Star Rating:

The Croods

Directors: Chris Sanders, Kirk De Micco

Actors: Emma Stone

Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001

Genre(s): Animation

Running time: USA minutes

The Croods are a pre-stone age family that consist of dad Grug (Nicolas Cage), mum Ugga (Catherine Keener), teenage daughter Eep (Emma Stone), tweenage son Thunk (Clark Duke), baby girl Sandy and gran, uhm, Gran (Cloris Leachman). The six of them live in a cave, only coming out every few days in search of food, as Grug has them all convinced that anything and everything in the world is out to kill them. But Eep has a lust for life, and one night she leaves the cave only to come across Guy (Ryan Reynolds). Giu is both the next step in human evolution, and also happens to know that a massive earthquake is heading there way. Grug doesn't believe him, but wouldn't you know it, a massive earthquake arrives, destroying their home, so The Croods set off with Guy in search of a new, safer place to settle down.

Plot wise, there's not a lot to work with in The Croods, as the movie is very much aimed at the ankle-biters, with barely any humour aimed at anyone over the age of ten. While it is nice to see an animated movie almost entirely free of pop-culture references, many of the jokes here are almost entirely physical, with every character falling over or getting clonked on the head about a hundred times each.

Visually, the movie is gorgeous, with beautiful, tiny moments and huge, lush vistas both given equal measure. The characters are designed fantastically, with a proper barely-homosapien feel given to all but Guy. The voice work is fantastic, with Stone and Reynolds pushed front and centre for a nice romantic subplot, while Cage is let off the leash, giving one of his most Cage-y performances to date. The way he pronounces "He's loose!" will have just about everyone rolling in the aisles.

While not as good as director Chris Sanders' previous film How To Train Your Dragon, The Croods is still plenty enjoyable in a "turn your brain off and enjoy the pretty" kind of way, especially with the kids getting dazzled with the frantic on-screen action and the cute animals as supporting characters.