The Croods: Movie Review

Last night my cousins and I did something we almost never do. We went to a movie on opening night. Usually, to avoid the crowds, we wait until a movie has been in the theater for awhile before we go see it. But for whatever reason we decided to brave the crowds and go see "The Croods" on the first night anyway. And we were all glad we did. It was amazing. In so many ways.

The Croods is about a family of cavemen who are forced to leave the safety of their cave and travel across a vast, unknown country in search of a new home. It is not like anything you might expect. The cavemen do not speak in grunts, none of the animals are real, and for a story supposedly set in "The Stone Age" this movie was teeming with gorgeous plant life.

As a minor side note before I really begin, I just wanted to say that something I found very refreshing, especially from a movie called "The Croods" was that it was not crude in the least! There was not one single burp or fart joke in the entire movie! Before I went to see it I thought to myself, wouldn't it be hilarious if they subverted the audience's expectations completely and did not have any crude humor whatsoever? Little did I know is that is exactly what they had done!

The one thing all three of us noted most about the movie was how incredibly hilarious it was. I know I tend to over-use the word hilarious sometimes, but this movie was genuinely laugh-out-loud funny almost the whole way through. The characters all had distinct personalities, and they were all funny in different ways. I loved the grandmother. I tend to love "Old Ladies With Attitude" characters anyway, so this was a natural favorite for me. The baby was also hilarious. She didn't speak, but was almost like a savage little dog. The scene in the beginning where they use her during the hunt to chase down the ram-bird was hysterical!

The main character of the movie was a teenager named Eep. I loved her name. Don't ask me why, but I just found it so funny that her name is Eep. Eep is like most teenagers, she wants more freedom than her parents will allow, but she has a real problem with her dad, Grug. He is extremely over-protective, and terrified of everything. His motto is "Never not be afraid." One day Eep meets a hot young caveman named Guy, who has a pet sloth named Belt. (Belt holds his pants up) Guy is the complete opposite of her dad. He is far more courageous than her father, he loves exploring the world, and he invents things like fire, shoes, and giant puppets. When they are forced to move, Grug begrudgingly allows Guy to lead them across the wilderness in search of a new home.

Aside from the writing and characters, I also loved the art and animation. Everything was so vibrant and colorful. It was a visual feast. The animals were also extremely creative. As I said before, none of them were real. One might expect to find all the stereotypical "Stone-Age" creatures in a film about cavemen, but this was not your typical caveman movie. This was pure imagination at its finest. The closest it came to having "Stone-Age" animals was a mammoth and a sabre-toothed cat, but neither of these were your typical creatures either. The Mammoth seemed to be part leopard, and the Cat was part macaw, but they didn't look strange at all. The design was fantastic! Almost all of the animals in the film were some kind of hybrid/imaginary creature. Aside from Belt, I don't think any of them were real animals at all. There were whales that walked on land, Swarms of piranha-birds, a crocodile puppy, and giant snaggle-toothed, spoon-billed, fish-turkeys.

The last thing I should note about the movie was the music. It was great. The two main parts that stand out most in my mind, are the beginning and the end. In the beginning, during the hunt, the music is done by what sounds like a cross between an orchestra and a marching band. It was such a strange choice, but it worked so well! And finally, the music at the end. Two words, Owl City. That's all I really need to say. It was so good. But don't just take my word for it, watch the music video for yourself!



To sum up my feelings about this movie: GO SEE IT!!! There is no way you will regret it! I left the theater with a huge smile on my face that would not go away, and I wanted to go back and see it again immediately! I haven't felt like that about a movie in a long time! There are quite a few movies that I am looking forward to seeing this year, but they are going to have to be EXTREMELY good if they want to top The Croods!