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Seven years after the release of “ The Croods ,” a sequel finally emerges from the caves of Hollywood, pushing its ways into theaters in the markets where people are still allowed to go to the multiplex. Rather than drop this one on VOD like “ Trolls World Tour ,” Universal and Dreamworks are pushing forward with a theatrical release, even as COVID cases skyrocket. Will people strap on a mask after Thanksgiving turkey and head out to see one of the few blockbusters released this season? The business story here could make for some interesting headlines, especially if it ends up a financial loser for the company willing to risk opening it in theaters. That’s the only story that will be of interest because the movie itself is hyperactive and shallow, the kind of animated sequel that operates under a “more is better” aesthetic, hoping to numb audiences into thinking they were actually entertained. A decent first half and solid voice work throughout succumbs to total chaos for the second half and the realization that there’s almost no actual artistic intent here. No story, no character, no world-building, no design. It’s all bright colors and loud noises. You’d think we’d evolved beyond that by now.

The comparatively charming “The Croods” was the story of an overprotective caveman father named Grug ( Nicolas Cage ) who came to terms with the fact that his daughter Eep ( Emma Stone ) had to grow up and take some risks of her own, including falling in love with a boy named Guy ( Ryan Reynolds ). “The Croods: The New Age” opens with a brief reminder of Guy’s back story and how he became a part of the Croods’ pack, one that also includes mom Ugga ( Catherine Keener ), son Thunk ( Clark Duke ), and Gran ( Cloris Leachman ). Eep and Guy are starting their romance in an increasingly dangerous world. There’s a fun early montage to “I Think I Love You” as the pack avoids life-threatening situations.

Just after Grug discovers that his daughter is considering leaving the pack to start her own with Guy, the Croods stumble upon a fenced-in commune run by the Bettermans—Hope ( Leslie Mann ), Phil (a great Peter Dinklage ), and their daughter Dawn ( Kelly Marie Tran ). The Bettermans are the city mice to the Croods’ country mice. They compost their garbage instead of just leaving it in the wild; they wear sandals and necklaces and man-buns; Phil even has a literal man cave to retreat to when life gets too hard. All of the civilization is shocking to the Croods, including its bananas and mirrors. Guy has an important history with the Bettermans, which leads to a sort of pack love triangle—will Guy return to the more civilized and predictable world of Dawn Betterman or roam the dangerous plains with Eep Crood?

It’s not a bad starting point, but four credited writers (plus two more credited with the story) can’t figure out how to build on it. The promising set-up gives way to shallow stakes, repeated jokes, and hyperactive visuals. For the record, I have three children under 11, so I have the expertise to say that this is one of the most headache-inducing children’s blockbusters in recent years. No one is expecting nuance in a sequel to “The Croods,” but there’s a balance between that and non-stop noise.

It doesn’t help that “The Croods: A New Age” is content to tell pretty much the same story only louder. Once again, it’s a story of fathers learning that they can’t be too protective of their daughters—Phil goes through a similar arc with Dawn as Grug did with Eep in the first movie—and an encouragement for families to stick together no matter what happens. How civilization actually separates families like the Bettermans, while being out in the wild focuses a family like the Croods into a more cohesive pack, could have been an interesting story—especially given how families are literally more apart this holiday than ever before—but “The Croods: A New Age” doesn’t really do much beyond the surface, giving the movie over to physical comedy and loud action sequences.

Every time that “The Croods: A New Age” feels like more than a generic retread, it returns to something safe and familiar. The irony is that these stories are about breaking out of a bubble—overprotective fathers who realize that the danger of the world is an essential part of growing up. If a third adventure surfaces for Grug, Eep, Guy, and the gang, one would hope that the filmmakers would take their own advice: The best movies are made by those willing to leave the pack.

For transparency’s sake, it feels important to state that this film was screened via streaming app. The intent of this review is not to encourage or discourage anyone from attending a theatrical screening at this specific time. It is an analysis of the work itself for posterity.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

The Croods: A New Age (2020)

Rated PG for peril, action and rude humor.

Nicolas Cage as Grug Crood (voice)

Emma Stone as Eep Crood (voice)

Ryan Reynolds as Guy (voice)

Peter Dinklage as Phil Betterman (voice)

Leslie Mann as Hope Betterman (voice)

Kelly Marie Tran as Dawn Betterman (voice)

Catherine Keener as Ugga Crood (voice)

Clark Duke as Thunk Crood (voice)

Randy Thom as Sandy Crood (voice)

Cloris Leachman as Gran Crood (voice)

Chris Sanders as Belt (voice)

Tara Strong as Sash (voice)

Joel Crawford

Writer (story by)

Kirk DeMicco
Chris Sanders
Kevin Hageman
Dan Hageman
Paul Fisher
Mark Mothersbaugh

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The croods: a new age, common sense media reviewers.

Prehistoric cartoon sequel has slapstick, rude humor.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

While film is mostly fantasy, a few tidbits could

People are stronger as a pack than they are as ind

Women are shown to be equally strong and as fierce

Frequent peril. Primary characters are prepared as

Plot's central focus is a romance between teens/yo

Insult words include "dumb," "stupid," and "twits.

Although movie itself contains no product/brand re

A character who suffers a bee sting is affected by

Educational Value

While film is mostly fantasy, a few tidbits could be educational moments. Opening scene shows migrating humans being stuck in tar pits, which could open up discussion about early humans' migration, how tar pits preserved bones so that we can identify ancient species. Comparisons between Croods and Bettermans could spark a conversation about evolution.

Positive Messages

People are stronger as a pack than they are as individuals. Hiding away from life leads to a life half lived. Courage opens up your world, and teamwork can help you overcome big problems. Don't jump to conclusions. Also, be yourself -- and be open to those whose preferences and habits aren't the same as yours.

Positive Role Models

Women are shown to be equally strong and as fierce as men -- even more so, when push comes to shove and rescue is needed. When it comes to romance, Eep and Guy pursue each other equally. Hope and Phil learn important lessons about judging and manipulating others. Dawn and Eep build a friendship, despite the fact that they're being positioned to be rivals for Guy's affections.

Violence & Scariness

Frequent peril. Primary characters are prepared as human sacrifice for a giant monster/animal; it looks like they might die. Other characters battle that monster, some appear to be in mortal danger. Characters are shown trying to survive animal attacks in a slapstick, cartoonish manner, with few signs of worry or stress. Frequent punching, especially between monkeys and humans. Electrocutions that don't cause actual harm. Flashback to family members being stuck, fatally, in rising tar pits and urging a little boy to keep traveling alone. Menacing monkeys with glowing eyes and large fists may be scary to younger children. Arguments/yelling.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Plot's central focus is a romance between teens/young adults. Kissing. "Naked" animal butt. A male character is shirtless on several occasions as a source of humor.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Insult words include "dumb," "stupid," and "twits." Some rude/potty humor.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Although movie itself contains no product/brand references, there are many offline merchandise partnerships.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A character who suffers a bee sting is affected by the venom in a way that seems like she's drunk.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Croods: A New Age is the sequel to 2013's The Croods , which centered on a family of Neanderthals trying to survive the elements, including teen daughter Eep (voiced by Emma Stone ). This film focuses on Eep's romance with Guy ( Ryan Reynolds ) and her dad Grug's ( Nicolas Cage ) worries about losing his daughter. While the clan faces all kinds of perilous moments, most of them are over-the-top and slapstick -- fending off wild beasts is just another day in this family's life. But as the story goes on, more threats emerge that could scare littler viewers, like monkeys with glowing eyes and a giant ape monster that intends to eat some of the main characters. Some kids may also find the "punch monkey" characters -- which communicate by slugging each other -- hilarious and try to imitate them. Characters use mild insults ("dumb," "twits," etc.), there's some potty humor, and a bee sting makes one character act like she's drunk. Characters kiss, and one male is shown shirtless. Parent-child separation is referenced during a flashback, and the death of a boy's family is implied. This film strays even further from actual prehistory than the first one did, but some tidbits could prompt discussions about human evolution and migration, and there are clear themes of courage, teamwork, and the importance of being yourself. There are also some great "girl power" moments when Eep and the other female characters have to rescue the menfolk. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (17)
Kids say (38)

Based on 17 parent reviews

Disappointed

What's the story.

