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The Croods: A New Age Movie Review

The Croods: A New Age is a 2020 animated adventure comedy film directed by Joel Crawford. It’s a solid sequel coming from DreamWorks Animation.

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“Thunder sisters!“

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‘The Croods’ was so good. In fact, it’s one of the studio’s most underrated efforts as it ranks among the most enjoyable DreamWorks flicks. This sequel came out after seven years and it’s by far the longest gap between sequels in the studio’s history. Was it worth it? Kind of, yes. Although clearly inferior to the original, I found this sequel quite solid and very entertaining.

The plot is uninspired, let’s just say that. It’s very clichéd and predictable in its every turn. The family finds another family, but they are much more advanced, leading to a lot of conflict between the two. Gone is the strong family drama of the first movie with interesting dynamics, but what we have here is still solid as these characters are just great and very endearing.

Grug is much less memorable this time around, though he gets to be even wilder and Nicolas Cage is thus even crazier. Ugga is better utilized here and I liked her difficult relationship with Hope Betterman, who is this typical, annoying smug woman, but she works in the context of the story. Her husband Phil is way too silly and hippie-like.

The highlights were clearly Eep, Guy and Dawn. Eep and Guy’s strained relationship is the major conflict of this movie and it’s very well realized. Eep is particularly interesting and basically the protagonist of this sequel. She’s so much fun. I also loved the evolution of Dawn as the adventure that the two girls have is wonderful and visually spectacular.

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Yes, that adventurous segment was easily the best of the bunch and I wish that more of the film was as spirited and as fun. The scenes with the Bettermans, though uninspired, are still fun because their house looks amazing and seeing all of those contraptions and how they work was undoubtedly interesting.

What I did not care for in the slightest was that third act. The ending itself was cool and everything concluded satisfactorily, but the entire Punch-Monkeys storyline was way too silly for me personally. This is the point in the movie where it clearly became very kid-oriented and I do get that children will probably eat this up, but for adults the manic action and silly humor in the monkeys storyline was the weakest and most audience-limited part of an otherwise solid family drama.

The Croods: A New Age is gorgeously animated. It isn’t as inspired as the original, but it’s even more colorful and wildly authentic in designs. Everything here is very polished, the world building is once again amazing and the various creatures that we get to meet are, yes, crazy in their designs, but undeniably striking and fun.

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The movie is at its best when exploring its vast, colorful world and more scenes should have been relegated to the adventure elements, but those that we got are excellent. Thematically speaking, the movie is weak, though the strong family values are still there. The humor is solid, but far from great. The voice acting is terrific from each member of this cast and the score is excellent.