I really wasn’t looking forward to any of Dreamworks Animation’s films that were coming out this year. “The Croods” seemed stupid and boring. “Turbo” seemed stupid and boring. And “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” (which was pushed back to a 2014 release) seemed…well….I had no interest in it, since I wasn’t familiar with the original show that it was based on. So all in all, I wasn’t looking forward to watching any of these.
But when you’re “The Animation Commendation”, it’s a sin not to watch these movies and even more a sin not to review them. With that said, I ended up watching “The Croods” when it came out on DVD. What’d I think? It was boring and I didn’t like it.
Ok, I’ll be more detailed about it.
The film is about a traditional caveman family, the Croods, during the…cavemen era of Earth’s history.
The patriarch of the family is Grug, voiced by Nicolas Cage. He protects his family by keeping them together in their cave as much as possible. They leave the cave only for necessary reasons such as finding food. But they always hurry back to the cave as soon as they can.
This protective living frustrates Grug’s elder daughter, Eep, voiced by Emma Stone. She wants to explore the world and not spend her life afraid and huddling in a cave.
One day, the world…umm…goes through geological disturbances of some sorts which leads to the destruction of their cave. This forces Grug and his family to seek refuge in a faraway mountain and face the dangers along the way. Thankfully, they don’t do this alone; they come into contact with a somewhat more evolved caveman…umm…caveboy named Guy, voiced by Ryan Reynolds. He leads them on their expedition
and together they learn more about each other and the beautiful world that they live in.
So as you can see, the film is pretty much a “road trip” movie in that the purpose of the movie is just to tell the story of the main characters’ journey and what they learn along the way. And that’s why I didn’t like this movie. IT’S SOOOOO BORING!!! I don’t want to see the characters go on an INCREDIBLY LONG journey together whilst bickering and making jokes that are supposed to be funny, but in actuality are not. I remember when the movie reached its halfway point (or near that) and thinking, “This is only HALFWAY through?!”
What’d I think of the voice acting? Well, it’s Dreamworks Animation, so they need their celebrities (Ryan Reynolds, I’m talking about you).
He wasn’t great and neither was Emma Stone. Nicolas Cage was kinda good actually, then again he’s done voice work before. The others weren’t really memorable, so I won’t talk about them.
Is there anything good in this movie? Well yes, the animation! The colors of the forests, the designs of the things they see on their journey, and the designs of various animals that live alongside them are all GORGEOUS!! I mean it’s not “Rise of the Guardians” level, but it’s still pretty good to look at. The animation was the only thing keeping me somewhat invested in the movie. Just take a look at this!
In the end, the animation alone can’t save this movie and I consider this to be one of the most boring, if not THE most boring, Dreamworks Animation film. I’ve seen it once and I don’t plan on seeing it again. I’d rather re-watch “Epic” than this!
Oh yeah, I totally went there! “The Croods” was boring and that’s that!
The Animation Commendation 
I may just be easily entertained, but I loved the character Belt; the little sloth-like animal that hung from Cave-Bieber’s waist and had a recurring “Dun, dun, dun” gag.. It might just be my inner child talking but he cracked me up.
Ok, I’ll admit, Belt was actually kinda cool, probably my favorite character in the movie!
Lol@Cave-Bieber…I like it!
I watched this film once, and I am sad that I have to rewatch it for my DreamWorks Review in like a week and a half (I am writing Puss).
I agree with what you said about the film. It is contrived and predictable, bad humor, don’t care for the characters, and the story is not that engaging. But it is apparently one do the best animated movies of the year.
I pray it isn’t nominated for an Oscar.
Well, are there any other films that are other than MU and DM2? This year was disappointing.
I kept forgetting about this movie, which is never a good sign. I’m was not wild about the premise and figured this would be a Netflix pick. But until you mentioned it, I had completely forgotten about it! I’ll add it to my queue. This is one of those movies I’ll watch while doing something else.
Yeah…that’s probably a good idea!
My kids enjoyed this movie, but youre right, for an adult it wasnt very good. There wasnt much in the theatre to see that week (for the kids) so we went to see this. The scenery was amazing, and Nic Cage’s voice is always funny (whether hes trying to be or not), but other than that it was a little bit irritating. the best part totally was the ‘DUN, DUN, DUN’!!! LOL!!
Lol, Belt is fun!
Everything you said about this movie just made me feel “meh”, but when you quoted those few lines from Beauty and the Beast….
Well, even the awesomeness of the lines from “Beauty and the Beast” doesn’t affect the meh-ness that is “The Croods”.
Thanks for reading and commenting!