THE CROODS: THE NEW AGE follows the titular family -- Eep (voiced by Emma Stone ), Grug ( Nicolas Cage ), Ugga ( Catherine Keener ), Gran ( Cloris Leachman ), and foundling Guy ( Ryan Reynolds ) -- after they leave their cave and set off in search of a new home. When they find a lush, predator-free utopia, they think their worries are over. The only problem is that the more evolved Bettermans -- Hope ( Leslie Mann ), Phil ( Peter Dinklage ), and Dawn ( Kelly Marie Tran ) -- already live there. What initially seems like the recipe for companionship turns into competition -- and it turns out that the Bettermans' walled community isn't as safe as they thought.

Is It Any Good?

This Stone Age family comedy is a bit rocky: It has lots of laughs, but it lacks the originality of its predecessor. The film picks up from the point of view of Guy, who's joined the Croods' pack and is engaged in a full-blown, butterflies-in-the-stomach, goo-goo eyes romance with Eep. Where before Grug was worried about adventurous Eep's safety because she wanted to explore outside the safety of their cave, now he's worried that she'll leave the pack, so he discourages her relationship with Guy. It's a tired cliché and a bit of a strange choice as the plot for a kids' film. And then the Croods meet another family, the Bettermans, who try to steal Guy as a partner for their own daughter, Dawn.

On the other hand, Eep and Dawn don't take the bait and fight over a boy -- instead, they become friends. While Dawn is drawn in a more traditionally "cute" way, Guy never stops loving his tough, wild girlfriend. And Eep's rough physical nature -- which has resulted in scars and missing digits -- is shown to be cool, evidence of a life well-lived. While the original movie helped bring to light the realization that it's something of a miracle humans ever survived the prehistoric elements, this one is lighter on reality. The saber-toothed tigers and mastodons are replaced with spiderwolves and primates that communicate by getting socked in the arm or face. So, educational, it is not. But for a couple of hours of leave-your-brain-at-the-door fun, it's fine.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what "stronger together" means in terms of surviving as a pack. How does that message connect to a modern-day family?

Talk about the courage of the Thunder Sisters. Why is it important to show women working together and, at times, being the ones to rescue men? What makes teamwork an important life skill?

What do the Bettermans and the Croods learn about each other over the course of the movie? How do their conflicts show the dangers of making assumptions about people who might be different from you?

How historically accurate is The Croods: The New Age ? How could you find out more about prehistoric facts? How important is it for animated, fictional movies to stick close to history? What do you imagine it would really have been like if Neanderthals and Homo sapiens met up?

Does this sequel measure up to the earlier film? Why, or why not? What do you think makes a sequel successful?

Movie Details

In theaters : November 25, 2020
On DVD or streaming : February 23, 2021
Cast : Emma Stone , Ryan Reynolds , Nicolas Cage
Director : Joel Crawford
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Family and Kids
Topics : Adventures , Friendship
Character Strengths : Courage , Teamwork
Run time : 96 minutes
MPAA rating : PG
MPAA explanation : peril, action and rude humor
Last updated : December 22, 2023

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The Croods: A New Age review – much yabba-dabba ado in caveman caper

A-list voice actors leaven this hectic children’s movie with gags for grownups

A new age? Not really, but this sequel does feel like a rung up on the evolutionary ladder from 2013’s The Croods . It delivers more of the same Flintstones-meets-Ice Age family animation, with just as much headachy slapstick action. But what it’s got over the original is the addition to the voice cast of Peter Dinklage and Leslie Mann, playing husband and wife cave-couple Phil and Hope Betterman (as in “ better man”), a smug and condescending pair of prehistoric west coast hippies who throw in a few extra gags for grownups.

Dinklage and Mann join the already Hollywood-packed cast. Nicolas Cage returns as knuckle-dragging overprotective dad Grug Crood, a big softy at heart. Catherine Keener is his wife Ugga, and Emma Stone plays the eldest of their three kids, teenage toughie Eep. Ryan Reynolds is also back as Eep’s floppy-haired pretty boy squeeze Guy. The movie begins with the family stumbling half-starved across the Bettermans’ farm, a civilised paradise of Flintstones-style mod cons such as an indoor loo powered by spring water.

Kids will probably disagree, but the funniest moments here involve the Bettermans. Phil is a cross between Alan Partridge and Russell Brand, a self-satisfied barefoot yogi with a man bun. Hope is all tight smiles and pseudo-Zen calm as the Croods tramp mud on her floor. What the Bettermans really want is Guy for their own teenage daughter (in this world depopulated by climate change and savage beasties, mates are hard to come by). And the screenwriters deserve points here for swerving the stereotype of the two girls going into battle; instead of being jealous they instantly form massive teenage girl crushes on each other. Elsewhere, though, there is just too much going on, and the movie doubles in hecticness with every minute that passes, which may have you rummaging around for a couple of paracetamol.

Animation in film
Family films
Peter Dinklage
Nicolas Cage

Comments (…)

The Croods: A New Age Isn’t Nearly As Fun As Just Repeatedly Saying ‘The Croods’ Out Loud

Back in 2013, The Croods became a meme without anything from the movie actually going viral. Oh, it was a pleasant enough film (“[it] isn’t particularly smart, but it has just enough wit to keep us engaged and just enough speed to keep us from feeling restless,” I said in in my review ) and a sizable hit, too — a rare non-sequel blockbuster for Dreamworks Animation at the time. But, somehow, the picture became a punch line, a poster child for high-concept, grab-all-the-money-while-you-can bluntness. Maybe it was the dull simplicity of its premise: a prehistoric family engages in death-defying shenanigans while outrunning the apocalypse. Or could it simply have been the dim-bulb musicality of that title? Go on, say, “Croods” out loud a few times, and be sure to extend that “oo” as much as you can; I guarantee you’ll feel both better and dumber.

New movies in 2020 don’t really become memes anymore — at least not in our current dystopian holding pattern — so it may not matter one way or the other that The Croods: A New Age essentially presents the same conflict as the first film did, between brute force and wit, between fear and knowledge, only with a somewhat more pointed and timely slant. After a prologue that shows us how Guy (Ryan Reynolds), the smarty-pants dreamer who helped save the titular cave family in the first film, became an orphaned wanderer, the new movie picks up where the previous one left off. The Croods are still looking for a new place to call home. Guy is continuing to romance Eep (Emma Stone) under the watchful gaze of her paranoid father, Grug (Nicolas Cage).

