Movie Review – The Croods (2013)
Today we’re taking a look at The Croods, a DreamWorks Animation film that was released in the movie theaters in March of 2013.
The Croods tells a story about a family of cavemen who have survived because they stay in their cave and follow simple rules such as discovering anything new, not being curious, and not going outside at night. All of that changes one day after the daughter sneaks out at night and discovers another fellow caveman. This caveman is different as he uses his head instead of strength. He has discovered fire, knows how to set traps to capture prey, and he knows that the world is about to end.
The Crood’s cave is destroyed by an earthquake, and the family is forced to relocate with the advice of the new caveman. They discover new things and learn more about themselves while finding a new home in an exotic and hostile world.
Directed by Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders, The Croods was written by DeMicco, Sanders and John Cleese as well. The film’s music was composed by famed Hollywood composer Alan Silvestri.
Nicolas Cage stars in the role of Grug Crood, the incredibly strong and overprotective father of the Crood family. He’s determined to keep living in his cave and continuing to survive by following their simple rules. Emma Watson stars as Eep Crood, Grug’s daughter who is tired of living in their cave. It’s a boring life and she desperately wants to go on an adventure. Ryan Reynolds also stars in this film as Guy, a nomadic caveboy who uses his brain and ideas to survive in the wilderness.
Also starring in this film are Catherine Keener as Ugga Crood, Grug’s wife; Clark Duke has the role of Thunk, the Crood’s son and middle child; and Cloris Leachman has the role of Gran, Ugga’s elderly but tough mother and the grandmother of the three children.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
The Croods begins with Eep Crood (voiced by Emma Watson) narrating the story and telling us how the Crood family has managed to survive. It turns out that they are the last surviving cavemen family in the area, all because they have followed their father’s strict rules. Eep is driven crazy by the rules as she’s a curious and rebellious teenager who desperately craves to leave their cave and explore the world.
One morning the father, Grug Crood (voiced by Nicolas Cage), gets the family organized to find some breakfast. The family races (you’ll notice that they can all run, climb, jump and throw items with superhuman strength) to their hunting ground and locates a wacky bird guarding an egg. In a series of events that resemble a crazy football play, the Crood family works together, steals the egg, and manages to get the egg back to their cave while avoiding all of the other crazy animals.
Back at their cave, Eep is out exploring when the sun begins to set. Grug is uneasy as he knows that staying inside of their cave at night is one of the rules he follows for survival. His hunch is right as a vicious cat-like animal tries to attack him. He and Eep make it back into the cave without being eaten by the dangerous animal.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
That night Grug does his favorite activity — telling his family a boring story and using it to scare them into following the strict rules. Eep knows that the story is really being directed towards her, but she’s had enough of her father’s boring stories.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
While her family is asleep, Eep wakens and discovers a light outside of their cave. She sneaks out and follows the light to its source. It turns out that a small campfire is providing the light. Eep is startled when she discovers that a lonely caveboy, Guy (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), was the person who created the fire.
While Eep and her family are incredibly strong, Guy is scrawny. Instead of using speed and brute strength, Guy has survived by using his brain and thinking of ideas. He knows how to create fire and use disguises amongst other incredible feats. Guy also uses his pet sloth (named Belt) as a belt to help hold up his pants.
Guy also knows that their world is about to end in the very near future. Don’t ask me how he knows this as it’s never established in this film. What we do know is that he wants to take Eep and get to high ground, preferably on top of a distant mountain. Eep refuses to leave her family, so Guy leaves her with a seashell. If she’s in trouble, all she has to do is blow into the shell and Guy will come running.
Guy disappears and Grug finds Eep. He’s angry with his daughter for disobeying the rules. The two of them are almost attacked by the cat-like creature as they return to the safety of their cave.
The next morning, Eep tells her family about her encounter with Guy. They’re shocked when she reveals that she discovered something new. When Eep reveals the seashell, the family attacks and destroys it.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
Sure enough, Guy’s warning about the end of the world may be true after all. While the Crood family is in their valley a massive earthquake strikes. The ground rumbles and massive boulders fall from the cliffs. The Crood’s cave is destroyed. By the time the dust settles, the family discovers that just outside of their valley is a lush jungle filled with exotic sights.
Suddenly the vicious cat-like animal from the desert appears behind them and the Crood family makes a run for it. Their only option is to jump off a cliff and land in the jungle below. They safely arrive in the new land. Although there’s an abundance of new life forms around them and new sights to see, Grug’s only concern is finding a new cave home.
