The Croods (2013): Review

Today I went to see The Croods, the new DreamWorks animated movie and it was an extremely enjoyable 98 minuets.  The Croods follows a caveman family consisting of the a stuck in the past father Grug (Nicolas Cage), a mother Ugga (Catherine Keener) who tries to bridge the gap between father and daughter, a daughter Eep (Emma Stone) who just wants to be able to spread her wings and explore the world, a wise cracking Gran (Cloris Leachman), a dunce of a son Thunk (Clark Duck), and a wild little toddler.  They like their lives by the rules of Grug, which is to stay away from everything new and stay in the cave.  He tells stories to his family about how new situations lead to death.  Eep wanting to explore things that are new, follows what she discovers to be fire and meets Guy (Ryan Reynolds) that shacked up the Croods' family by informing them that the world is collapsing and they have to move to survive.  During their journey to stay alive by leaving the old behind, there is lots of family drama and resistance from Grug to change his ways.  It is a struggle for the family to come together and discover what life is truly about.
I enjoyed this movie and think that it is good for the entire family, it is PG enough for children, with just hits of scary, but there are moment that are humours and fun for adults.  I found myself laughing out lout at some of the moments, and thinking it was fun how they constantly using physicality.
I went and saw this movie in 3D but do not think that it was necessary, as I didn't find that it added to the experience.  Yes there were moments where things floated out in the air (glowing ash) but it really wasn't that big of a deal and I thought that it has been better executed in other movies. There was some nice use of dimension but again it wasn't sweeping enough for me to think it is worth the movie.  I recommend this to families to go and see together.

My Rating: 2+