A few months back while going to film school, I was discussing with my friends about which movies we were going to see, and being the animation guy one of my friends asked if I was going The Croods. Remembering how downtown Toronto was littered with The Croods advertisement I triumphantly replied “Maybe.” And I never did. There was just something pushing me away from watching The Croods and now after watching the movie I can finally detail why that is. All you have to do is look at the artwork done for the DVD, cover, or any of the advertisements and you can tell what this movie is about.
Now critiquing in my usual Cartoon Corner style, this cover is outrageously crowded and done so intentionally. You have all the Croods squished in at the bottom, including all their comedic animal sidekicks. This depicts the comradery and the close connection of this family. The warm feelings of being together. But for me that just translates to “movie has too many characters, so some will be bland throwaways.” Then we have the pretty backgrounds filling up the frame and that translates for me to “The Croods is a site seeing movie, a movie interested in showing visuals more than actually telling a story.” Now at the time I was being cynical due to the fact I was a film student with no job, and no budget to really see every movie that came out. But now trying to spread my wings as a story editor and writer I set up a new mindset to let The Croods have the chance to surprise me. And this was the start of the animated movie trend of 2014 for me, “The Year of Standards.”
The Croods’ story, if you haven’t seen the bazillion trailers that were on everywhere at the time, is about a family of prehistoric cavemen, who have survived this harsh period in history by staying a great majority of their lives in their cave. But when their cave is obliterated in the earthquakes due to the splitting of Pangea, they must travel an unfamiliar land to make it to “Tomorrow.” Simply we have another standard road trip movie, much like the Ice Age series. But I just want to get this out of the way, even though I call the next few movies I review “Standard” it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad. If anything I think this was a very strong year for animated films (and I’m writing this before I have seen Frozen and Ernest and Celestine). When I’m saying is these movies are just taking a very standard narrative structure and doing very little to deviate form it. The Croods like I said is a Road Trip site seeing movie, getting to point A to point B.
Now with this sort of standard plotline I feel the movie gets a real chance to do some relatively strong theming on the concepts of discovery and the unknown. This theming centers on our three, actually important, main characters, Eep (Emma Stone), the rebellious dreaming cavegirl who is the catalyst for the Croods leaving their cave, Guy (Ryan Reynolds) the genius of the group and the embodiment of the them of human discovery and curiosity, and Grug, played by the one and only Nicholas Cage as the big, strong and thick overprotective father. The movie actually utilizes a “Mirrored Narrative” as I’m calling it. From the trailers you would suspect that the movie is all about Eep and we follow her story but really it’s Grug’s story. It’s Grug who has to learn and grow as a character if he wants to continue to protect his family and ideals. The greatest example of this mirroring of Eep and Grug’s storylines is the fact that when they both leave the cave they do so in the exact same way. It’s subtle but it’s our first hint that Eep won’t be our main character anymore, and that she’ll serve as the main conflict for Grug.
So I’ve talked a great deal on how fantastic the theming using Grug, Eep and Guy is but does that translate to them and the rest of the Croods being likable characters? Well to Nicholas Cage’s credit I completely forgot he was playing the role of Grug because he was playing a character. A character with a strong foundation in love and ideals but held back by his reluctance for change. This creates a strong internal conflict that is very interesting to watch. Eep and Guy are kind of a step back in character compared to Grug. Guy is basically the wise cracking smartass and Eep is the rebellious teen but both get more down to Earth moments where we the audience can see their humanity. The portion of them that makes them three-dimensional characters. The other Croods… No.
Let’s see there’s the meat headed boy, the wife, the cranky grandma and the crazy baby. Completely stock, uninteresting and I would almost call them a distraction if it weren’t for the fact that because of the lareg number that’s in their family it helps strengthen Grug’s goals. So, character wise the other characters are weak but they serve the plot well enough where it’s excusable. Oh and before I forget SIDEKICKS FOR EVERYBODY!! All these cute animal characters aren’t needed but hey, I guess they’ll fill up the toy shelves pretty efficiently.
And finally after all that character and story are out of the way the visuals are quite honestly the strongest part of this movie. Such and array of colors, lighting and texture it is a constant visual treat to the eyes. And I won’t hold anything back, when the giant camouflage saber tooth tiger, Chunky, came on screen I squeed because of how soft the fur looked. That was the only sidekick character I actually liked. For the wrap up, The Croods is a really fun and strong movie, that utilizes a standard formula to elevate its main character into becoming a truly dynamic and relatable character. This is definitely a must watch movie for animation fans of all ages.
Taylor Wyatt DC Blog 
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