Film review: “The Croods”

 

Dreamworks’ latest movie, “The Croods” tells a story of a family set in a prehistoric area known as The Croodaceous. Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage) is an overprotective father that tries to protect his daughter, Eep (Emma Stone) against the “scary” and “perilous” outside world. The main plot of the movie is about a prehistoric family trying to escape the crumbling land that had become their home.

One of the best features of the movie is its spectacular landscape.

The movie also came in a 3D format which makes it cooler for the effects to be watched. Even though there weren’t so many air-gasping, stomach- rolling funny lines, there were a few really funny lines like Grug’s battle cry “Release the baby!”

Other members of the Crood family include Gran (Cloris Leachman) and Grug’s wife, Ugga (Catherine Keener). Later in the movie, they will also introduce Guy, an intelligent cave boy, who will then be Eep’s love interest. Guy (Ryan Reynolds) has an animal sidekick, a sloth named Belt (Chris Sanders).

Basically, “The Croods” is almost like a typical family sitcom with an overbearing father who hates his mother-in-law and a curious rebellious daughter.

Co-director Chris Sanders who also directed “How to Train Your Dragon” did a wonderful job shooting the movie. From the movie plot perspective, “The Croods” is definitely  more entertaining and engaging than “How to Train Your Dragon”. Mostly because many scenes and extras in “The Croods” are imaginary and made up characters that keeps the audience’s interest in following what they will encounter next.

The basic theme in “The Croods” is about discoveries and embracing new ideas compared to following old traditions. The movie is rated PG. It is an entertaining movie for children to watch and there is nothing to really dislike about it.

One more interesting thing about the movie is since the movie was set in the prehistoric era, there were many interesting extras shown such as a pack of dogs mixed with lizards, tiger parrots, elephant rats and many others.