The Croods!!!!

The Croods.

The second animated film of the year for me and it's Dreamworks newest outing in The Croods featuring an array of of well known voice actors. This time round Dreamworks have decided to touch upon the story of a stoneage family who go through "the end" and the journey they take to survive and the family problems they encounter along the way as well.

So onto the film itself, as I described above it is about a family (The Croods) who as they put it are the last remaining human beings alive. Father of the family Grug (Nicolas Cage) is an overprotective dad who tells the family anything new is BAD and will kill them all if they do anything new at all. Mother of the family Ugga (Catherine Keener) is a typical mother who fusses over her family and makes sure they're all ok and keeps Grug in-line at times as well. Son Thunk (Clark Duke) is a typical teenager, he has hardly any sense at all and runs around without any thought in the world and is easily amused. Smallest child Sandy (Randy Thom) is an animalistic little kid who runs around and awesome speeds and is generally a childish character. The older member of the family and the mother in-law Gran (Cloris Leachman) is an old wise woman who always has the line "I'm still alive". And finally we have Eep (Emma Stone) who is an inquisitive girl who wants to do nothing more than to venture out of the cave and explore new things.

As the scene is set you see how frightened the family is of the outside world and how much the father figure states that new things are bad for them. As you see the family go on a hunt for a dinosaur egg to feed the family you see how each member works within the family.

But soon enough Eep sees a bright light pass the cave and decides to follow it and leaves the comfort of the cave and her family. soon enough she gets into trouble and that's when a saviour comes to her aide, Guy (Ryan Reynolds) saves her from being eaten and thrusts fire into the air saving her. As she talks to him she soon realises that her family is not alone in the world and that their are other people out there. As she narrowly just makes it back to the cave to her family with the help from her father Grug she tries to tell family members about who she has met.

As the family cave is destroyed and the threat of being eaten again they finally call upon the help of Guy who comes running in to save the day again. He shows the family members some new inventions like fire and shoes. As each family member learns new things about the world and their eyes are opened their is one person who is not buying this new lifestyle, Grug. 

As the family carries on trying to find shelter before "THE END" takes place the family must learn to trust new things, trust Guy and last of all to accept new things as their not all bad. What happens next I will leave for you to watch, will the family survive "THE END" or will they all stand by Grug and stick to the old ways?

Overall the film is entertaining......for little kids, for adults they will find the film a little bit flat and at times a little bit ridiculous. The voice acting is ok but in my opinion Nicholas Cage just doesn't have that animated film style voice he sounds out of place and just too dull a voice for a kids film. The storyline is to be desired, a simple yet quirky storyline it's fun at times but for most of the time it's just tedious. 

Visually the colours are great, the coloured landscapes and animals featured all show off the animators skills and the 3D for the film just adds more depth to the on screen animation. But don't expect anything deep, thoughtful and emotional like a Pixar movie because you're not going to get it from this film. What you do get is a fun, bright coloured, kids film that all children will truly enjoy and adults wish would be alot shorter.

5/10.