The family eventually finds itself in an idyllic land run by a rather modern-looking couple, Hope and Phil Betterman (Leslie Mann and Peter Dinklage, respectively), who have managed to pioneer advanced farming methods alongside newfangled concepts like clothes, soap, and privacy. The Bettermans, it turns out, were friends of Guy’s now-deceased parents. They disdain the Croods’ uncouth ways and are somewhat outraged that Guy is engaged to Eep instead of their own daughter, Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran). It’s a dynamic ripe for confrontational, culture-war bivouacking: The fey, man-bunned Phil and the nice-on-the-outside, judgmental-on-the-inside Hope are exactly the kind of progressive 21st-century busybodies who would have voted for Obama a third time we’re often told America loves to hate. (Let’s face it, even progressive 21st-century busybodies hate progressive 21st-century busybodies.) Next to them, the ignorant, slovenly Croods feel refreshingly salt of the earth. It’s like Idiocracy in reverse.

But that’s just the setup. This is an animated family film, after all, so we know that Hope and Phil and Grug and his wife, Ugga (Catherine Keener), will eventually set aside their differences to cooperate against a common enemy and that things will get entertainingly rollercoaster-y just like they did in the first movie. Back in 2013, The Croods ’ elaborate, rapid-fire action sequences felt like typical studio animation pyrotechnics. Now, they’re a little more elaborate and a little more rapid-fire, but a lot less impressive. Still, the few clever Mad Max: Fury Road call-outs might help the film pander to grown-up viewers (while reminding us all over again how much Fury Road was basically a live-action cartoon).

More fun are the imaginative prehistoric beasts, from land-sharks to six-eyed spider-wolves to a tribe of “punch monkeys” that has developed a language that consists entirely of, well, punches and slaps. This was one of the strengths of the first picture, too: You sensed that the filmmakers had a blast inventing crazy new creatures for this primeval fantasy land. Oddly, it was one of the weaknesses of the first film, too: The more creative the world around the Croods got, the less interesting and more boilerplate the Croods’ actual story felt. But our world has changed as well, and one need not be too cruel to The Croods , a sentence I can’t believe I just typed. Once upon a time, saying a movie would help “pass the time” felt like damning with faint praise. Today, it feels like an essential service.

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‘The Croods: A New Age’ Review: DreamWorks’ Caveman Cartoon Bludgeons Audiences With Nonstop Jokes

DreamWorks Animation's follow-up to 2013 toon 'The Croods' once again focuses more on dazzling CG environments and constant punchlines than delivering a coherent story.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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In the beginning, there was “The Croods,” an agreeable enough 2013 cartoon about an overprotective early man named Grug (Nicolas Cage), who was so worried about the perils of the outside world that he kept his clan confined to a cave. Then his adventurous teenage daughter Eep (Emma Stone) met an outsider, Guy (Ryan Reynolds), and the family was forced to confront the possibility that maybe they had been a little limited in their thinking.

From that rudimentary concept, “The Croods” managed to conjure a surprisingly lavish CG world for these goofy cavepeople to explore — one in which the creatures and environments were so richly detailed, they easily distracted from the threadbare storytelling. (The movie was basically a feature-length sitcom treated as a runaway theme-park ride.) When all was said and done and the Crood family had learned its lesson, there was no organic reason to continue the story, but that didn’t stop DreamWorks Animation , which is in the business of wringing sequels from stones.

Sometimes it works (look how far it’s stretched the “Shrek” and “Madagascar” franchises), but it’s hard not to be cynical about a strategy that involves spending a ton of time and money developing original toons in the hope that they will generate future installments, spinoff TV series and lots and lots of merchandising. That’s how we got “ The Croods: A New Age ,” a largely unnecessary sequel — from an audience perspective, at least — in which the Guy-and-Eep-sitting-in-a-tree romantic subplot from the first movie gets drawn out for another 90 minutes when Grug stumbles across the Bettermans, a significantly more evolved family with a teenage daughter of their own. They’ve invented agriculture, personal hygiene and indoor plumbing. Plus, they have a much better tree.

Popular on Variety

Director Joel Crawford (graduating from the “Trolls Holiday” special) presents all of these details as jokes, and if that sounds like fun — watching Guy learn how to use a toilet, or hearing Cloris Leachman (as Gran) interrupt every so often with a crack about how things were back in her time — then this movie could be your jam. But for those who wish they’d just slow it down and tell a decent story, “The Croods: A New Age” feels like an assault on the cranium, a loud and patently obnoxious 21st-century “Flintstones” with far more sophisticated technology, but nothing new to offer in the script department. (At least the partial reopening of cinemas makes it possible for theatergoers to appreciate all the attention put on production design.)

Frankly, it was more fun seeing Fred Flintstone use a long-billed bird as a stone-age record player, though the screenwriting team of Kevin and Dan Hageman, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan do come up with pretty good sight gags. Or perhaps those contributions come from the production team, which employs the latest digital tools to push some of the core principles of hand-drawn animation to an extreme: exaggerated facial expressions, “squash and stretch” poses and hyperactive movement. For instance, it’s an old-school trick to show the silhouette of a character punched through a wall, like a chalk crime-scene outline, and here we see that both “indoors” (a novel concept for the Croods) and in the side of a giant watermelon, suggesting oldest son Thunk (Clark Duke) took a running jump at the jumbo-sized snack.

Whereas the Croods lived in a desolate land of rocks and dirt and dangerous beasts (it’s a running theme that the creatures they encounter are either hybrids of existing animals, à la “wolf spiders” and “chicken seals,” or fearsome predators, like a “land shark”), the Bettermans have cultivated a stunning DayGlo garden — even wilder and more demented than the trippy Systar System from the “Lego Movie” follow-up. Their new hosts are friendly at first, but it turns out that they secretly want to lure Guy away to marry their daughter, Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran), then cast the Croods out of the garden.

“We need to help them understand they have a bright future outside these walls,” Hope Betterman (Leslie Mann) tells her husband, Phil (Peter Dinklage), who has a weird rule about not touching the bananas — clearly intended as a clue that this paradise may be under the control of some kind of King Kong-like monster. What is it about certain animated sequels that inspires creatives to venture so far afield from what they’d done before? The Peter Max-like lunacy of “The Croods: A New Age” recalls the equally unhinged “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2,” in which the mutant food of the first movie came alive.

With the heavy lifting of exposition out of the way in the first film, wouldn’t it be preferable to slow things down and let the sequel breathe? But in the case of “The Croods,” the movie never gets around to establishing the ground rules, which in turn allows the filmmakers to rewrite them as they go. The team’s most frequently used comedy tactic involves pointing audiences’ expectations in one direction, then pulling the rug out from under them. (The King Kong twist is a good example, which the film flips several times for laughs: Instead of a massive gorilla, the banana eater is revealed to be a cute little punch monkey … who belongs to a swarm of the critters … who make sacrifices to a massive gorilla after all.)

In some cases, it pays off to play against type. Rather than seeing each other as rivals, Eep and Dawn hit it off, heading out on adventures together. And once the movie hits its truly crazy streak in the final third, it’s the men who are captured and offered to the monster, while Gran and her “Thunder Sisters” do the rescuing. But I would be lying if I said I wasn’t exhausted long before the movie turned into a sequence of antic action scenes. In fact, that feeling set in after the first five minutes, when the Croods were battling giant “kangadillos” in a breakneck canyon race. (It doesn’t help that Mark Mothersbaugh’s busy score elbows into every moment where we might catch our breath.)

