‘THE CROODS’ EVOLVES
Remember “The Croods”? It’s understandable if the answer is a “sure, kinda?” The 2013 animated film about a cave family in a fictional prehistoric era featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds and Cloris Leachman was pretty enjoyable, made a decent amount of money and even got an Oscar nomination. Nothing earth shattering, but it wasn’t surprising that DreamWorks Animation decided to greenlight a sequel.
That it took seven years to do so is, but “The Croods: A New Age ” got caught up in a crazy cycle of corporate acquisitions, director changes and shifting priorities. It was even flat out canceled at one point.
But it’s certainly a lot of drama for a silly animated sequel that’s neither terribly special nor all bad. Directing duties transferred from Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco to firsttime director Joel Crawford. This time around we meet up with the Crood clan Grug (Cage), Ugga (Catherine Keener), Gran (Leachman), Eep (Stone) and boyfriend Guy (Reynolds) on the search for a new place to live, somewhere they dreamily refer to as “Tomorrow.”
And they do stumble upon a “Tomorrow” of sorts: a walled-in community with farming, tools and comforts, things that are wholly foreign to the rag-tag survivalist cave family. All of this progress is thanks to the not-sosubtly named Bettermans, Hope (Leslie Mann), Phil (Peter Dinklage) and their daughter Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran).
There is some clear imagination and talent behind this world.The Betterman’s home is colorful and imaginative and will no doubt be a visual feast for youngsters.The film might not be as novel as the first, but it’s essentially harmless, if a little chaotic, fun for kids and doesn’t need to be anything more than that.