In the jungle not everything is as it appears. Trees are actually gigantic living creatures. A cave is really the mouth of a walking land whale. An innocent looking bird is actually a ferocious creature that resembles a piranha. When the birds swarm they’re capable of devouring massive creatures within seconds. We see them attack and strip the land whale to its bones in a matter of seconds.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
The flock of birds turns and has the Croods in their sights. Eep breaks a horn off an animal’s skeleton and uses it to call for Guy’s help. He hears the call and races to the scene. Guy quickly lights a fire, makes a torch, and uses the fire to protect Eep and her family from the piranha-like birds.
After saving Eep, Guy meets the rest of her family. Except for Grug, the rest of the family is impressed by Guy’s fire, and they think of it as a living creature. This curiosity quickly turns into chaos when Thunk’s (voiced by Clark Duke) clothes are accidentally set on fire. He runs through dry grass and inadvertently starts a large fire. The fire spreads and soon ignites large ears of corn. One of the ears of corn explodes and races across the field, carrying Guy and the Croods with it. They finally land on the ground and the flaming ear of corn flies high into the sky and explodes as fireworks. More ears of corn also go flying and explode as fireworks as well. Finally, the cooked corn falls as popcorn and lands on the family, giving them a temporary shelter for the night.
The next morning, Eep catches Guy as he tries to sneak away from her family. He convinces her and the rest of her family that the end of the world was still approaching. The earthquake that destroyed their cave was just the start of it. Guy seems desperate to go to a distant mountain on the horizon. Grug doesn’t seem interested until Guy mentions that there are caves on the mountain. So the Crood family heads out on a road trip towards the mountain while keeping Guy as their prisoner. He’s capable of giving them fire and other ideas when they’re needed.
Tensions slowly grow as the family makes their long trek to the mountain. When it’s time to finally stop and eat, the family is not successful in getting another egg. Grug manages to find a scorpion, but it’s not enough to feed the family.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
Guy convinces Eep to free him and then the two of them will go out hunting for food. She agrees and Guy shows her how to make a trap. Along with Belt’s help, Eep and Guy use a puppet to lure a bird into their trap. The trap doesn’t go as well as it should as Eep and Guy get distracted with each other when performing the puppet routine. The large bird tries to attack Guy, and while he’s in trouble Grug arrive. Grug tries to attack the bird until Eep stops him, making the two of them sit there as bait for the trap. The trick works and the large bird is snagged right before it could attack Grug and Eep. The family then feasts on the bird after it’s roasted over a fire.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
That night it’s story time again. Grug uses Eep as an example and tells another boring story that ends in somebody breaking the rules and dying as a result. Guy then entertains the family with an entirely different kind of story. He gives them hope by telling them about a fabled land known as “Tomorrow.”
The next day, the Crood family is walking across terrain that resembles the bottom of the ocean, only there’s no water. Eep wants Guy to continue with one of the stories he was telling last night, but he refuses as long as he’s still in a log and being held captive. Eep causes a distraction and knocks Guy off her father’s shoulder. When Grug tries to walk to Guy to grab him again, he’s unable to as the ground is covered by sharp rocks. Guy is wearing makeshift shoes and is able to walk on the rocks and easily stay away from the family.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
Grug gets frustrated with not being able to catch Guy, so he makes a deal with him. Guy agrees to help the family as long as he’s no longer carried around in a log. He then makes shoes for everybody, and now they’re able to walk on rocks without hurting their feet.
The family continues with their trek to the massive mountain while encountering new things along the way. At one point they learn to walk on stilts to avoid a sabertooth-like cat (later called ‘Chunky’). They also experience rain for the first time along with swimming in an ocean. Naturally, Grug is frustrated with all of the new events. He’s convinced that it’s going to lead to their deaths as it did to other cave families.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
At one point the family arrives at a massive rock formation that looks like a labyrinth. Guy thinks that they should all split up and take different paths, but Grug insists that the family stays together. It seems settled until another massive earthquake tosses the family into the rock formation, sending them in different directions. They follow Guy’s advice and each of them walks forward, finding their own exit from the maze.
All of the family members except for Grug are able to find a path to the opposite side. Grug’s wife, Ugga (voiced by Catherine Keener), volunteers to head into the rocks and find her husband. She does so and they make it out into the forest where everybody else is waiting.
It’s night outside by the time Ugga and Grug make it to the forest. The kids are safely up one of the trees, but when Grug hears that Guy is also up there with him, he refuses to join them. Ugga leaves Grug on the forest floor and climbs up to join the rest of her family.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
Up in the tree, the people notice a fire off in the distance. They know that the end is still approaching, and they need to make it to the mountain and perceived safety. Guy leads the family to the top of the tree, and they’re amazed when they see the night sky and all of the stars. That sight is one of many that they’ve missed by living inside of a cave. Eep sees the stars and is convinced that that’s where “Tomorrow” resides, somewhere up there in the sky.
