“The Croods,” DreamWorks latest animated feature film, has
come cute elements. I liked the croco-dog and the fluffy saber-tooth. But the
script isn’t very funny and the various subplots never quite mesh. And apart
from the central characters, Grug, Eep and Guy, the other characters add little
to the story apart from a few feeble jokes, such as when Gran (voiced by Cloris
Leachman) reminisces, ‘He was a hunter, I was a gatherer. It was quite a
scandal.’ Funny, huh? Nonetheless, the pacing is generally good and there are
several action scenes that will keep you from dwelling on the choppiness of the
plot and the lack of humor. The bigger problem is this movie lacks an emotional
core, the element that makes Pixar’s films so exceptional.
The Croods are a tight-knit family of six headed by
patriarch Grug (an effective Nicholas Cage) and his wife Ugga (a wasted Catherine
Keener), who live in a cave in a vast landscape populated by the odd bird and
tiger. Grug isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed but he’s fiercely loyal and
protects his family with all his might, imposing on them a strict routine: wake
up, hunt for food, rush back to the cave before sundown. The world is a
dangerous place. ‘Fear is good; change is bad’ Grug maintains. However, Grug’s
eldest, teenage rebel Eep (Emma Stone) breaks all the rules. She leaves the
cave one night and runs into the first non-Crood boy she’s ever met, a dashing
guy named, er, Guy (Ryan Reynolds), who is on a journey to the mountains and
carries with him a wondrous thing called fire. Guy is obviously more evolved
than the Croods. He persuades them to leave their cave because the world is
changing and they need to move to higher ground. At this point, the movie
shifts to a road trip. Kids will like “The Croods.” Adults will be harder to
please. 3/22/13
1 comment:
Good that they have films like this so I can take my grandkids
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