In order to survive way back in the day, you had to follow a certain set of rules: stick together, don’t venture out in the dark and be afraid of everything. Those rules are what kept one caveman family alive in the Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders directed animated family adventure, The Croods, before mother nature decided it had other plans for their living arrangements.
The film follows The Croods, a caveman family unit comprised of six people: The cautious and protective father Grug (Nicolas Cage), the supportive wife Ugga (Catherine Keener), the wide eyed, rebellious and adventurous Eep (Emma Stone), the dimwitted, good natured and uncoordinated son Thunk (Clark Duke), the insane doglike baby daughter Sandy (Randy Thorn) and Ugga’s wild and loudmouth mother Gran (Cloris Leachman). Living in fear of the darkness, The Croods’ life is all about survival as they seem to be the last family left, venturing outside their cave during the day to get food and then returning before dusk to ensure that they can live another day. Eep isn’t satisfied with what her father considers “living,” she is obsessed with daylight and is curious about the world around her.
When she sneaks out one night she meets a non-caveman named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who introduces her to fire and warns of an apocalyptic like even that’s coming. Eventually Guy’s prophecy comes true and The Croods’ cave is destroyed, forcing them to go on a journey to a new land filled with a lot of strange creatures and surprises that put Grug on edge. Eventually they meet up with Guy and he becomes their “prisoner” guide as he attempts to bring them to a safe place called “tomorrow.” This is a family road trip by foot that’s as much of a rollercoaster ride as any family vacation you’ve ever been on by car.
Visually, The Croods reminds me a lot of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It is extremely vibrant, colorful and rich with imagination. The character designs alone were really cool and probably my favorite part of the film. The animals that The Croods encounter as they go on their adventure are all twists on animals that exist in our society today. Some of my favorites were these small pink birds that were basically flying piranhas, humpback whales with legs that rest in the ground and walk around slowly on land, and the turtle doves (literally flying turtles), though the punching monkeys were hilarious.
The film takes us on a ride full of emotions as we witness Grug seem to lose his authoritative and protective grip on his family as Guy attempts to lead them to safety. He begins to breakdown over the course of the film and, outside of the natural calamities, it is the main source of conflict for the characters. In fact, the movie takes us through the emotional spectrum, providing some very touching and heartwarming moments, a few laugh out loud scenes and even one potential tear jerking moment if you allow yourself to be open enough. In this regard the film is a success for being able to connect with the audience in a variety of ways.
Overall, The Croods was a surprisingly fun caveman adventure that had some clever twists on the prehistoric world and the creation of some of the inventions and words we have in our world today. It does follow a pretty generic formula and is highly predictable but this is an easy film to watch with your family if you need something for all ages and want something vibrant and beautiful to stare at for 98 minutes.
The Disc:
As for the disc itself, the movie looks excellent on Blu-ray especially since it is such a colorful film, this is definitely the way to go if you have the capability to play these discs.
There are a bunch of special features on the disc too, below is the breakdown:
The Croodaceous Creatures of Croods: Nine short animal planet like segments where Eep discusses the attributes of some of the cool creature seen in the film.
Belt’s Cave Journal (6:10): A look into Belt’s journal which shows how he became this jack of all trades creature. It plays out like a story board with Guy narrating and shows us one of Betl and Guys’ adventures.
Croods’ Cuts: Lost Scenes (8:20): These are scenes that were deleted from the film, only one of which was fully animated, and the directors provide a set-up with some commentary as to why the scene was deleted before they show us the storyboarded scene.
Be an Artist: Draw Creatures from the Croods (35:35): This was actually pretty cool. One of the artists who worked on the film shows us how to draw three creatures from the film in a step-by-step format. He shows us how to draw Belt the sloth, Macawnivore the tiger like creature, and the Girelephant.
Trailers
Previews
A Look at DreamWorks Animation Studios
Digital Copy
Movie Rating: A fun animated family film that ends up being much better than you initially expected it to be (6.3/10)
Blur-ray Rating: 6.7/10
The Croods is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and DreamWorks
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