other companies. Us film critics are very guilt of this as well. Now we have The Croods....a sitting duck of an animated comedy that, even without Pixar around, would look pretty bad in the light of day. Sure...this film is released by Pixar's sister company Dreamworks but despite a few gorgeous landscapes and some nice voice work, the film also falls flat on its face.

                          In the film...Emma Stone voices Eep...a cave girl whose dad, Grug (Nicolas Cage) follows the rules. Eep, however, wants to defy the rules. After wandering out one night (thus defying the rules)...she meets Guy (Ryan Reynolds)...a man who is a bit more modern in the way he lives his life. This begins an adventure with Guy showing Eep and her family the new ways of life such as wearing shoes, making fire and drinking water.

                           The film may not have been so dull had it found a way to appeal to both little ones and the parents who are going to be dragged to see it in droves. This is not to say it's a bad film. It's not. It's to say that the prehistoric humor won't really appeal to either side and the bright colors will do nothing for parents.The film also has a massive amount of moments in which talk about "the new world" is in play and that talk really goes nowhere. One example of this is when Guy talks about how this world represents everything anyone stands for. Rather than build suspense as this should...it makes the conflict less interesting. 

                           The film could have also not made Eep such a nuisance of a character. Throughout the film...the audience knows where she is coming from but the way she displays her ideas are far less desirable than one might expect. Now...the voice work is surprisingly excellent. Stone, Cage and Reynolds all do a phenomenal job at bringing their characters to life as do supporting players such as Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke. A few of the colorful landscapes are quite gorgeous as well but like I said before...the parents won't be too enthusiastic about scenery because they will have already seen it all before.

                            Yes...I understand this is a kids film. That means its primary demographic won't even be reading this review. However, I wrote this review to warn the parents that The Croods is no Up and that Grug is no Marlin.
(2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated PG for some scary action)