Plot
The world's very first prehistoric family goes on a road trip to an uncharted and fantastical world.
Release Year: 2013
Rating: 7.0/10 (1,252 voted)
Director:Kirk De Micco
Storyline
The Croods is a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the world's first family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures -- and their outlook is changed forever.
Trivia:
The first DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by 20th Century Fox. See more »
User Review
You Had Me At Tomorrow...
Rating: 8/10
First off... this is a highly recommended film for anyone with a good
heart - and even a few lacking it. The film opens with voice-over
narration introducing The Crood family. The animated sequence is
minimalist and emulates cave drawings (a theme running through the
film) while it also felt like an homage to Dusan Vukotic, The Zagreb
School and other 'reduction' animators of the 1950s and 60s. The story
has a monomyth structure that integrates family roles in at the
critical spots (future husband as herald, villain as co-paternal
figure, etc.). The first scenes have a specular quality and with a
minimalist mise-en-scene it might have been regarded that these
directorial choices were purely exploitative to the 3-D gimmick. Good
fun action establishes the quirks of a 'pre-nuclear' family
experiencing 'cave-in fever'. Father Crood (voiced by Cage) has all the
qualities and clichés of a responsible father. In fact, the characters
and the story are quite cliché - but it isn't exploitative. Freshness
is retained through moments of self-reflexivity (the popcorn pile,
Guignol shows) and clever situational puns. The minimalist elements of
the staging and mise-en-scene are banished like darkness in light once
the family are forced to venture out into the more majestic parts of a
fantasy world. It is a fantasy world - with dozens of original
creatures and hybrids that make one think of Disney's Alice in
Wonderland. Some of these creatures provide strong 'support' such as
Belt and 'Duggie'. Even 'villains' are appropriated as pets in this
dangerous, threatening but awe-inspiring and enlightening world. The
threats are ominous but not frightening and children of all ages will
enjoy the show (just keep the kids away from Gears of War Kryll
instead). The Croods are cute animated characters and the animation
itself is of top quality and the highest possible technical sheen (the
luscious fur was the most enticing and tantalizingly tactile lure in
the film). The cave-family is physically atavistic in appearance, but
jovial and comically gentle in demeanor. The diastema creates warm
smiles and helps forge loving moments. The ending is a happy one and
there is no Bambi-mother slaughter moment in the entire film (I guess
we are past that now huh). One of the advantages of digital rendering
is the open possibilities that lie outside the strict film medium - the
180 flip dive into the water is mesmerizing. There are great moral
lessons about learning and acceptance that do not preach nor are
prophetic. My favorite part of the film is a sequence where Father
Crood makes his first effort at a change-for-the-better by adorning
himself in 'modern' innovations like the 'Pre-Funk' George Clinton
coif. His ideas backfire into a laugh-out-loud homage to Looney Tunes
mayhem. One other homage stood out (for this reviewer) in the genial
portrayal of a quest for paradise - that is Wil Vinton's Adventures of
Mark Twain and the Adam and Eve story that Vinton retells within that
film. You can't tell me there aren't Biblical allusions either - with
the Noah's Ark moments at the end, paradise lost theme and Adam-Eve
procreation imperative underlying a more overt father-daughter
relationship of trust, growth and acceptance. This film text is rich
for scholarly and critical analysis. The relationship of minimalism and
magnitude play well for a sophisticated viewer while the genial takes
on universal family - and human - values will entertain all... oh and
the mouse-elephants... if you see The Croods for no other reason, do it
for the mouse-elephants.
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