The Croods (2013)

Rating: 3/5

As a last minute favour to Norwich parents during the final week of the summer holidays, Vue cinema are showing The Croods daily as part of their bargain Kids AM sessions. I took my daughter along the other day - her third viewing; my first - and one thing I couldn't deny was that she was entertained. She knew some of the dialogue, and a particularly cute little gesture by a furry rodent that occurs a classic three times. At least they seem to understand a rule of comedy.

The Croods is Dreamworks' latest feature, with the voice talents of Nicolas Cage and Catherine Keener, among others, centering around the last family of cave people left alive after the forces of their terrible hostile world pick off everybody else. Overprotective sitcom dad Grug (Cage) is the bulbous 'provider' who confines his family to the darkness of their cave day and night to keep wildly ridiculous predators out. Teenager daughter Eep (voice by Emma Stone) is the plucky tomboy who, of course, dreams of what her dad is keeping from her, and sneaks out at night. 

One night, she comes across another survivor; a young guy, called Guy, who can 'make fire,' and says its name as if it's well-established, and that the primitive family should know the name even if they don't know the object. He's the strapping, streetwise hunk who's obligatory to counterbalance, and eventually fall in love with, the teenage daughter. He tells of the approaching end of the world, and when a huge earthquake destroys the Croods' cave, they catch up with him on their way to discover a new home.

Where should I start with a decent analysis of actual content? Let's make a compliment sandwich. It may need several layers, though... The movie is nicely animated. Although some sequences are more fluid than others, textures are mastered, as are backgrounds; early rocky scenes are almost photographic. The opening scenes are also rapid, and dizzying. All the action is presented moving, zipping around, at a very fast pace, and although it's well done, it's almost maddening in its intensity.

In an aforementioned sitcom style, the family is presented in a way that is cliché and perhaps too detailed to be interesting to kids. Grumpy young Eep sleeps on her own ledge of the cave; Grug's complaints are futile, as the typical mother Ugga (Keener) coos that the kid is 'working through some things,' and 'needs her own space.' This is family entertainment, not Jerry Springer. Do the kids in the audience really care about a cavegirl's teenage angst?

Although comedy is not as strong a point for The Croods as it was for, say, Shrek, the main source of laughs is repeated hostility between Grug and the (once again typical) mother-in-law. Dashes of decent imagination are also displayed, particularly in the more colourful jungle terrain that the family eventually occupy. Little dandelion-type seeds float through the air, with two twiggy leg-like appendages which create an overall avian appearance. A mouse with an elephant's facial features also amused me.

The movie is mostly action. It rattles along on a shoestring of a plot, with no real point or purpose to any of the events that take place, except the eventual new-found paradise where we are sure everyone will live happily ever after. The countless obstacles in between, where it seems like all is lost, and our protagonists are about to die, or be left behind, or sacrifice themselves, are highly predictable, as in fact the whole movie is. It is such a standard formula by now. Sure, I struggled to figure out at the time how Grug would get across the huge crack that emerged in the earth, but I ultimately knew that he would.

Maybe I'm taking it too seriously for a kids' movie. It's, again, not as family-oriented as Shrek was. There is no particular portion of humour set aside for the inevitable parent population in the audience, that is politely-worded or discreetly alluded, and so maybe parents will share my views on the movie's overall quality. However, for a colourful, action-packed kids' movie with good, harmless fun, it is certainly worth a trip to Vue this week. Tickets are a mere £1.75 each!