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Dreamworks' The Croods came out in 2013, the same year that Disney released Frozen. I think for this reason, as well as a few others, it was completely overlooked. When the trailers came out, I was really excited because it looked so vibrant and I love any movie with make believe creatures, bright colors, and fun characters. It stood out to me for all the reasons Frozen did not. I saw that it featured Nicholas Cage and thought my friend who loves him (half ironically) would maybe get a kick out of that, but he was completely uninterested. It is not hard to see why; The Croods is definitely a kids or family movie. From the trailer you can tell it is about self discovery, family values and adventure. Still, I could not understand nobody seemed interested in it. Would they have felt differently if it was a new Disney movie? Coco (2017) has a similar feel to it and everyone went crazy wanting to see that one, including me. Whatever the case, as soon as Frozen was announced, everyone was dying to see that one and forgot about The Croods. And while Frozen is a good movie, I do not love it the way the rest of the world does. Maybe it is the chilly blue colors? Anyway, I just want to say that I am not here to hate on Frozen, because it is a good film that has been so important to many children and adults.
- Spoilers -
The Croods has a star studded cast of Nick Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Renolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, Chris Sanders, Randy Thom, and the amazing Cloris Leachman. They voice the only 8 speaking characters in the whole movie that we see.
The beginning of the story starts in the dry desert where Eep is part of the only surviving family of cavemen in the area: the Crood family. Her narration explains that the others were all killed by animals or disease, leaving them all alone. She lives with her overly protective father Grug, her caring mother Ugga, her slightly inept little brother Thunk, her savage baby sister Sandy, and her mother's mother Gran. While Grug works on keeping all of them alive in a hostile environment of predators and little food, Eep dreams of seeing the world beyond the desert, on the other side of the rocky mountains. She is strong and stubbon like her father, but gets tired of hiding in their cave and being told that new things usually result in death.
Everything changes when Eep follows a mysterious light outside the cave one night and discovers a boy her age carrying the first fire she has ever seen. His name is Guy. (I enjoy this play on Adam and Eve by calling our lead couple Guy and Eep.) He is skinnier and smarter than her family (not a caveman), and tells her the end of the world is following him and that they must leave this area quickly. She stays with her family, but he leaves her a conch shell to blow for help. Grug finds her out in the night and brings her home, where she shares the music of the conch shell only to have her family smash it in fear. Just as Grug is telling her that they must stay near or inside the cave to be safe, an earthquake shakes everything, crushing their cave and bringing down the mountains. They are forced into the rich rainforest beyond where there are new predators everywhere. After running all day, the family finds themselves faced with a swarm of piranha birds. Eep makes a horn and calls for Guy, who arrives with his fire to scare off the birds. Unfortunately, despite saving the family, Grug does not trust Guy at all. He keeps Guy tied up as they travel towards the mountains where Guy says they can find "tomorrow" and safety, and Grug says they can find a safe cave.
At this point in the film, as the family travels through new and bizarre terrain, the main character begins to shift from Eep to Grug. I was really impressed with this, partly because it is so smart. Everyone knows Eep and Guy's story; their relationship starts out rough, but they quickly fall in love during their travels. (A nice twist on this is that Guy is physically weak yet very smart while Eep is slower in understanding yet fantastically athletic. They both overlook the other's flaws after a little while and greatly admire their strengths.) We still see their relationship develop, but it is mostly from Grug's perspective. He has always been the one to protect his family and he sees Guy's presence as an intrusion. In the new, ever changing landscape, Guy's problem solving gets them all out of trouble frequently while Grug's hit-first-ask-never policy proves to be ineffective. Everyone begins to listen to Guy's stories, insights, and advice. They like the way he sees the world as an opportunity. While Grug had them hide in the cave, Guy encourages them to climb a tree and see the stars for the first time. They all begin to forget that Grug did what he did to help them survive because now, in this new world, they can see that there is more to life than that. My favorite line of the movie comes when Grug explains his actions, straight up saying, "I was just trying to keep everyone alive." I think this is how many working fathers feel.
Finally, Grug cannot take it anymore and attacks Guy, only to knock them both into a tar flow. Guy tells Grug to stop struggling in the sticky mess because no one can escape it; he saw his family die that way and knows there is no way out. However, Grug decides that maybe Guy is not there to take his daughter away from him or to turn his family against him, and encourages him to come up with an idea on how to get out. Working together, they manage to escape, but the earthquakes start up again. They make a run for the mountains and Grug wants everyone to get inside a cave, but they all choose to keep running with guy up into the mountain and through to the place he thinks will be safe. Grug goes with them to protect them. Unfortunately, the ground falls out in front of their feet and they are left on the dangerous side of a huge crevous in the earth. Guy volunteers to be thrown over by Grug and it is a success. One by one the family members are tossed over, knowing that there will be no one left to toss Grug. Before she is thrown, Eep is overcome with love for her father and guilt for not finding a way to make peace with him over their differences. He gives her a hug, tells her everything will be fine, and throws her over.
Everyone is safe, but now Grug is left to fend for himself as the earthquake shakes the mountain. He manages to find shelter inside, where he encounters a giant cat from earlier that is terrified and now basically a scared kitty. Grug pushes himself and comes with an idea of how to get across the gorge before the earthquakes kill him and all the critters he finds hiding in the mountain. He coats some old bones with tar, then attracks a swarm of piranha birds, then forces them to move in one direction using fire he made, thus carrying the whole thing with him and the animals inside all the way across. As Grug attempts this, his family stands on the other side blowing their conch shells as a final goodbye, when suddenly he appears out of the smoke, crash landing but surviving. The end of the film shows our characters enjoying a new life by the beach with their many pets, living in harmony with each other and nature.
This is a dad's movie. I would also say that Hotel Transylvania is a dad's movie. It is the sort of thing I would expect the father of a little girl to think would be really boring and childish, only to watch it with her after her insists and discover that the message in it is really for him. That is not so say that kids would not enjoy this movie; every character is colorful enough to pull the fun adventure along. The same is true in Hotel Transylvania, which similarly seems like it will be about the daughter's love life after years of isolation with her family, but then it focuses more on the father's fear, anger, and long time prejudices. The father is involved thoughout the story, so this shift does not feel jarring, but it is a clever surprise. It is meant to show families how better to interact through openness and honesty about their feelings, as well as remind fathers that their daughters need to hear that they are loved just as much as they need to know how dangerous the world is.
My Russian friend and I watch lots of movies together, and she proclaimed that this was the best one I had ever shown her. She loves her family so, so much and this movie made her feel warm and fuzzy. As someone who struggles with being close to her dad, I also enjoy watching it. And, as a fantasy lover, it checks a lot of boxes for me. It deserves to have more of an audience.
