UNPREDICTABILITY

MOVIE REVIEW:

THE CROODS

By:

G.P. MANALO

Starring:

Emma Stone

Nicholas Cage

Ryan Reynolds

The Croods – takes place during the stone-age and it tells the story about a family who has survived long enough because of their daily routine (which is not doing anything). The eldest daughter, Eep is getting tired of her over-protective father controlling his family from leaving the cave. But when one accident destroyed their home they found themselves adapting to this new world they discovered. As they trek into this world they end up meeting new people, discovering new things and different kinds of danger in this new world. But the stakes got higher in their journey when they soon realize that the world is collapsing (dun dun duuuuun).

I was not really looking forward to seeing, The Croods. Honestly the reason why this is a very late review is because of two things: 1. this movie was released in my finals week and 2. I was avoiding this movie. But when I heard good word about this movie being “good” and “how the trailers were all wrong about this movie” I got myself into seeing this movie and I end up kicking myself for avoiding this movie in the first place. I actually did enjoy the movie for its surprises, its inventiveness and how it wasn’t everything I thought it could be.

When I saw the previews for this it looked so generic in a bad way. I think that’s the flaw of Dreamwork’s marketing team where they try to be secretive like Pixar but they do it in a bad way because they didn’t really intrigue most of the audience right from the trailer. There were so much clichés in this movie that didn’t translate very well as I have judged in the previews; you have the cliché of the over protective parent, the rebellious kid (who happens to be a red head), the fish-out-of-water storyline, the crazy family, but as a result.. It actually worked. Little did I know Chris Sanders (He wrote and directed How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo and Stitch) wrote and directed this movie, what made him special? He puts a large amount of heart and depth to everyday movie clichés and he really does well translating family problems into his stories, it shows in “Lilo and Stitch” (the sister-sister relationship) and “How to Train Your Dragon” (the father and son relationship) that you have sworn that they do feel like the everyday family.

In this movie it shows the amount of heart and depth he put to the story and the amount of personality and charm being given to each character; each character feels relevant and share a very good dynamic to each other right from the get-go, they feel like a real family that really stay together and love each other. In fact, I liked how the messages of adapting to new things and how you have to get out of your comfort zone were delivered in this movie; it would probably be have an impact to you. It wasn’t “deeply” delivered for kids to float around their heads and I thought that those morals were delivered simply for it to be understood by both adults and children alike. In the comedic writing, I thought that there were clever in-jokes throughout the movie and jokes in general. Surprisingly there were a lot of adult humor and less childish humor. But most of the jokes did fall flat, I know it’s a kids’ movie but I wasn’t really much of a fan with the childish humor of this movie (thankfully it has nothing to do with farts or shit jokes), It was very awkward to watch. I think that would be one small gripe.

The Animation in this movie is pretty much Dreamworks at its finest, I just love how they thought of creating this world. I’ve always admire Dreamwork’s Ingenuity at creating specific worlds whether it will be an underground world for rats, a place where people like Santa Claus, The Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny would live in and maybe even a place similar to Beverly Hills but with a fairy tale twist, the list goes on and sometimes I admire their ingenuity in the writing department (comedically and dramatically) as well.  The way they made this world with very lush environment had that artsy- photorealistic feel to it and the inhabitants (the animals) were really well thought out bringing that nostalgic feel of the Wuzzles (If you don’t get the reference, you’re probably part of the younger democratic).  The animation overall for the characters, was smooth and rightly over the top and It is very good to see in 3D, Dreamworks really knows how to work with 3D and they never disappoint every time they do 3D movies; Every detail of the world, the characters or small things in general really pops out of the screen and It is worth the price of admission.

Voice-acting wise is really nothing amazing honestly, when it comes to voice acting I always wish they would make me not recognize the famous voice actor behind the character. An example like last year’s Rise of the Guardians I barely noticed it was Alec Baldwin doing a Russian accent or even in Megamind I barely recognized Will Farrell and Brad Pitt as Megamind and Metro Man.  Here you can notice that it is Emma Stone, Nicholas Cage and Ryan Reynolds when they start talking. But as they go on you don’t mind it, especially for Nicholas Cage the more when he does his trademark crazy antics really work with the character he is playing, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds were just alright. The rest like Clark Duke, Cloris Leechman and Catherine Keneer leaves out as “not bad”. Chris Sanders who have voiced Stitch in the past years played a similar character in this movie called “Belt”, his cutesy voice really fits the character very well and he does have a lot jokes here and there that revolves around him will keep you amused along with your kids.

In the end, The Croods is a very surprising movie, I surprisingly enjoyed this movie and even I have to admit I almost had man tears by the end. It has the best animations and have surprising amount of heart and depth story-wise and character-wise. The animation is Dreamwork at their finest, every inch of detail pops out of the screen with fantastic shots in 3D. The movie is fun for the whole family; it is enjoyable for both adults and children alike (trust me; I was in a cinema full of them).

THE GOOD:

+THE ANIMATION

+SOME GOOD JOKES

+SOME OK VOICE ACTING

+THE 3D

+THE MORALS

+STORY TELLING

THE BAD:

-TERRIBLE CHILDISH JOKES

-SOME VOICE ACTING COULD'VE BEEN A BIT BETTER

 MY RATING:

4/5 - FOR THE WIN!