The Croods

Saw The Croods, a fairly goofy animated Dreamworks film about cave-folks who abandon their cave for silly and lushly animated adventures. The central conflict is between the father of the family who wants everyone to stay safe in a boring cave vs his daughter who wants them to explore and adventure. This conflict is thrown into high gear when the daughter meets this guy (named Guy) who is a clever, pretty dude who is full of non-cave-related survival technology.

The new Guy quickly usurps the father's position as head of the pack and everyone eagerly follows this new kid who is full of new technology, youth, and a promise of a better tomorrow. Much of the film follows the father slowly losing control of his family to this new guy. This is a kid's film, so it's not exactly a psychodrama. The family's embracing of the new guy is portrayed by the father sulking while everyone enjoys cave-mimosas, and the father being uncomfortable about this new guy standing so close to his daughter. Clearly, somewhere along the line someone said "what if the caveman father was, like, really conservative-minded? Like a caveman in the modern sense of the word?" and the writing team just ran with it.

The film is slightly cringy as a result of this. The father is just so at sea outside of his safe-zone and the new guy is just sooo competent and sooo pretty. The cards are very stacked against the father and indeed it's only when the father "changes" to become more like the new guy that he is redeemed. The father's fear-based approach to survival has its merits however. We learn in the voice-over prologue that they've out-lived many other families. I feel if this film were made today, in these more partisan times, the father might have better narrative legs to stand on.

Anyway, the film is a typical kid's film. Queasily sincere at times, but tons of lush animation, Sunday cartoon-ready characters, and a world that wants to dazzle you. The ending is earned and sincere and lovely. The characters are fun but I just couldn't shake the feeling that the cave-dad was going to just beat the pretty, smart, new guy to death with a stone at some point.