For all its hyper-caffeinated energy and irreverence, the movie reduces to a relatively simple, square message: The family that sleep-piles together stays together. But scratch away at the prehistoric setup, and one might find an ugly parody of the cultural divide racking America in the year 2020, as a belligerent political divide finds the country torn between Croods and self-anointed (yet hypocritical) Bettermans. Is the movie trying to appeal to one tribe or the other? Might such a fable serve to bring the two parties together? Sure, that could happen, but this is “The Croods” we’re talking about. We should be grateful for a DreamWorks toon that doesn’t resort to fart jokes — which is one small sign of progress already.

Reviewed online, Los Angeles, Nov. 22, 2020. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 95 MIN.

Production: A Universal Pictures Home Entertainment release of a DreamWorks Animation production. Producer: Mark Swift.
Crew: Director: Joel Crawford. Screenplay: Kevin Hageman & Dan Hageman, Paul Fisher & Bob Logan; story: Kirk DeMicco, Chris Sanders. Editor: James Ryan. Music: Mark Mothersbaugh.
With: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke, Leslie Mann, Peter Dinklage, Kelly Marie Tran.

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The Croods: A New Age Reviews

... Despite having the idea of a wall separating the "different ones", The Croods: A New Age doesn't delve into any other subject or reflection. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Sep 26, 2023

The film is like watching a rollercoaster ride; it’s wildly entertaining, and its humour manages to hit the mark, being legitimately funny through the surrealism.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 25, 2023

...as the Bettermans’ plan begins to unravel, things rev up until the thrilling, laugh-fueled finale with plenty of great humor and familial frustrations along the way.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 6, 2022

The Croods: A New Age retains the cheerful comedic charm of the franchise’s first installment while still feeling fresh and fun for 2020.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 1, 2022

Don’t go questioning how the silly world-building details make any canonical sense in the grander scheme of biological evolution. Tuck those questions away to the back of your head and simply bask in these zany delights.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 8, 2022

The film’s moments of joy have the unintended effect of underlining and illuminating its duller parts. It lacks the simple charm of its predecessor.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 6, 2022

Far from a game changer, but will meet the needs of parents who need an hour and a half of entertainment that wont leave them bored to tears.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 3, 2022

The Croods: A New Age is a passable, yet minor downgrade to its predecessor.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 16, 2022

Passable fair, but not much more than that...you will forget it the minute you see it.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2021

Emerges as something far fresher, sharper and more enjoyable than its rather tired predecessor.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 29, 2021

For all that empowerment one can't help but yearn for the sexist tropes and superior caveman jokes of The Flintstones.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 23, 2021

This sequel continues the boisterous clash of tradition with modernity that powered the original, with some mighty action set-pieces thrown in.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 22, 2021

The Croods 2: A New Age is a near perfect family film of sheer, silly escapism.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 21, 2021

This is skilfully done but rather exhausting.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 20, 2021

[A] raucous, nakedly commercial but also wickedly funny sequel.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 20, 2021

Suffers from frantic pacing and overstuffed action sequences.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 18, 2021

In defiance of this vague sense of pointlessness, The Croods: A New Age manages to feel like a genuine creative endeavour and not a last resort.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 16, 2021

Every character is a joy to behold, especially during a final-act rescue that will rock your socks off.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 16, 2021

The jokes come thick and fast, and you're left hoping for more stories about this entertainingly quirky brood.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 15, 2021

A new age? Not really, but this sequel does feel like a rung up on the evolutionary ladder from 2013's The Croods.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 15, 2021

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‘the croods: a new age’: film review.

Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds return as core members of the Paleolithic pack struggling to survive in 'The Croods: A New Age,' this time at odds with a family higher up the evolutionary ladder.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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It’s been seven years since DreamWorks spliced the DNA of the Ice Age franchise with The Flintstones and gave us The Croods , an amiable adventure whose vibrant 3D visuals and zippy slapstick action helped disguise the lack of smart humor in its storytelling. You might be forgiven for wondering who asked for a sequel to a film that didn’t fossilize much of an impression in the animated landscape. But that forgettable 2013 entry earned almost $600 million worldwide, which seems reason enough for the studio to scuttle back to the Stone Age with a new creative team. Alas, that’s where the inspiration ends in this frantically over-plotted follow-up.

The first film was salvaged out of an aborted Aardman collaboration and was written and directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, who retain story credit here. It chronicled the survival struggle of a family of six cave dwellers, battling hunger, fantastical hybrid predators and the geological chaos of tricky tectonic plates that forced them out into the light in search of tomorrow.

Release date: Nov 25, 2020

Beyond the physical dangers of their primitive world, the conflict hinged on the overprotective anxiety of prehistoric patriarch Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage ) as the natural curiosity of his feisty eldest daughter Eep ( Emma Stone ) was stoked by the arrival of dreamy fellow teen Guy ( Ryan Reynolds ). The sole survivor of a family wiped out in a cataclysmic event, he was blessed with upright posture, better bone structure and a higher forehead as well as a grasp of revolutionary concepts like fire, footwear and accessories (a pet sloth serves as his belt). The clash between lunkhead Grug’s brawn and visionary Guy’s brains created friction until they came to an inevitable understanding, realizing that both strength and ideas could help protect the family.

The new installment is directed with minimal flair by Joel Crawford, a longtime story artist in the DreamWorks Animation trenches, and written with a similar dearth of imagination by brothers Kevin and Dan Hageman, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan. That committee has taken characters with limited charm and given them even less distinction, plugging a mostly samey continuation of their story full of action so manic and exhausting it often plays like a video game.

An early whir of intended excitement with the clan forming a kill circle to ward off attack from an army of kangadillos (as the name suggests, a kangaroo-armadillo cross) is a dispiriting sign of what’s to come — over and over with diminishing returns. Few if any gags here come close to those that worked the first time around, like the Croods’ weaponized toddler (Kailey Crawford), who prompted the wild battle cry, “Release the baby!”

The chief attempt to make the sequel less juvenile is the introduction of slightly more adult humor via Phil and Hope Betterman ( Peter Dinklage , Leslie Mann ), whose more advanced state is underlined in their name. When Grug discovers their walled farm — equipped with Flintstones-style inventions like a shower and a flush toilet, irrigated with mountain spring water and full of exotic crops ripe for the picking — the Croods believe they’ve found tomorrow. But the snobbish Bettermans’ only interest in the troglodyte freeloaders is in keeping Guy around as a mate for their teenage daughter Dawn ( Kelly Marie Tran ). A sleek top-knot and some vanilla scented body wash later, Guy is an easy convert to the comforts of more civilized living.

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Review: ‘The Croods: A New Age’ is a sweetly chaotic follow-up

The Croods — including Thunk, Sandy and Gran — return in "The Croods: A New Age."

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It’s been a while since the 2013 animated walkabout with the close-knit caveman clan “The Croods,” and the question is: Was the wait for sequel “The Croods: A New Age” worth it? The feature directorial debut of longtime animation story artist Joel Crawford, who worked on the “Kung Fu Panda” movies for DreamWorks Animation, the production company behind “Croods,” this movie can best be described as “chaotic good.” It’s a blend of smart, irreverent humor coupled with eye-popping, neon-Technicolor animation that moves fast and furiously across the screen.

