The Croods: A New Age
Ratings: 3.8/5
Duration: 1hr 35 min
Language: English
Genre: Animated Adventure Comedy
Director: Joel Crawford
Writer: Kevin Hageman, Dan Hageman, Paul Fisher, Bob Logan
Based On: Characters by Kirk DeMicco, Chris Sanders, John Cleese
Producer: Mark Swift
Music: Mark Mothersbaugh
Editing: James Ryan
Art Direction: Richard Daskas, Peter Zaslav
Release Date: 25 November 2020
Released In: Theatres
Star Cast / Voice Overs: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke , Leslie Mann, Peter Dinklage, Kelly Marie Tran, Kailey Crawford, Chris Sanders, James Ryan, Gabriel Jack, Melissa Disney, Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado, Ryan Naylor, Artemis Pebdani
Plot:
After leaving their cave in the first film, the Croods and their adoptive pets encounter their biggest threat since leaving the cave, another family called the Bettermans who claim to be better and evolved. Grug and his family get acquainted with the Bettermans Phil, Hope, and Dawn. After Eep and Dawn escape by going over the wall that the Bettermans built upon riding Chunky the Macawnivore, the two families must put aside their differences to save them.
Review:
The Prequel – ‘The Croods’ was the story of an overprotective caveman father named Grug (Nicolas Cage) who came to terms with the fact that his daughter Eep (Emma Stone) had to grow up and take some risks of her own, including falling in love with a boy named Guy (Ryan Reynolds).
‘The Croods: The New Age’ opens with a brief reminder of Guy’s back story and how he became a part of the Croods’ pack, one that also includes mom Ugga (Catherine Keener), son Thunk (Clark Duke), and Gran (Cloris Leachman). Eep and Guy are starting their romance in an increasingly dangerous world. There is a fun early montage to ‘I Think I Love You’ as the pack avoids life-threatening situations.
Once again, it is a story of fathers learning that they are too protective of their daughters. Phil goes through a similar arc with Dawn as Grug did with Eep in the first movie and the element of ‘family sticking together’ continues here too.
‘The Croods: A New Age’ does not really do much beyond the script, giving the movie over to physical comedy and loud action sequences. These stories are about breaking out of a bubble- overprotective fathers who realize that the danger of the world is an essential part of growing up.
This new direction by Joel Crawford, a long-time story artist in the DreamWorks Animation, and screenplay by brothers Kevin and Dan Hageman, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan; has taken characters with limited character points to play with and given them almost next to nothing defining features.
However, the film comes up with lots of inventive twists, new age gadgets and smart dialogue which is great. The animation, especially creature visuals, is top-notch here, a step above the first film, which should encourage more people to at least give this a try!
