Stay in your cave, unless you want to get out!

Rating: 4/10 (29 March 2013)

The Croods was fun to watch, and teaches kids to take risks while instilling reasonable family values along the way. There are many great laughable family moments; but, if you stop and think about what's actually going on, there is little purpose to the characters journey. I'm not a huge fan of Dreamworks storytelling, but this is definitely their worst story.
As always, the visuals were risky, hit and miss. Initially, I thought that the characters were very ugly, but after five minutes of seeing them on screen, I was able to enjoy their expressiveness. I had a similar experience with PIXAR's UP... the characters were so weird, but when the acting started, things were fine.
All of the animals in the film felt like they were inspired by an acid trip with Dali inside of an 80s airbrush painting. The wild elements were always interesting, but not the best quality.
So again, there are lots of unique interesting scenes and creatures here, but it all seems a little unfocused and half realized. There are TONs of great special effects in this animated feature, so if you like nature on a big scale, this might be something for you to focus on while kids enjoy the goofy antics of cave people.
If you have nothing better to do, get out of your cave and see this one!