Both films boast a wealth of voice talent, including Oscar winners Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Cloris Leachman, along with Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener and Clark Duke. For “A New Age,” Leslie Mann, Peter Dinklage and Kelly Marie Tran have been added to the mix, as the clingy crowd of Croods encounters a new family, the Bettermans, whose existence threatens their way of life.

That lifestyle is par for the course for your average caveman: a nomadic routine of hunting and gathering. Initially, the only problem plaguing patriarch Grug (Cage) is the chemistry between teens Eep (Stone) and Guy (Reynolds), his daughter and the orphaned boy they picked up along the way in the first movie. Worried they’ll run off together to make their own home, or “find their tomorrow,” as Guy puts it, Grug thinks he’s found the solution to keeping his tribe together when he happens upon a lush, candy-colored land of plenty behind a tall bamboo wall.

However, this is the domain of Phil (Dinklage) and Hope (Mann) Betterman, a pair of groovy, evolved bohemian homo sapiens, who once knew Guy and his family. The passive-aggressive pair quickly set designs on dividing Guy from Eep, and connecting him with their daughter, Dawn (Tran). High jinks and misunderstandings ensue, with Guy taking to the creature comforts of “privacy,” hygiene and simple machines that the Bettermans can provide, while Dawn gets a taste for adventure with the wild woman Eep. All the while, the parents bicker and scheme about which way of life is better: rough-and-tumble togetherness or bougie individuality? The Croods are torn over whether or not they want to be keeping up with the Bettermans at all.

When a banana shortage causes a feud with a troop of angry punch monkeys, the two tribes have to learn to work together, compromise, communicate and comprehend the different strengths that everyone brings to the table. All this messaging is very much on the surface, the lessons about sharing resources (especially with the punch monkeys) and strength in unity clearly spelled out.

The journey is still fun, though harried. The animation design is bright and colorful, moving as swiftly as the snappy dialogue (the screenplay is by Kevin Hageman, Dan Hageman, Paul Fisher, Bob Logan, Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders). The writers use familiar tropes but switch them up just enough to feel fresh and contemporary, and there are some clever bits, including a riff on an ’80s hair metal video and Thunk’s (Duke) obsession with watching the prehistoric boob tube: a window.

But because the movie starts at an 11 and doesn’t let up, the runtime feels overly long. However, the voice performances are excellent, especially that of Cage, who brings his signature sense of yearning pathos to Grug the Neanderthal. Watching the Crood patriarch get with the Pliocene Era and learn to embrace the new does seemingly make all that chaos worthwhile.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

‘The Croods: A New Age’

Rating: PG, for peril, action and rude humor Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes Playing: Starts Nov. 25 at Regency Plant 16 Drive-In, Van Nuys; Mission Tiki Drive-In, Montclair; Paramount Drive-In, Paramount; and in general release where theaters are open

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‘The Croods: A New Age’ Review: A Surprisingly Satisfying Stone Age Sequel

They're back.

The Croods , released back in 2013, is an unsung gem in the DreamWorks Animation catalog – and one with a very complicated, improbable history. It started life as one of the Aardman films that DreamWorks was coproducing in the early-to-mid-2000s and featured a script by comedy legend John Cleese (his title for the project was the much wittier Crood Awakening ). When the Aardman/DreamWorks partnership fizzled out prematurely, DreamWorks kept the idea and, years later, Aardman made their own caveman movie (2018’s lackluster Early Man ). This new, Cleese-less version was assigned to Chris Sanders , a Disney veteran whose storytelling sensibilities were only rivaled by his singular design sense (and who DreamWorks head Jeffrey Katzenberg had previously assigned to do similar triage on their troubled How to Train Your Dragon project) and Kirk DiMacco , a gifted writer and director with a long history in animation. Together, the filmmakers turned The Croods into a wild prehistoric jamboree, full of crazy creatures (many bearing the signature stamp of Sanders) and a family (led by Nicolas Cage and including Emma Stone ) whose life is turned upside down by someone more evolved ( Ryan Reynolds ) entering the picture. It spawned a TV series and a sequel was developed and effectively canceled in 2016. But a year later it had returned, this time without Sanders or DiMacco, but with some similar story elements. Against all odds (and in the middle of an uncontrollable worldwide pandemic), The Croods: A New Age is here. And, even more improbably, it’s actually great.

After an applaudably bleak flashback that shows the origin of Reynolds’ character Guy (his parents are literally sinking in tar as they call out to their young son), The Croods: A New Age picks up pretty much exactly where the first film ended – everyone’s second favorite prehistoric family (which also includes matriarch Catherine Keener , grandmother Cloris Leachman and younger brother Clark Duke ) are out in the world, fending off insane creatures and attempting to survive one catastrophe after another. But daughter Eep (Stone) and Guy (Reynolds) are looking to start their own life away from the suffocating family and the constant nervousness of Cage’s antsy, meathead-y dad Grug. Everything changes when they stumble upon a valley that is utilizing advanced agrarian techniques to raise vegetables and farm animals (including a bizarre chicken/seal hybrid) and has a vast, sophisticated treehouse home.

This lush, palatial utopia is the home of the Bettermans – Phil ( Peter Dinklage ), Hope ( Leslie Mann ) and Dawn ( Kelly Marie Tran ). As it turns out, these more modern humans knew Guy’s family and welcome him in with open arms, while keeping the rest of the caveman family at arm’s length which, for a neanderthal, is pretty long. There’s a tension that is immediately created from what Guy should do and what he wants to do . And his decision ultimately affects the rest of the Croods (and the Bettermans too).

Much of the early part of Croods 2 is devoted to this heightened comedy of manners, with the family failing to understand or just outright destroying the civility and calm that the Bettermans have taken pains to maintain. And while Dawn is initially established as a potential romantic foil for Stone’s Eep, the filmmakers (this time led by director Joel Crawford ) wisely turn Dawn into her comedic sidekick instead. There’s a wonderful extended sequence where Eep eggs her on to leave the compound, along with the Croods’ lovely, colorful cat Chubby, and they have a number of thrilling adventures, culminating in Dawn getting stung by a bee, which leads her to feeling very groovy .

What is fascinating too is how much of Croods 2 is framed through Grug’s emotional response to what is happening. Cage, particularly in the past few years with his turns in Teen Titans Go to the Movies and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse , is particularly adept at voice acting, giving some of his more memorable recent performances. He gives the characters more pathos and depth than you would expect and when he’s needed to go big (like he is here), he brings it in a way that only he can. So to have so much of the movie filtered through him is a bold move that ends up paying off hugely towards the movie’s third act, which expertly turns the tables on what you’d expect. (Also it’s got a giant, King Kong -y beast and a new heavy metal girl power anthem by San Fernando Valley icons Haim .)

