By Jon Gallagher
This Isn’t Your Father’s Flintstones
The Croods 3D (DreamWorks 2013) Director: Kirk De Micco and Chris
Sanders. Cast: Voices of Nicholas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine
Keener, Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke, Randy Thom, and Chris Sanders. Color, 3-D,
98 minutes.
I had the opportunity to take my eight-year-old daughter to a
movie this week and she chose the one playing across the street, The Croods, an animated feature that’s
had a lot of lines forming in front of the theater. This means you get two
reviews in one: my daughter’s and mine.
The movie centers on one of history’s first families as they experience
some of the changes occurring to the Earth. The leader of the family is Ugg, a
large, extremely strong father who protects his family at all costs. His wife
is Ugga, a typical cave-wife. Thunk is their dimwitted teenage son who seems to
be a chip off the old block, while Eep is a rebellious teenage daughter. His
mother-in-law, Gran, who keeps threatening to die, is with them as is a baby,
Sandy, a ferocious toddler with all the charm of a rabid pit bull.
Ugg doesn’t like change. He tells his family that the secret to surviving
is to fear everything. Naturally, his teenagers tend not to listen to this
and Eep in particular seems bent on doing the opposite of whatever her father
tells her. Early in the movie, the shifting of the new Earth destroys the
family cave, forcing them to face the dangers of the outside world as they find
a new home. They meet Guy, a nomadic teen who introduces them to fire, and
teaches them that fear is something to overcome, not shy away from. Guy has a
pet sloth named Belt (because he helps keep Guy’s pants up) who turns out to be
the funniest character in the movie.
While the story tends to be a bit predictable, (and the
interactions of the characters more so due to the built-in stereotypes), it’s
still an entertaining movie. We’re introduced to landscapes and animals that
are the results of some artists’ vivid imaginations and are in some cases,
simply breathtaking. Amazing things can be accomplished nowadays with animation
and The Croods is a prime example.
Having said that, I found that some scenes, particularly one at the beginning
with the family out hunting, tend to be drawn out, becoming a little boring in
the process.
The main characters, Ugg, Eep, and Guy (and to some extent, Belt),
are well developed, but the rest just sort of fall into the background, barely
even playing a supporting role. They seem to be there just because they have to
be. A day after the movie I really can’t recall even one line from either Thunk
or Ugga.
I always find it hard to evaluate the voice actors in an animated
movie. In a live action movie, the voice and action create the character and
both depend on the actor. In animation, the actor is only responsible for half
of the character – the voice. When I see an animated movie, I try hard not to
find out who the voice actors are, just in case that might influence me.
The Croods is
a perfect case in point. Most of the time, I really don’t care for Cage movies.
He’s done a few I’ve enjoyed, but for the most part, he plays the same
character with the same voice that sounds like either he’s in pain or
constipated (maybe both). I didn’t know until the credits that he voiced Ugg. I
have to admit, I was impressed.
Stone does Eek’s voice and is decent as is Reynolds as Guy. Again,
my favorite was Belt (Sanders) who really didn’t have that tough of a job as
long as the animators did theirs.
The resolution of the movie is satisfying, especially after trying
to jerk some tears out of old crusty guys like me. The journey to get to the
end was much like the one the family experienced in the movie: there were
obstacles, laughs, impressive scenery, and interesting animals, but I’m not
convinced that the journey I took was worth the end.
My daughter was thoroughly impressed and was interested throughout
the movie. She gave it an A+ at first, but after thinking about it, scaled it
back to just an A. Her reasoning for the reduction was that it
“wasn’t as funny” as she thought it would be.
My grade is a B-. For me, it was just a
tad better than an average movie, but not only did my daughter enjoy it, the
other kids in the audience seemed to enjoy it as well. Had I seen it on my own,
it probably wouldn’t have gotten much more than a C.
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