The Croods: A New Age (2020)

By: Mike Ward on Wednesday, November 25

PG Running Time: 95 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • A stellar cast returns for this sequel to The Croods, including Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds and more, with new additions Leslie Mann, Peter Dinklage, and Kelly Marie Tran.

  • Harmless, even charming at times, The Croods has a nice message of not judging books by covers and learning to accept people’s differences as a positive. Seems timely for our world right now.

  • Moves quickly, lots of energy and will keep kids engaged from bell to bell.

NO

  • Moves quickly, lots of energy and will potentially exhaust parents and older viewers from bell to bell.

  • Six writers have collaborated on a rather simple story that lacks very few surprises.

  • Hard to make the case that you need to rush out to a theater to see The Croods: A New Age during a pandemic.


OUR REVIEW

Increasingly, animated films from major studios (except, perhaps those made by Pixar) seem to try and move faster, louder, more frenetic, and infuse more colors than ever before. The Croods: A New Age, a sequel to the popular 2013 film, is the latest example; reuniting the original cast with some new ensemble voices, the film opts to take the adventurous, unrefined Croods family and place them alongside a forward-thinking, eco-friendly, more refined family known as the Bettermans.

While certainly not a bad idea to take the dusty, grimy, Neanderthal-like Croods (a more updated version of The Flintstones, for those not familiar), and dump them into a situation polar-opposite to their Earthen lives, the premise here feels rather forced. The Bettermans have created what they believe to be an idyllic, meticulously crafted world for their teenage daughter Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran). A sustainable life exists within their enclosed living space, surrounded by a seemingly impenetrable wall. Naturally, this utopia becomes upended when the Croods literally crash through the wall and cross paths with Dawn’s parents, Hope (Leslie Mann) and Phil (Peter Dinklage).

Directed by Joel Crawford, making his feature-length film debut after previously directing a Trolls television short, The Croods: A New Age does not lack for energy. And with his past experience working with the Trolls franchise, Crawford is quite well suited to bring his vision of a multi-colored this and a rainbow-saturated that to the big screen.

When the Croods discover the Bettermans’ sanctuary, prior to meeting Hope and Phil, we endure a rapid-fire montage of parents Grug and Ugga (Nicolas Cage, Catherine Keener), son Thünk (Clark Duke), unhinged grandma Gran (Cloris Leachman), daughter Eep (Emma Stone), and her boyfriend and family tag-along Guy (Ryan Reynolds) gorging themselves and pigging out in a hypercolor euphoria.

For Grug, family is everything and the film’s six credited writers routinely remind us of this sentiment again and again. Pushing back on the notion of family staying literally together forever is Eep, whose growing feelings for Guy are matched by Guy’s wondering aloud if there’s a “tomorrow” for the two of them, pulling her away from the Croods’ sleep piles and Grug’s overprotecting ways.

A simple juxtaposition appears as Eep contemplates a life away from her family, and Dawn is protected at all costs from the outside world. A connection between Dawn and Guy makes Eep initially jealous, but soon she and Dawn discover they have more in common than they have differences, and a fast friendship is made.

There is nothing surprising or groundbreaking here from a storytelling standpoint. Crawford is a suitable navigator of the repetitive jokes and gags which come with the Croods not fitting in with the Bettermans’ way of life. Sprinkle in some nuanced commentary on classism, elitism, and not judging proverbial books by their covers and we have some heft to the shenanigans running around on screen. Along the way, we delve into a mystery surrounding why the Bettermans’ hoard bananas, see Grug and Ugga wrestle with different definitions of how a family can survive growing older and changing, and a whole host of silly jokes and random bits of comedy.

The vocal work is top notch, with Leachman cut loose in the film’s final act to throw in some zingers. Despite some fun exchanges between Stone and Tran, a rather muzzled Reynolds, a stifled Cage, and an underutilized Keener soundtrack a strange mix of a movie saddled with a both a little too much and simply not enough.

Kids will enjoy this I imagine, but it is worth noting that Universal Pictures is choosing to move ahead with this as a theatrical release, delaying a Premium VOD release until Christmas morning. In my home state of Washington, for example, spikes in COVID-19 cases have again closed all movie theaters, after they briefly reopened for a few weeks. Subsequently, families seeing ads for The Croods: A New Age may not quite realize that they will need to mask up and travel out to what we are know calling “Cinema-Safe” theaters.

In normal times, this is a movie that would serve as a fine escape on a Saturday morning with popcorn and sodas occupying the pre-lunch hours. But these are not normal times. And the reality is that The Croods: A New Age may not have an audience patient enough to wait for it to become more accessible, the deeper we go into the fall. With upcoming movies like Soul, Wonder Woman 1984, and other family-oriented films debuting on streaming platforms and instantly available in the comfort of one’s own home, is there much of an audience right now clamoring for the Croods in theaters, during a pandemic?

Though charming and entertaining at times, The Croods: A New Age remains weighed down by a simple premise and familiar pacing and plotting. Even when Jack Black and his band, Tenacious D, randomly blast into the end credits with a cover of “I Think I Love You” by The Partridge Family, the fun is merely fleeting and the film remains largely inconsequential.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke, Leslie Mann, Peter Dinklage, Kelly Marie Tran.

Director: Joel Crawford
Written by: Kevin Hageman, Dan Hageman, Paul Fisher, Bob Logan (screenplay); Kirk DeMicco, Chris Sanders (story).
Release Date: November 25, 2020
Universal Pictures