But Cage being the rich emotional center of the movie is one of the many surprises you’ll experience while watching Croods 2 . This is a movie that is arguably well past its sell-by date, with an entirely new creative team (shoutout to artist Joe Pitt , a Gravity Falls veteran who does marvelous work here) entering into a decidedly uneasy marketplace. And yet the movie is a nonstop delight, full of bright, colorful visuals and a storyline that is unafraid to occasionally drop its central narrative altogether in favor of a series of big, disconnected, extremely hilarious gags (all without losing sight on the underlying emotionality). All of the new voice actors are committed and superb (Dinklage oozes oily privilege and Tran is pure, unbridled enthusiasm) and the animation is top notch, capping off a wonderful (and very weird) year for DreamWorks Animation, who finished Trolls World Tour right as the world descended into chaos.

And, to be sure, the film might pack more of a wallop just because it’s such an out-of-left-field joy. In other words, you might walk into Croods: A New Age wondering why they bothered making a sequel. But you’ll walk out of it wondering why it took so long.

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‘The Croods: A New Age’ Review: Long-Awaited Animated Sequel Is Low-Stakes Feel-Good Fun

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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After debuting at the Berlin International Film Festival (yes, really) and entering the 2013 box office marketplace against some stiff competition (“Frozen,” “Despicable Me 2,” “Monsters University”), Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders’ original animated comedy “The Croods” did something kind of crazy: it made over half a billion dollars. As the 11th highest-grossing film of that year, the animated family film was an unexpected smash that obviously demanded a sequel. Just weeks after its U.S. release, DreamWorks Animation greenlit the no-duh follow-up…and it took nearly a decade to get to the big screen, buffeted by at least one cancellation, nearly a half dozen release dates, and a global health crisis.

Thus, “ The Croods: A New Age ” was born.

Was it worth the wait? Eh, sort of. Like its predecessor, Joel Crawford’s feature directorial debut offers a familiar story, some classic lessons, and a lot of caveman-centric humor in one inoffensive package. The good stuff is still good: full-throated voice performances from a star-studded cast (Nicolas Cage manages to make his role as a prehistoric dad fit neatly alongside other recent choices in his inscrutable career), a bevy of delightfully weird animals, and the kind of loving messaging that never goes out of style. But there’s also not-so-good stuff, including a straightforward animation style and a story that not only apes the original’s but those of other sequels (plus a plot point that feels weirdly like one that appeared in “Frozen 2”).

A vague catch-up opens the affair, re-introducing audiences to evolved interloper Guy (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), whose arrival in “The Croods” kickstarted a series of misadventures that pushed the eponymous cave family into a brave new world. A quick flashback to the tragedy that took Guy’s family hints at the dramas to come, before dropping into the current status of the Crood brood. The first film ended with the clan gamely setting off to find a new home — the mythical “Tomorrow” that Guy’s own family dreamed of for him — after their previous cave was destroyed by a natural disaster (how timely).

Not much has changed in the interim, and patriarch Grug (Cage) remains the most beleaguered of dads, regardless of the time period he occupies. The conceit of “The Croods” is that all families, no matter where their place in history, are basically the same, and “A New Age” stretches that concept as the fam deals with a bevy of familiar issues. The main one: Not all Croods are content with the status quo — the pack mentality, the smelly “sleep pile,” the bad food — and that includes teenager Eep (Emma Stone), who is preparing to strike out on her own with the winsome Guy. What’s a cave dad to do?

Before Grug (and his much more even-keeled wife Ugga, voiced by Catherine Keener) can tackle that issue, something incredible happens: they find Tomorrow, or at least a lush paradise filled with food and fresh water and more colors than they have ever seen in their dust-covered lives. It sure as hell seems like the promised land.

Of course, there’s a complication, in the form of the evolved Betterman (“emphasis on the ‘ better ‘”) family, who have cultivated the space and aren’t super thrilled about sharing it with a grubby cave family — beyond Guy, who they knew as a child. (“The Croods” franchise has long enjoyed a nutty sense of time, space, and place, and if you’re bristling at the fact that “modern humans” are living alongside so-called cave people in this animated scenario, the wacky coincidences that bind Guy to the Bettermans might send you over the edge. Relax.)

The Bettermans’ evolved lifestyle, complete with sheltered kiddo Dawn (a charming Kelly Marie Tran) and a Swiss Family Robinson-inspired tree palace, only serve to bring out the cruder (sorry) nature of the Crood clan, who sense that it’s yet another threat to their way of life. At least the new space allows the film’s bland animation style the chance to break out into something often delightful, unleashing a palette of colors plus a wild assortment of crazy animals (punch monkeys, landsharks, and chicken seals, oh my!) that will inevitably inspire some cute plushies for the littlest audience members.

The tension between the old and the new creates some wholly expected divides that soon turn literal, with Grug and Phil Betterman (a very funny Peter Dinklage) facing off (in a “man cave,” of course) over Guy’s future and which family he really belongs with, while Ugga and Hope Betterman (an even funnier Leslie Mann) come to not-so-subtle blows over being very different “kinds of people.” The messaging is clear, but stories about acceptance, working through differences, and coming together are the bread and butter of kid-centric entertainment, and with good reason: They’re necessary.

“The Croods: A New Age” ultimately spins that off into a wacky adventure that somehow involves aforementioned punch monkeys (cute, but very punchy indeed), a revelation that the “Croods” franchise might intersect with the world of “Mad Max,” and a generous dash of female empowerment (plus awesome fake heavy-metal music to go with it). It’s a little silly, very colorful, and entertaining enough to deliver some good-hearted ideas that aren’t beholden to any period in time. Worth nearly a decade of push-pull to get here? Probably not, but on its own merits it’s a charming throwback — not necessarily a “new age,” but the remnants of a classic one.

Universal Pictures will release “The Croods: A New Age” in select theaters on Wednesday, November 25, with a premium VOD release to follow on Friday, December 18.

As new movies open in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWire will continue to review them whenever possible. We encourage readers to follow the safety precautions provided by CDC and health authorities. Additionally, our coverage will provide alternative viewing options whenever they are available.

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Movie Review – The Croods 2: A New Age (2020)

July 12, 2021 by Tom Beasley

The Croods 2: A New Age , 2020.

Directed by Joel Crawford. Starring Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Kelly Marie Tran, Nicolas Cage, Catherine Keener, Leslie Mann, Peter Dinklage, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman.

The Croods find their culture challenged when they cross paths with a more technologically advanced family, living in an apparent utopia.

Eight years is an eternity in terms of animated film. A six-year-old who loved seeing The Croods with their parents in 2013 will now be a 14-year-old who’s likely considerably less interested in the travails of a neanderthal family. That’s the difficulty faced by The Croods 2: A New Age , which was announced very shortly after the original movie’s success but got caught amid development hell and then faced further delays due to last year’s global health emergency. Strangely, the delay seems to have done the movie the world of good and it emerges as something far fresher, sharper and more enjoyable than its rather tired predecessor.

The dynamic is an animated adventure standard. Teenage cavewoman Eep (Emma Stone) is loved up with new beau Guy (Ryan Reynolds) and they’re discussing a life away from her family unit, much to the chagrin of protective dad Grug (Nicolas Cage). Things change when their search for a utopian “tomorrow” brings them into the orbit of the hyper-advanced Betterman family, led by dudebro Phil (Peter Dinklage) and his prim and proper wife Hope (Leslie Mann). They welcome the Croods with open-ish arms, but seem more interested in reuniting Guy with their daughter – his childhood friend Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran).

