Unpretentious and funny

Rating: 7/10 (11 December 2013)

The start of the film threw me off. Yes, it is a cartoon for children, but I was initially annoyed by the fact that there was no attempt at verisimilitude at all. The creatures were not realistic. Their world is not realistic. The things these cavemen do is not realistic. I would have preferred a film that at least attempted to show us what the world would have been like for these people.
The movie seems to have been set during the Great Bottleneck that occurred around the Toba disaster. The Crood is a sort of animalistic Neanderthal-like family that learns key lessons from the apparently more evolved Guy.
It bothered me that these cavemen were so....American-sounding, and that they were being used as a vehicle to portray modern American family dynamics.
I suppose this animated movie was meant to be seen on a huge screen in 3D; however, I saw it on a very small screen on an airplane.
Because of these three things I was sorely tempted to switch to a different movie.
However, I stuck it out. Before long I found myself enjoying the comedy, the beauty of some of the animation, and the imaginative portrayal of this ancient world. Cartoons are not supposed to be realistic. Some of the natural scenes depicted reminded me of Avatar. At times the movie is hilarious. This is an unpretentiously fun movie.
It struck me that kids in particular would love this film and its simple message that "Dad's rules may not always be right but Dad is a good guy who in the end will look out for you". The other themes are that "rules are made to be broken" and "get out of your cave and explore the world". Probably a useful message for the internet generation.