The next morning, the family finds Grug down on the forest floor. He’s changed his hair to mimic Guy’s style. Grug has apparently been using his brain and thinking of new ideas such as a see-saw, sunglasses, a mobile home, and a way to take people’s pictures. Naturally, Grug’s ideas don’t work as well as he would like to believe, and it’s more of a humiliating experience for him.
The family reaches the mountains when more environmental chaos occurs behind them. Grug spots a cave and tries to move his family there, but they refuse. They’re tired of living in a cave. They want to go with Guy. This peaks the anger that’s been building up inside of Grug and he snaps. He chases and tries to attack Guy. Grug catches him but they both get stuck in tar. Guy reveals that he’s alone because his family was stuck in tar a while ago. They called to him, warning him to stay away from the sticky trap. He did so and survived.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
It looks hopeless as Grug and Guy are trapped in the tar. Just as they’re about to give up, Guy comes up with an idea. With Belt’s help gathering the supplies, Grug and Guy quickly built a puppet of a female version of the sabertooth-like cat. Chunky sees the female cat and thinks that she’s in danger and stuck in the tar. The giant cat pulls the puppet to safety, and that also frees Grug and Guy.
Chunk discovers that the puppet is a fake. It lunges at Grug and Guy, but it’s stopped by some tar stuck to the cat. This tar is extremely elastic, and the sticky mess yanks back the cat and launches him across the terrain. Grug and Guy are safe and they reunite with the rest of the Crood family.
Everybody climbs up the mountain and crosses its peak as more environmental danger continues behind them. It’s getting closer and closer to the family. They spot the sun when on the opposite side of the mountain, and they believe that they can ride it to the land of “Tomorrow,” just like in Guy’s story.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
Just as they’re about to run to the sun, the Earth erupts around them. The ground falls and molten lava traps the Crood family on the mountain. But when the dust begins to settle, they see that the sun is still shining on the opposite side of the dangerous ravine. Grug throws Guy to the other side to make sure it’s safe. It is and he throws the rest of his family across the dangerous canyon. Unfortunately, there’s no way to throw himself across, and he and the rest of his family know that.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
Grug retreats to a cave where he creates a painting of his family. He even includes Guy, accepting him as an honorary Crood. Grug is surprised in the cave by Chunk, but when the torch goes out the big cat is a ‘fraidy cat. He seeks comfort with Grug and quickly becomes his friend.
Their world is ending around them and Grug has to use his brain if he wants to survive. Suddenly he has an idea. Grug uses tar and places it on the rib cage of a large skeleton. He then puts Chunk inside of the rib cage. Grug then spooks a flock of piranha-like birds and they chase after him. He stays inside of the cage and is protected from the birds. When the flock flies away we see that many of the birds are stuck to the tar. When they all try to fly away, their combined effort actually lifts the cage into the air. Grug uses his torch to frighten some of the birds, and by doing so he can control which direction they travel.
While they’re flying above the ground, Grug spots various animals in the path of the approaching danger. He saves them and barely manages to avoid the approaching doom. As his family is mourning his assumed loss, Grug’s vehicle flies through the heavy smoke and safely lands on the opposite side of the ravine. Everybody celebrates for Grug’s safe return. Chunk is now Grug’s pet and he explains to his family that he’s now a cat person.
The Croods (2013) – (c) 20th Century Fox
The Crood family continues to follow the light towards “Tomorrow,” and they reach a lush and tropical beach. Grug decides to allow his family to live there and no longer inside of a cave. Perhaps some of his rules needed to be changed after all.
The Croods ends with Eep doing more narration, telling us that there are still many new things for her family to discover. The world is still harsh and hostile, but she knows that her family will make it because they’ve learned to adapt to it.
So is The Croods a good movie?
As far as the animation goes, The Croods has some of the best and most lifelike animation that I’ve ever seen. In particular, the terrain and water effects are outstanding. This film has raised the bar for how computer animated films should look.
When it comes to the character and the overall story, The Croods fails. There are many plot holes and unexplained / poorly handled events in this film. It’s so frustrating that you have to switch off your brain if you want to enjoy watching this movie.
The End of the World
Let’s start with this element, the film’s antagonist.
Early in The Croods, Guy warns Eep and her family about the approaching environmental disaster. He refers to it as the end of the world. We see cataclysmic earthquakes, lightning sparking fire storms, and even rivers of lava.
Why this is happening we have no clue. How Guy knows about it is also unknown. More importantly, why the terrible events seem to stop after the family safely gets passed the mountains is also not explained.
Why in the world would the Croods settle on a beach at the end of the film when the world is still apparently ending at the mountains behind them? Did that terrible sequence of events suddenly decide to end at the mountains?
This is just poor storytelling. You have a major event taking place and it stands to reason that it should still be threatening the family at the end of the film. But there’s no word of it and everything seems fine.