It has to be said from the outset that The Croods 2 is bonkers – an amiably unhinged thrill ride. A flashback opening focuses on people drowning, bizarrely, in slowly rising tar and then segues into a present day chase in which the Croods ride a rainbow tiger in order to evade a selection of strange volcanic armadillos. It’s a world of unique animal hybrids, with chicken-seals, pig-gators, spider-wolves and land-sharks all treated as entirely normal parts of this ecosystem. By the time a tribe of “Punch Monkeys” shows up – who communicate via a selection of jabs, uppercuts and right hooks – it barely feels like a surprise.

As fun as this kaleidoscopic craziness is, it only works as well as it does because director Joel Crawford and the hefty writing team – four credited screenwriters, plus “story by” credits for first film directors Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders – understand the emotional core of the movie. Even though the characters are enormous caricatures and the environment frequently explodes with candy-coloured insanity, the dilemmas are human and relatable. There’s the passive-aggressiveness of a middle-class family believing themselves above those from a less privileged world, the turmoil of a father balancing protective instincts with the need to let go and the white-hot intensity of first love.

The voice cast, too, are strong enough to keep the thing on the rails. Cage occasionally unleashes his trademark line delivery (watch out for a deafening declaration about banana consumption), but also finds insecurity and discomfort in the way he is repeatedly made to feel inadequate by Dinklage’s fast-talking sleazeball. Stone and Reynolds have dynamite comic chemistry and there’s also a real joy in how a possible love triangle is instead transmogrified into a warm and enjoyable friendship between Eep and Kelly Marie Tran’s sheltered Dawn. They’re the Stone Age equivalent of nightclub bathroom buddies.

Narratively, it is a little too conventional and there’s a strange, mishandled subplot which appears to nod to positioning the Bettermans as unpleasant colonisers, only to row back and do something different. It also reaches for a generic running gag about screen addiction involving Eep’s brother Thunk (Clark Duke) – done a lot better by The Mitchells vs. the Machines earlier this year – that is initially amusing, but is milked to the point that it has lost all meaning by the end.

With all of that said, though, it’s deeply impressive to see such a belated sequel surpass its predecessor in every way by virtue of genuine heart as well as surprisingly smart dialogue and comedy which reliably hits the mark. Given the star wattage of its voice cast and the fact the pandemic scuppered its US box office total, this might be the last we see of the Croods, but it’s a great way for these characters to go out with a bang.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Tom Beasley is a freelance film journalist and wrestling fan. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions, wrestling stuff and puns.

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The Croods: A New Age - Review

Tomorrowland..

The careful-to-not-get-killed Croods clan is back for another vibrant, hyperactive, and high-strung adventure through pre-history, with stars Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, and Catherine Keener all returning for duty. The Croods: A New Age, while modestly funny at times, still collapses a bit under the weight of animation sequelitis. The result is a warm and fuzzy action-adventure with a bit less heart, and a touch less "oomph," than the original.

Bridging The Croods gap over the past seven years, since the 2013 original, was a four-season Netflix series, and while that show utilized talented voice actors, it's nice to have Cage, Stone, Reynolds, Keener (plus Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman) back for a proper cinematic follow-up. Not because of their name value (though Reynolds' stock has risen significantly since the first Croods movie ), but because they actually all ping-pong off each other really well.

Cage's mania mixes excellently with Stone's squealing glee, and Reynolds is just a gift to action-comedy, in general. His voice work easily carries the two "Merc with a Mouth" Deadpool films he's headlined, with a ton of his best lines delivered from underneath a full face mask. The chemistry between these particular actors is one of the reasons the first film flew so high.

Dreamworks Animation franchises are huge business. From Shrek to Madagascar to Kung Fu Panda to How to Train Your Dragon, the company has created some solid sagas that are enjoyable for all ages. Creatively though, sequels tend to peter out. Not on the action front, but on the emotional stakes level.

The Croods: A New Age has heart, and some feisty new characters, but the story just doesn't resonate like the original. When it comes to kids/family films, there's value in colorful calamity and jokes that are clever without having to lean too far into of-the-moment pop culture references, but the more installments you get, the more you feel the studio straining to find ways to keep these money-making characters around.

When we last left The Croods, and Reynolds' Guy, they were off in search of a new place to call home. In Guy terminology, that place is named "Tomorrow" and it's what his late parents told him to seek out when he was just a boy. Conflict arises when the traveling pack actually finds a utopia and discovers that the isolated, walled-up paradise is stewarded by Phil and Hope Betterman, voiced by Peter Dinklage and Leslie Mann. This enlightened duo happens to know Guy, from when he was a kid, and start trying to pull the young man away from the crass Croods and pair him off with their teen daughter (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran), right as Guy and Stone's Eep are head over heels in love with one another and planning a possible future together.

The Croods, as a concept, is still a good one. A New Age isn't a bad time at the multiplex (or, re: 2020, the couch) but it never quite tops or even equals the spark of the first film. Cage is still a blast as the overprotective patriarch, who now must wrap his head around a new life with no dangers (and less familial closeness) while Stone continues to project silly savagery as the very brash and bouncy Eep. Reynolds' Guy is also still a fun fixture in the mix, obviously, and the additions of Dinklage and Mann weave into the insanity nicely.

With rampaging "kangadillos" and marauding land sharks, the world of The Croods is still worth a visit, if just for the blare and blunder. The story is a little thinner this go-around, but, as mentioned, that's just part of the machine.

The Verdict

The Croods: A New Age is a mightily medium follow-up to the 2013 original. The voice cast is great and the jokes are the perfect type of clever, where both kids and adults can get a good laugh. The story and emotional stakes are a touch thinner this time but that's to be expected, for the most part, from this type of animated sequel.

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'The Croods: A New Age' Review: An Unremarkable Sequel Best Viewed From The Safety Of VOD

