The worlds very first prehistoric family goes on a road trip to an uncharted and fantastical world.THE CROODS is an animated adventure film fun for all ages, and I mean all ages. Taking you back to the time of the Flinstones, it tells the tales of a family (The Croods) and their cave-man Neanderthal like ways. With the adolescents of Eep (Emma Stone) counteracting the many years her Father Grug (Nicholas Cage) has hid the family in caves for protection. Despising the fact she is constantly trapped in a cave along with her curiosity. She takes a risk and meets Guy (Ryan Reynolds) to soon discover her world will turn upside down.
Very well animated with the aid of todays technology, every expression is clear and felt life-like it was hard to keep a dry eye at one stage of the film. The voices for each character were well cast and impressive. The screenplay is well written with both obvious and subtle jokes that weren’t derogatory or offensive. The characters did feel somewhat stereotypical American. A little too much that it took away from the fact this was meant to be set in a prehistoric time. Non-the-less, it’s a well made and uplifting film.
THE CROODS really takes you on an adventure into an unseen land with carnivorous flying birds, whales that live on land and monkeys that punch you. It’s creativity was overwhelming and colourful; I was dazzled by the scenery. The picture was pleasant to the eye and captured each scenes objective and emotion almost perfectly.
The message of THE CROODS, I felt was a little too preachy. The voice over by Eep at the beginning and end felt like she was shoving the message she learned along the way down my throat. There’s a comedic element to the voice over at the beginning, but could have definitely been avoided, along with the stories she was telling, would have easily have been read visually. Having said that though, this is a kids film and not all kids would have understood the introduction or ending if it wasn’t for that voice over.
As someone who isn’t too fond in seeing kids films, when it comes to kids animated films I can’t get enough. There’s just something about the way the animation captures the innocents and correct emotion of the scene. The ‘cheesiness’ of adults talking like the audience is stupid is left out in animation and replaced with a seriousness that’s toned down with ‘cuteness’.
I highly recommend taking the kids or watching THE CROODS yourself over the school holidays. It’s a film that both children and adults will enjoy. For this uplifting fun film, I give 8 out of 10 stars.
