The Croods: A New Age

Voices of: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke, Leslie Mann, Peter Dinklage, Chris Sanders
Directed by: Joel Crawford
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: The Croods continue their journey for survival, but find themselves in an awkward position when they reluctantly join with the Bettermans family, who have seemingly built themselves a paradise.

Review:

Tim: I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Croods. It was a flawed, but entertaining film from Dreamworks. So, I was looking forward to the sequel, which came out 7 years after the original. Unfortunately, this movie reverted to the mean a bit. It's still a decent movie, but some of the shine of the original wore off. This film feels too narrowly focused. It replays a bit too many of the gags from the original and the story is weaker. I still had fun watching it, but it's definitely a step backwards in terms of quality.

The Croods: A New Age introduces the Bettermans (a funny last name, for sure) and sets up these two families for conflict. I suppose this is an interesting plot device and it does cause our protagonist Croods to react in different ways, creating the drama that fuels the majority of the film. The problem isn't the parallels and differences between these two families- that's fairly entertaining. It's everything else that it leads to. The original film felt like a true fight for survival against planet-altering forces. It was about shifting from a worldview of "fear is good" to one of broadening your horizons and getting outside of your comfort zone. This film maybe has some of those, but it's mostly "wow, look how different these two families are!" It feels like a significantly less inspired story. It's never terrible and the main characters all continue their story arcs, so I don't want it to sound like I hated the story. It's simply far less effective than the first film. That translates into a film that's less entertaining. It was easier to get bored with what we saw on screen.

The voice cast is once again superb, however. I really enjoy Nicolas Cage in this role. He brings a bit of his over-the-top zaniness to the role and Grug benefits as a character due to that. Emma Stone is likewise excellent and she has a great partner in Ryan Reynolds. Clark Duke felt like he was relegated a bit to the sidelines (although the "window" gag was truly funny). Cloris Leachman is always a wonderful addition. Catherine Keener didn't have as much to do in the original and that unfortunately continues here. I was a big fan of the new additions- Peter Dinklage, Leslie Mann, and Kelly Marie Tran all add quite excellent voice work as the Bettermans. The voice cast deserves no criticism and are a big reason why I enjoyed the film.

The animation again is top notch. The colors, the immerse world that is created here, it all adds to the experience of watching the film. The different creatures are rendered effectively and draw us in. The punch monkeys might have been overplayed a bit, but they are humorous and well-rendered. Speaking of comedy, the movie was mildly amusing throughout and had a few nice gags, but it wasn't especially funny- at least not consistently.

I thought the conclusion of the film was a bit weak. It's big and loud, but messy. Like the rest of the film, it feels like a few shortcuts were taken to get to the conclusion. It's not bad, but it doesn't end the film on an especially powerful note.

The Croods: A New Age is a decent film, but it's clearly inferior in relation to the original. I had fun watching it at times, but it's ultimately too forgettable. Dreamworks has done much better work than this. I guess like most things in 2020, this also proves to be a disappointment.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Croods, Ice Age, How to Train Your Dragon, The Incredibles, Toy Story