I was kind of shocked to hear that the first Croods movie came out in 2013, I thought it was way more recent than that. Anyway, despite being stuck in development hell for many years The Croods: A New Age would see a release in 2020. Due to Covid-19, it only got a limited theatrical run, but the movie did pretty well as a premium streaming title.
How to Stream or Download The Croods: A New Age
To stream or to download the movie from Google Play, iTunes or Amazon Prime, click on the Download button at the end of this review.
The Movie Review
The first thing that they got right with this movie was that they managed to get the cast back. Nic Cage as the protective father, Grug, Emma Stone as his feisty daughter Eep and Ryan Reynolds as the boyfriend, Guy. Once again, all of the above and the rest of the cast are awesome.
They added in some new blood to this movie in the form of the Betterman family. Peter Dinklage, Leslie Mann and Kelly Marie Tran are playing these more “evolved” humans who look down their noses at regular cave people like The Croods. I think that you could make an argument for The Croods: A New Age and the movie that came before it as having some of the best voice acting of any animated movie.
One thing that I feel the movie deserves a ton of credit for is the way that it looks. This is arguably the best-looking animated movie of 2020. The use of color is very, very well done, but it is the facial animations that really stand out. This is especially true if you watch a scene from the original Croods and then this one back-to-back, the difference is night and day.
As far as the actual movie goes… it is fine. I am not saying that it is going to blow you away or anything like that, but it is fun while it lasts. The Croods come across a family called The Betterman’s and they live inside this wall and have a real negative outlook towards cave people.
They actually have ties to Guy and try to pry him away from The Croods. Add to this a rather uneasy alliance with these Punch Monkey creatures which Grug kind of ruins and there is a fair bit going on. You can see where the plot is going a mile away, but that does not make it bad or anything.
The humor is pretty fun and one thing that Dreamworks always does well to make their movies appealing to kids and adults. As a result, The Croods: A New Age is a fine movie to watch for a family movie night as it is something that everyone can have fun with.
I thought that this was a decent enough follow up. It may not have had quite the same impact that the first Croods movie did, but it is still going to make you smile. With a lack of animated family movies last year, it does more than enough to stand out as one of the better ones that did manage to be released.
