Movie Review: The Croods

Movie Review: The Croods/Rated PG/Dir. by Chris Sanders and Kirk De Micco/DreamWorks/98 min.

In the world of live-action film, there are a few directors with the level of name-recognition and fandom comparable to famous actors.  Your Spielbergs, your Hitchcocks, your Scorseses.  Recently J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon have become the type of director that is almost more of a draw than any on-screen talent. However, in the world of animation, the director is usually a hidden hero.  Partly because most animated films are marketed to children, who really couldn't care less who directed the movie, and partly because directing an animated film is not as respectable as directing a live-action one among Hollywood types.  However, as an adult fan of the art form, I believe there are a few names in animation that should be as well-known as their live-action counterparts.  Brad Bird, who has successfully made the transition to live-action film, is also responsible for three of the best animated films of the past 20 years: "The Iron Giant", "The Incredibles", and "Ratatouille".  Then there's Andrew Stanton, who less successfully made the transition to live-action with "John Carter", but also directed the animated classics "Finding Nemo" and "WALL-E".

Another name that should be synonymous with quality work in animation is Chris Sanders.  Starting at Disney in the early 90's as a story writer, he helped craft the stories for "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", and "The Lion King".  Then he was promoted to writing the screenplay for "Mulan".  A few years later, he was handed the reins of a film as director (along with his writing partner Dean Dublois) with "Lilo & Stitch", a movie that was marketed by Disney as a raucous and irreverent comedy, but turned out to be surprisingly heartfelt and beautiful.  He and Dublois then left Disney for DreamWorks and they directed "How to Train Your Dragon", a movie that was marketed  as a raucous comedy, but turned out to be surprisingly heartfelt and beautiful.  Now Sanders brings us "The Croods" (along side Kirk De Micco, whose previous directorial effort "Space Chimps" is far less promising), a film that has been heavily marketed as, you guessed it, a raucous and irreverent comedy, but turns out to be heartfelt and beautiful as well.  Sanders has a keenly sharp sense of humor, but he also understands that what makes a movie more than merely funny is heart and "The Croods" has heart to spare.  Thankfully, the most crude thing about the movie is its title.  

The Croods are the last family to survive the harsh dangers of their neighborhood and, as far as they know, the last humans left in a very frightening prehistorical landscape.  Grug (Nicolas Cage) knows that the only way he can protect his family is to instill in them a very primal sense of fear.  Bed time stories always end with curiosity being met with instant and unexplained death and fear and cave-cowering are met with survival.  While Grug's tactics have kept his family alive as others have been killed, his teenage daughter Eep (Emma Stone) longs for more than survival.  After encountering a rogue human aptly named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) and narrowly escaping a catastrophic earthquake, the family is forced to go on a road trip to find a safer place, which is great for the free-spirited Eep, but a nightmare for her father.

Along for the trip are mother Ugga (Catherine Keener), son Thunk (Clark Duke), the venerable Gran (Cloris Leachman) and a baby known merely as "The Baby", who is part adorable moppet, part feral animal, a personality trait that the movie uses frequently to hilarious effect.  While the family becomes intrigued by Guy's new ways and ideas, Grug is less trusting, especially as he sees his daughter's increasing infatuation with the free thinking Neander-dude.

Using the backdrop of the breaking of the continents and the constantly evolving wildlife of a prehistoric world, "The Croods" deals with the well-tread "rebellious teenager/strict father" story line, but because of the setting, the high level of humor and the terrific voice performances, it never feels cliched.  In fact, "The Croods" is one of those rare animated comedies that really gets the balance of humor and heart just right and it builds that humor from the character personalities and situation instead of building the situations around the humor, something that early DreamWorks films sometimes struggled with.  Plus, after an hour of consistent belly laughs, the poignancy of the ending packs a pretty powerful emotional punch.

We're also given themes and messages that are far removed from the traditional animated film.  No "Just be yourself" platitudes here, "The Croods" is all about change as the impetus of growth, which is a wonderful lesson for children and adults alike.  

The animation is quite lovely and in 3D it positively pops off the screen.  The 3D is used in obvious, "chuck things at the screen" ways, and also in subtle ways to tell the story.  While I would normally recommend people skip 3D, especially with the increasing expense of seeing a movie in the theater, this is one instance when the 3D is used to great effect which truly enhances instead of just costing more.

To say that "The Croods" is the best prehistoric-themed comedy ever made is not saying much.  Its competition is the likes of "Year One", the live-action "The Flintstones", and the Ringo Starr-staring "Caveman".  However, saying that it's among the upper-tier DreamWorks efforts is quite a compliment.  It stands easily among "Kung Fu Panda", "How to Train Your Dragon" and the other better efforts of the studio.  Hopefully, the studio will continue to attract talented filmmakers like Chris Sanders and these types of high-quality films will be the new norm for DreamWorks.

Grade: A-