When you watch a trailer for a movie before it hits the big screen you make a decision on how much you want to see it, which forms a trend that influences how successful a film is, and while the trailer for The Croods was pretty good, the reality is that it didn’t entirely do the film enough justice, which probably meant that a fair few people missed it at the cinema. Luckily, the DVD was released on the 9th December 2014 and we got a chance to finally watch the latest movie from the DreamWorks Animation team and the truth is that it’s an instant classic from start to brilliant end, so if there’s any part of you that likes CGI cartoon movies, this one should be bumped up in your must see list.
As well as having a pretty impressive cast, the film also has a massively fun storyline that lends itself to delivering a lot of laughs, as well as prehistoric world of adventure. It centres around a family of cave people that have survived for as long as they have in the savage, dinosaur infested landscape thanks largely to the overbearing protection of their father Grug, played by Nicholas Cage (Kick Ass).
However, their nervy, cave hiding existence doesn’t really go down too well with his eldest daurghter, Eep, voiced by Emma Stone (Gangster Squad), who wants to live life a bit more adventurously. The father daughter battle comes to a head when Eep meets Guy, voiced by Ryan Reynolds (Adventureland), who tells them that the world is about to end.
While the family don’t believe the newcomer to start with, they quickly change their mind as the ground starts to crack beneath their feet and their cave home gets destroyed by a giant falling boulder. With everything they know lost with no way back they have no option but to head out in search of safety in a world they’ve been trying to hide away from. Taking mum, Ugga Crood (Catherine Keener – Where The Wild Things Are), son, Thunk (Clark Duke), youngest daughter, Sandy (Randy Tom) and old Granny Crood (Cloris Leachman) along for the wild ride they set out into the great unknown.
The cast adds a lot to the genius of the film, with Cage and Stone bringing out the father, daughter relationship to as much perfection as you could ever hope for in a cartoon comedy set in caveman times. Ryan Reynolds does pretty well at portraying the young free thinker, Guy, but the reality is that every role in the movie is genuinely class throughout the whole film. Our favourite performance though has got to be co-writer and co-director, Chris Sanders, who brings a lot of dead-pan comedy to the film playing Guy’s companion and trouser support, Belt.
Pound for pound there’s more laughs on The Croods DVD than you’d expect if you’d just watched the trailer below, but equally, there’s a lot of pace to the story as it builds to an increasingly frenetic end. It’s also incredibly endearing, with each of the characters having a lot of personality, making them very likeable.
The animation is stunning too, with a unique style to it, taking things back to the ancient cave-dwelling origins of humanity with a twist of random mentalness that’s about a million miles from being an accurate representation of the past. Things look the coolest when they get up to speed in the action scenes as the Croods try to pull together to survive everything from sabre-toothed tigers to rampaging, killer insect swarms.
While the DVD is good, the reality is that The Croods was made for 3D, so our shout is that if you’re planning on adding the film to the collection, you might want to consider the HD 3D potential of the Blu-ray release. However, if you don’t have the kit for 3D movies, the DVD is epic enough all by itself.
If you’re looking for any more reasons to catch The Croods on DVD in the very least, the good news is that the writers and directors, Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders, are also working on a sequel, so there’s more to come from the mad-cap prehistoric family.
The Croods DVD review: 4.5/5
