THE CROODS
US, 2013, 90 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Ryan Reynolds, Cloris Leachman.
Directed by Kirk De Micco, Chris Sanders.
What an entertaining film!
Anyone with half a funnybone should find the film amusing – and, with a complete funnybone, hilarious.
In one sense, it is a variation on the Ice Ages stories. However, it stands on its own as a story of cavemen and cavewomen and the survival of a family called The Croods. After the introduction to the family and their rules for safety, hiding in a dark cave until they venture out for food, relying on and ruled by fear, there is a marvelously active sequence where they all try to find and take an egg for breakfast. It is extraordinarily fast-paced, engaging and funny. Once we are on our way, it keeps getting better.
The voiceover narrative comes from Eep (Emma Stone). She is a rebellious red-headed teenager who is curious (something the rules forbid) and willing to take risks (also forbidden). In fact, Grug, the archetypal caveman, relying on brawns but no brain, repeats his favourite word again and again, No! He is voiced by Nicolas Cage, full of bluster, one of Cage’s best performances. Mother is Catherine Keener and Cloris Leachman revels in her role as Gran, Grug’s obstreperous mother-in-law. There is a largish dumb son, Thunk, and a baby with a ferocious mouth and teeth, Sandy.
With cave people, there is lots of cave behaviour, plenty of slapstick that would make the Three Stooges envious. Woe betide all those prehistoric animals and birds that get in the way! Come to think of it, woe betide the family when they get in the animals’ and birds’ way.
One night Eep sees a light and ventures out only to find an agreeable boy, Guy and his comically sweet pet, Belt. Guy has fire. Family crisis. Worse when Guy warns them that the end of the world as they know it is about to happen.
What follows is an entertaining journey to avoid all the cataclysms (and there are plenty), the family gradually accepting Guy’s ideas and leadership, leaving Grug frustrated and angry. But, no unexpected spoiling here, the family survives the crisis, Eep is in love, and Grug is not only heroic, he produces a few ideas!
The screenplay is very witty, amusing comparisons between the stone age and the present – and two wonderful jokes about stone age methods of taking pictures. And it has plenty of ideas about nature, survival – and the meaning of life.
To be seen again!
1. An entertaining comedy? enjoyable cartoons? Cave people, the Stone Age, changes, what it is to be human?
2. The quality of the animation, the drawing, vivid, shapes and colors? People, caricatures? Guy as ordinary? The annals, ferocious, playful? The action? Editing and pace, excitement? Slapstick comedy?
3. The music, contribution?
4. The cast, top performers?
5. Eep, introduction and voiceover, the death of the other families, the Croods surviving, her description of Grug, the image of Grug, mother, Thunk, Sandy, grandma? As individuals? Visuals, comic, characteristics?
6. Fear as the norm for life, rules, the art on the walls and the hand for vetoing? Hiding in the cave in the dark? No risks, no curiosity? Escaping from the animals, the boulder and the cave, huddling in the dark?
7. The vivid egg chase, the variety of animals, action, like a football match, excellent catches, the creatures, changing ownership of the egg? The going to the cave, the family enjoying the yolk, the final drop for Grug?
8. Eep, her curiosity, the teenager, no fear, anti-Grug? Climbing the cliff, the danger, trying to see further, the fall, safety?
9. Life, routine for the family, little change for the future? Eep and her seeing the light, going out, finding Guy, the fire, thinking it came from him, rough with
him, cave girl action?
10. Guy and Belt, his family killed in the tar, urging him to dream, going to tomorrow? His fear of the end of the world? His warnings? Encounter with the family, the attack, Guy as a character, a young man with the ideas?
11. The journey, the difficulties, Guy’s leadership, the animals, the mammoth trade, the tiger? Douglas and the ball, a playful dog? The flock of birds, taking the flesh and leaving the skeleton? The blend of beauty and terror?
12. The arguments, Sandy, screeching and bad teeth, Thunk and his being slow, yet playing with Douglas? Grandma and her toughness, the mother-in-law jokes? Grug and his wishing her away? Her past? Mother, care for Grug, for the children, nice?
13. All the cataclysms, the visuals, cliffs and falls, crevices, the lava, the tar?
14. The acrobatics, leaps, falls, Grug throwing the family across the canyon?
15. Grug and his dislike of Guy? Putting him in the tree trunk? Carrying him? The family changing, becoming more humane, Grug and his sulking?
16. Ideas, Grug upset? Their being trapped in the tar, Belt and his help, the fake tiger, the tiger pulling them, the birds pulling them?
17. The beauty of the new world, the colour? The flowers and the protection from the venomous flowers? Umbrellas? Grug’s ideas, Grug and his effort, throwing the family, his being lifted up and landing? Proud of his ideas?
18. The family together again, the reconciliation between Eep and her father, mutual love? Everybody nice? Tiger and the friendly animals?
19. The slapstick, the witty jokes, the photographs? The family photograph and the happy ending? The development and resilience of human nature?
