Visually beautiful animation with an average script

Rating: 7/10 (8 December 2015)

This film was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Feature, losing to Frozen. There will be spoilers ahead:
This is a very good film. It says something for the year in animation when a film like The Croods is, for me, the fifth best film in a very good field. The visuals on this are magnificent.
The main problem I have is with the script. After about the fourth or fifth time we have the point that the father is completely and totally afraid of everything that's even remotely unfamiliar, I thought to myself, "Okay, I get it! He's scared of anything that's unknown! Get on with other things". This was probably 15 minutes into a film more than n90 minutes long. It detracted from the film for me.
Essentially, this is about the Croods, a prehistoric family. It's narrated by Eep, the daughter of the above-referenced father. She's, if anything, more exasperated by her father's fears, no matter how well-founded they seem to be (her recounting of why they have no neighbors at the start of the film is gruesomely hilarious.
Eep sneaks out one night, in defiance of the rules and meets Guy, a thinking caveman. She proceeds to wipe the ground with Guy, being stronger than he is. He tells her that destruction is headed this way and everyone has to head to safer grounds or be obliterated. When she declines his invitation to come, he gives her a shell to call to him with.
Through various events, the entire family of Croods find themselves caveless and traveling "with" Guy (in a running gag involving Guy and a log). Grug, the father, dislikes Guy immediately, for lots of reasons. Guy gets the upper hand and winds up in charge, which irks Grug enormously and it becomes a sort of competition between ideas and muscle.
The family and Guy have lots of brushes with the danger they're running from and lots of funny moments along the way. Their introductions to fire show that father and daughter are a lot alike. The ending of the film is nice and permits a sequel, which is scheduled for released in 2017. I'm looking forward to it as I type.
This film is available on Blu-Ray/DVD and is well worth getting. The Blu-Ray is particularly nice.