Guy
This is a character that seems terribly out of place in The Croods.
Why is Guy not just smart but substantially smarter than the Crood family? He’s thinking and using tools to solve problems while the primitive Crood family uses speed and brute strength. It’s like you have two different species of prehistoric humans, something that did occur in some periods of time.
Why was there no back story for Guy? He seems to have a lot of knowledge about the wilderness, he’s well aware of the end of the world, and his family died a tragic death in the tar pits. Why in the world didn’t we hear (or see) any of that in the film?
Sure, we were told about the death of Guy’s family when he and Grug were stuck in the tar, but there was no emotion. This could have been a sad and powerful moment in the film had we known more of the story. Instead that sad scene is actually a joke as the rest of the Crood family was nearby, and all of them could have solved the problem of freeing Grug and Guy from the tar.
For example, Grug has incredible strength. Belt could have gotten long enough vines to tie them around huge boulders and then back to Grug and Guy. Grug can easily throw family members onto running elephants amongst other feats of strength that we’ve witnessed. He could have then pulled himself and Guy clear of the tar.
Instead, Belt manages to get all the supplies to make an intricate puppet. While Grug and Guy are stuck and slowly sinking in the tar, they manage to not only skillfully build a female sabertooth-like cat, but also move it convincingly to convince the other cat that it was in trouble.
Yeah, that really sounds like a plausible solution. /s
That’s one of several plot holes in this film. Don’t even get me started on the stalk of corn flying around like a rocket.
The Rapidly Changing Terrain
Speaking of plot holes, what’s the deal with the rapidly changing terrain? I get it that this is a fantasy world (many of those animals were just plain wacky), but you should still see at least some transition between environments.
How could the Crood family have not known that on the opposite side of their valley was a lush and exotic forest? Those people travel great distances through a desert to hunt for eggs, but they didn’t know that on the other side was literally another world? Really? Didn’t they see the strange birds flying overhead and then return home in that direction?
How about the second forest that was just past the rocky labyrinth? Are we meant to believe that a hellish wasteland was blocking the entrance to a massive forest with towering trees, sights that we mysteriously could not see in the previous shots?
What was the deal with the underwater terrain complete with coral and fish (Thunk has shoes made from live fish while Sandy, the youngest, had shoes made from live starfish), yet no water anywhere in sight? Is this world so fantastic that the tide itself can pull away every drop of water, leaving everything dry as far as the eye can see?
The developers for this film have taken “fantasy” to new levels. What should be a fantasy environment is simply incomprehensible at times.
The Crood Family
Was it just me, or did the strength of the Crood family seem like something straight out of The Flintstones? Grug Crood is a merely knock off of the great Fred Flintstone.
The speed at which everybody (including grandma) could run along with their vast strength was simply too “fantasy” for my taste. I get it that this is an animated film, but they could have done a lot better when designing the characters’ features.
Speaking of Grug Crood, the voice of Nicolas Cage seemed out of place with that character. You don’t expect to see a massive character like that and hear Nic Cage’s voice from him. Emma Watson and Ryan Reynolds were both fine with their voices matching their characters, but Nic Cage was not the right match for Grug. They could have used an unknown actor and had a better match with the voice acting for that character.
The lack of a back story was also painfully obvious for the Crood family.
A quick introduction tells us that Grug sticks to rules for survival. Okay, but are there any reasons in particular? Did something strike close to him that makes him behave so strict with his family? Could we have at least a little bit of information on his history and why he behaves the way that he does?
All we know is that their neighbors are dead and Grug is paranoid of leaving the cave, although they do so once every few days to go hunting.
The same lack of story goes for Grug’s rivalry with Gran, his mother-in-law. We can see that he doesn’t like her, but there’s no feeling for us with that relationship. It’s not that funny when Gran is pleased when the monkeys punch Grug, nor when Grug tries to have ideas so that it would shock Gran and have her die of a heart attack. There is no back story showing that deep level of dislike between those two characters.
Final Thoughts
The Croods (2013) – movie trailer
I tried to like The Croods. I really did. The trailer looked interesting and I went into this film with an open mind.
Unfortunately there were just too many areas where this film failed in telling a good story. The animation was awesome and the film’s score was good as well, but those two areas cannot save a film if it doesn’t have a good story. In the case of The Croods, there are just too many plot holes and unexplained elements to make it a good story, let alone a decent one. The storytelling here is mediocre at best.
One can only hope that the sequel will make up for the numerous faults in this film.
Grug – “Three days is not forever!”
Eep – “It is with this family.”
———————–
Guy – “Okay, open them. I call them shoes.”
Eep – [Opens her eyes and screams in panic and excitement] “I *LOVE* them! Where are my feet?”
Guy – “Don’t worry! They’re still there.”