The Croods 3 / 4 Disney had a trend throughout the 90’s of retelling fairy tales and both historical and mythological eras of time by way of animation. The Croods harkens back to that trend by Disney’s biggest rival of CGI family entertainment in Dreamworks. This shouldn’t be a surprise as the film’s co-director and writer in Chris Sanders was the writer of Disney’s Aladdin, Lion King and Beauty and the Beast; three of the studio’s finest of its second golden age of animation. Sanders brings his knack of heart and emotional depth and crafts a film that not only serves as a companion piece to the Ice Age franchise, but it retains a relevancy of something worthy to add to the genre of mainstream animation. We are taken to the world of cavemen and a family of them isolated for many years living between sleeping in their dark cave and combating themselves against the wild outside for their daily food. When the eldest daughter (Emma Stone) in Eep grows complacent of her father Grug’s (Nicolas Cage) over protectiveness to limit his family’s exploration outside of the cave lands, Eep decides to climb out of the mountain circle one day to discover not just a Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who represents man’s transition from Neanderthal to full blown human, but of the world’s true beauty and harsh truths. The Crood family must adapt to their new discovery of the world which starts and ends with the head in Grug and his out dated ways. Visually, this movie is beautifully done. It rivals anything out of the Pixar machine and its details for exotic color, textile and porous feel are breathtaking. The imagination put into the pre-dinosaur era creatures is a treat for the eyes. We get everything from a giant Siberian tiger to winged lizards. Sanders and co-writer and director in Kirk De Micco try to tell the story of an earth of ages past that is slowly decaying into one of its ice ages and the way in which the CGI animation brings us from one level ascending and descending to another from land falling under is incredible. Nicolas Cage just didn’t seem to have the gravel and gruff to play the overgrown caveman father and husband to three kids and a wife (Catherine Keener). However, his voice acting brings a perfect blend of sensitivity, worry and wit for the role. Cloris Leachman voices the nutty/wise grandma in a role that could have easily been given to Betty White, but Leachman succeeds in making the role her own. Clark Duke as the son of Grug in Thunk brings the feel of Family Guy’s Chris and that familiarity made the CGI image and the voice acting of the character funnier than it should have been. This is at the core a family movie with a message that we’ve seen before but not seldom in this skin. The whole notion of facing the big bad world and striving for the light along with letting your children’s independence break free at the appropriate time has come in many films. But I was touched by the emotional connection between Grug and his daughter Eep from my own experiences of raising a daughter even years younger than Eep. I was also moved by the truth that the script brings to the Earth’s eventual end as the theme is more about living with the cards you have in opposed to the film trying to create artifice of happiness that wouldn’t exist. John Cleese was the third brain involved in the development of the story and it isn’t a surprise considering his witty comical take on history and life through Monty Python and Life of Brian. Is The Croods a landmark in the genre of family entertainment? No. Is it worth seeing and does it offer enough new mixed with old to be solid entertainment? Yes. Between the visual beauty of the CGI, the surprisingly good voice cast fleshing out their roles and a heartfelt script, The Croods is well worth a look.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 17:38:07 +0000
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