The Croods (2013)

Best movie ever!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Chris Sanders is one of my favorite animation directors of all time. He's worked some pretty fantastic animated movies both at Disney and DreamWorks and I have loved the previous two movies he's directed, "Lilo and Stitch" and "How to Train Your Dragon". Now he and director Kirk DeMicco bring us "The Croods" which focuses on a prehistoric family trying to survive in a crazy environment. It's not as a good as his other works, but I still think that this is a pretty fun movie with an okay story, gorgeous animation and some memorable characters to go with it. Here's how the film plays out.In prehistoric times, a cave family called The Croods is stubborn to typically leave their cave due to their stubborn father named Grug (Nicholas Cage) being scared of the dangers of the outside world. Although most of the family consisting of his wife Ugga (Catherine Keener), her mother Gran (Cloris Leachman), son Thunk (Clarke Duncan), and his ferocious young daughter Sandy are fine by these rules, his older daughter Eep (Emma Stone) is curious about the outside world and sick of always being stuck in a cave and goes out to explore. Pretty soon however, the families cave is destroyed in a massive earthquake and the family soon discovers a massive tropical forrest and are forced to find a new home in a matter of time. After discovering another young boy who can create fire named Guy (Ryan Reynolds), they embark on a crazy long journey to the mountain to find a cave before an impending apocalypse destroys them all.Now before we go over some of the problems the film has, let's talk about the good things that are in it first. The best thing about the movie is the animation. This is some of the best animation I have ever seen not just from DreamWorks, but in general. Everything looked so vast and beautiful and the colors were just eye-popping and rich. The jungle really reminded me a lot of Pandora from James Cameron's "Avatar" it was that good. Everything had so much beauty to it that I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. The characters are also a lot of fun. I think the chemistry between Guy and Eep was the strongest throughout the film as her curiosity matched with his clever personality match perfectly. I really liked how the animators at DreamWorks actually made the characters a little like the actors who were playing them. I found that Eep really did have a resemblance to Emma Stone which included her red hair and even Ugga looked an awful lot like Catherine Keener. It was kind of surprising how much the animators captured there looks in a way. As for the story, it's just okay. I feel that some of the scenes were more sequences of jokes sewn together rather than an actual movie at times, but as a whole I think it's alright. With that said though, the movie does have some problems. For one, I don't think the movie is as emotional as it could have been. It has some slightly effective moments, but they don't make a huge impact like "Lilo and Stitch" and "How to Train Your Dragon". Also, I felt that the movie's ending, which I'm not going to spoil, was a little too long. I felt like it could have been cut down a lot in order to make it work, but it kinda went on and I just kept thinking to myself "How much longer is this?" which is typically not a good sign. Though overall, I did like "The Croods". It definitely could have been a lot stronger that it was, but as a whole this is a pretty fun flick. The animation is fantastic, the characters are a lot of fun, and it's story is actually pretty okay for an animated movie. It's definitely not Chris Sanders' best work, but it's certainly not a bad film. I think it's a film you should check out eventually if you want to. Just don't expect anything too grand.

So in my last review, Oliver and Company, I defended a movie I felt was underrated. So today, I'm gonna do the opposite: bash something that I feel is overrated. Yep, you heard right, I don't like this movie. One of my big problems with this movie is the story. After their cave is destroyed, the rest of the movie is NOTHING but a roadtrip with occasional stops and the story doing random things with itself. Now, there are movies where I can excuse this kind of story including The Land Before Time and Finding Nemo which are both in my top 30 animated movies. However, the reasons those movies succeeded were because the stories were executed in a heartfelt way and had great characters. Not to mention, incredible animation. However, this movie is the complete opposite of those 2 movies. There is nothing heartfelt about this movie because I don't like any of the characters or care about any of their problems. Eeb isn't given enough time to be a character and all we know is that she wants more like every other 90's Disney princess ever! However, it worked in those movies because they let us know who these characters are, making us feel for them. Eeb has no personality other than being a rebellious, annoying teenager. Also, Eeb is introduced as the main character in the first act but then it suddenly switches to the father, Grug's, story. You know what? I actually hate him. He is annoying and ridiculously stupid. He's also the most overprotective and close-minded piece of crap I've ever had the misfortune of knowing. As for the other characters, I don't remember their names and I don't care. This is definitely Dreamworks second worst movie beaten out only by Shark Tale.

What a delightful family movie! We chose this not quite knowing what to expect and my goodness we were in for a treat.The story itself is pretty straightforward - a stone age family loses their home and has to search for a new one, and in the process learn about the really important things in life. Nothing too surprising there then.But it's the way this story is told that makes it fantastic. This is an incredibly fun and spectacularly colourful movie.The animation is done with blistering speed and real panache. There is a scene near the start showing the family out foraging for an egg - a simple enough idea but the resulting stand-off and chase with other hunting animals is a thrilling tour-de- force of animation.And my goodness, the colours! Every landscape and virtually every creature is lush with all the colours of the rainbow and (so it feels) more.This truly fits the definition of a 'magical' family movie. We were entranced.

The Croods (2013): Dir: Kirk DeMicco, Chris Sanders / Voices: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman: Prehistoric animation about one of the original families. The head of the cave is Grug and he is strong and constantly concerned about the safety of his family. His daughter Eep is adventurous and disregards her father's paranoia. Others include the wife, son, baby, and granny. Eventually Guy enters the picture when Eep sneaks out of the cave and marvels at his creation of fire. Guy warns them about the end of the earth and when an earthquake destroys their cave they are off to find new refuge. Not much of a plot and the structure is one simplistic encounter after another. The saving grace is a climax that presents Grug in a position where he must think on the spot and delivers on a brilliant plot solution. Directors Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders are backed with a lot of corny story elements but ultimately it is the animated presentation that scores the highest marks. Many of the characters are flat but Nicolas Cage is amusing voicing Grug who competes with Guy for his family's affection and trust. Emma Stone voices the ambitious and curios Eep who has her father's strength. Ryan Reynolds voices Guy whose resourceful keen senses solve much yet create tension with Grug. Other roles are not as well developed including a granny who has more energy than she should have at her prehistoric age. The animation is the highlight and the theme is family and the willingness to cut ties and trust those we care for to make beneficial choices. Score: 6 ½ / 10