Of Unfulfilled Promises and Underachieved Efforts

Rating: 6/10 (10 July 2013)

Rating: 2.9/5 stars Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)
Some nice scenes and refreshing dialogs strung together along with brilliant visuals just about manage to help this animated venture stay afloat. The first half of the movie is what really lets it down with random hurried scenes and a blatant disregard for the law of physics. I agree that an animated film is permitted to take certain liberties, but they should be taken with the permissible constraints of the film's environment and its script. Going overboard with these liberties becomes intolerable after a certain point of time. For instance, there's no way that a human being, leave alone an infant, can run faster than a wild cat or an ostrich-like prehistoric bird.
From the second half onwards, the movie begins the ease up and starts focusing more on its characters and their interactions. Most notable of all is the endearing representation of the father-daughter relationship and the young guy who decides to help their family. The climax again begins on an enthusing note only to stumble into confounding territory that totally defies logic and rationale.
Eventually, "The Croods" joins the ranks of an alarmingly increasing plethora of animated films nowadays that promise a lit, convinces us at the onset that it just might deliver on its promises, but alas, disappoints us in the end with the felling of what could have been.