The Croods Review

RYAN: The Croods is the latest animated 3D movie from Dreamworks featuring the voices of Emma Stone, Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, and Catherine Keener.  And I was very surprised by this movie.  I liked it so much!

CHUCK: I absolutely loved it.  I’m a fan of one of the directors, Chris Sanders, who did Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, two of my favorite animated films.  I went in with high expectations and it delivered. 

RYAN: Not only does it have great animation, but it has a fantastic story. I’m proclaiming this early in the year but this is gonna be a frontrunner for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

CHUCK: Oh absolutely.  It’s as good as the best of Pixar and Disney. They did a phenomenal job fully rendering everything from the characters to the action, music, which was composed by Alan Silvestri, who is one of the best out there.

RYAN: I am a Nic Cage fan and he was perfectly suited as the dad.  And Emma Stone was brilliant.

 

CHUCK: The voice casting was spot on.  Cloris Leachman as the grandmother – you can’t go wrong with that.

RYAN: She was hilarious.

CHUCK: And the director voiced the character of belt.

RYAN: I couldn’t detect it was Ryan Reynolds’s voice until the credits.

CHUCK: Yeah he was able to to his broad schtick and it worked really well in this movie.

RYAN: I actually LOL’d at one point.  And I teared-up at another so it’s a very complete, satisfying film.

CHUCK: It gets my tear of approval as well.  It was very emotional.  I laughed out loud a bunch of times, as did a lot of people in the theater.

RYAN: I loved how all of the critters and cute things, and even the youngest child in the Crood family, all behaved like a dog.  That really added to the ambiance of the film.

CHUCK: And the critters were all so inventive.  Having a pure canvas where animators would run free with their imaginations…

RYAN: Right.  Because it was prehistoric, there were a lot of fantastical creatures and things.

CHUCK: So imaginative and colorful.  And the action sequences and camera movement was very impressive.

RYAN: 3D should be good in animation and it was.  Interestingly, a lot of the environments reminded me of the backgrounds in Oz the Great and Powerful.  Some of the large gemstones and huge flowers, horizon shapes, etc…

CHUCK: That didn’t occur to me but now that you say it, I think you’re right.  But they’re both fanciful worlds where animators could go crazy and apparently large flowers are something that everyone likes.

— BOTTOM LINE —

CHUCK: Fantastic.  Take the family and the kids or just go yourself.  You’ll have a great time at the movies.

RYAN: The best animated and family films are those that will delight the adults as well as the kids in the audience and this is one of the best examples of that kind of movie.

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