2020 has been a year of incalculable oddities, and somewhere fairly high up on the list has to be the very existence of The Croods: A New Age . It's been nearly eight years since the arrival of the first Croods film, which made a decent enough splash at the box office (primarily internationally) to spawn this long-gestating follow-up. But unlike the other DreamWorks Animation release from 2020, Trolls World Tour , you won't be able to rent A New Age on VOD instantly. No, if you and the family are just jonesing for some new entertainment this holiday weekend, you'll have to brave the theaters amidst skyrocketing cases in a still very real pandemic situation. Wonder Woman 1984 ? It's going to be available on HBO Max this Christmas, the same day it's in theaters. Soul ? Just straight to streaming on Disney+. But no, The Croods: A New Age is the one you can rush out to see in theaters. There's not much reason why you should, though. Even if the pandemic wasn't a thing, this second Croods would be a head-scratcher. Its decent success aside, the original film is arguably forgotten enough that the second film has to open with one of its characters catching us up on the story. The Crood family spent the first film searching for Tomorrow, some fabled place that would be a safe haven from all sorts of monstrous animals that want to destroy these cave people. During that film, the eldest Crood child, Eep (voiced by Emma Stone), fell in love with Guy (Ryan Reynolds), to the dismay of her father Grug (Nicolas Cage). Now, all has smoothed over as the family finally achieves its goal. Early on in A New Age , they find Tomorrow, and it really does seem like utopia, a genuine safe haven free of animal attacks or other deathly challenges. But perfection is hard to take, especially since the Croods encounter perfection in the form of the other human family they meet, the Betterman clan. The Betterman parents (Peter Dinklage and Leslie Mann) are obnoxious and condescending, trying to convince Guy to hook up with their daughter (Kelly Marie Tran) instead, and acting dismissive towards the more primitive Croods. Part of what makes The Croods: A New Age so strange is that it serves as a reminder of how recently DreamWorks Animation seemed like a genuine competitive threat to the computer-animation dominance of Pixar Animation Studios. Pandemic aside, the last few years have been full of rough and rocky patches for DWA; films like Mr. Peabody and Sherman , Home , and Turbo all fell flat at the box office, failing to create insta-franchises the way that Kung Fu Panda , How to Train Your Dragon and Shrek all did. Now, DreamWorks Animation mostly makes TV versions of the films that used to dominate the box office. ( The Croods is no different – there was a show released on Netflix between the two features, running for four seasons.) The Croods: A New Age is better than these kinds of also-ran TV series, many of which serve to distract little kids for 20 minutes at time. But it's just barely better (and for full transparency, this writer received a digital screener viewed in the safety of his own home). The big reason why A New Age feels so intensely uninspired is simple enough to identify. Where he first film was co-written and co-directed by Chris Sanders, of How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo & Stitch , this film only bears his name among the credits as a co-story writer. Sanders' anarchic spirit lends a special quality to those films, and it's keenly missing here. A New Age is at its strongest visually when the animating team is concocting distinctive ways to visualize the neon-hued Tomorrow. (If there is any good reason for you to see this on a big screen, it would simply be to see a lot of the images on a massive screen instead of your HDTV. Still not that good a reason.) The story is fairly rote, a blend of the hoariest Flintstones- esque cliches to fill out a feature-length running time. Will Eep and Guy reconcile? Or will Guy be swayed by the Bettermans to change his whole personality? Will Grug learn to live with the Bettermans? Contain your lack of surprise at the answers. Aside from the visuals, the only other great joy of The Croods: A New Age is the undeniable fact that even in animation, Nicolas Cage can be gloriously unhinged. Grug is a perpetually frustrated paterfamilias, trying to keep the family together but being frustrated at how quickly they all seem to fit into Tomorrow. The rest of the voice cast is fine without ever feeling like they're even attempting to match Cage's energy. (Though how could they?) The Croods: A New Age is going through the motions, accomplishing the basic level of work required in pulling off a computer-animated feature. It's a strange way to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, even in a strange year like this. Considering the deal that Universal Pictures – which now distributes DreamWorks Animation films – has struck with major theater chains, this will likely wind up on VOD in about three weeks' time (and probably, in three months' time, it'll be on Peacock). For the desperate, those who just can't imagine not going to the theater this holiday season, The Croods: A New Age will satisfy the basic need to see something new. But only truly extraordinary cinema is appropriate to champion at the moment. And this ain't it. /Film Rating: 5 out of 10

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DVD & Streaming

The Croods: A New Age

Action/Adventure , Animation , Comedy , Kids , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

The Crood family crouches together in a defensive huddle.

In Theaters

November 25, 2020
Voices of Emma Stone as Eep; Nicolas Cage as Grug; Ryan Reynolds as Guy; Catherine Keener as Ugga; Peter Dinklage as Phil Betterman; Leslie Mann as Hope Betterman; Cloris Leachman as Gran; Kelly Marie Tran as Dawn; Clark Duke as Thunk

Home Release Date

January 5, 2021
Joel Crawford

Distributor

Universal Pictures

Movie Review

Life as a family of cave dwellers is no picnic, let me tell ya’. Especially when you’ve left your safe, rocky cave behind.

Grug, the father of the prehistoric Croods clan, may be as burly as a bear (and covered in nearly as much fur). And most of the family members may have the strength of 10 or more of today’s scrawny man-types. But when they’re facing off with a group of huge wolf-spiders, that strength seems small.

Yeah, life’s pretty dangerous for the Croods, so they’ve set off on a journey to find a home that’s more secure. And so they trudge along in the direction of the rising sun, in search of a better “tomorrow.” Along the way, they’ve picked up a new pack member, young Guy. Yes, the pack is stronger because of Guy (and Grug’s teen daughter Eep adores him) but Grug still has his doubts about moving the family through such a dangerous land.

Not only that, but a pack this size—including wife Ugga, son Thunk, small feral daughter Sandy, and old hag Gran—is hard to feed on a few berries and an occasional spider or lizard. Life isn’t easy.

But one day, while scouting for food, Grug finds something amazing: a huge, man-made wall hiding a green land of plenty. There are rows of growing fruit and vegetables. Flowing streams of water. This paradise is exactly what they’ve been seeking—a place to spend all of their tomorrows together, safely.

There’s only one problem: Someone already lives there. Another family of skinny, upright-standing people occupy this place. They have marvelous inventions and live in a massive sprawling treehouse.

And somehow, these people, Phil and Hope Bettermen and their daughter, Dawn, seem to recognize Guy from when he was a boy. They knew his parents long ago. And they welcome Guy and his friends in.

Still, it all feels wrong to Grug.

Better … men , huh? Grug will see about that. He’ll see.

Positive Elements

Grug repeatedly says that a family pack is stronger when its members stick together. And that becomes a central through-line here. Grug’s family may be primitive, but they are indeed stronger as a unit. In contrast, the Bettermens’ separate living quarters and advanced “individuality” leave them less united and vulnerable to the dangers of the world. In the end, both families realize that relying on family and friendship, and trusting in the support and strength of others, can benefit everyone.

There are also thoughtful messages here about teens growing up and falling in love. And encouragements for family members to ease their protective grip on kids in order to let that healthy growth and change take place. It’s also implied that committed relationships are very much a part of that growing process.

When moving temporarily into the Bettermens’ treehouse, Thunk becomes enamored with a new invention they have called a window . His obsessed gaze at the world beyond that magical window winks at the idea of teen addiction to screens and the danger of being so tied into viewing that you don’t go out and be a part of the world you’re watching. Thunk eventually opines, “Perhaps the window through which I view the world is flawed.”

Both Grug and Phil realize that to a certain extent, their actions have made them both bad fathers. And they declare their intention to make wiser choices in the future. At one point, Phil shows Grug his “mancave” where he secretly sneaks away to get away from his family—a concept that Grug can’t understand in the slightest. Grug declares his commitment to and desire to be with his wife Ugga.

Spiritual Elements

No direct spiritual elements here. But when the Croods enter the Bettermen compound, they’re told that one of the rules is that you never eat the bananas. And that suggestion of forbidden fruit takes on an almost biblical level of temptation for Grug—a temptation that he eventually gives in to and which causes great harm.

Sexual Content

Eep and Guy kiss. And there’s also a narrative tug-and-pull over which teen girl (Eep or Dawn) would be the better match for Guy. Ugga and Grug talk about the possibility of Eep and Guy someday going off to start their own pack (much to Grug’s chagrin).

Both Guy and Dawn wear sloths as fashion accessories. And upon meeting, Dawn’s sloth, Sash, looks at Guy’s sloth, Belt, and murmurs, “ooh la-la.”

Gran talks of once being a part of an Amazon-like pack of women fighters called the Thunder Sisters. And in an effort to revitalize the group, she pulls off her animal skin and reveals her chiseled body dressed in bra and underwear-like undergarments. Grug and Phil wear nothing but loin cloths in Phil’s steam-filled mancave (though the abundantly furry Grug looks no different).

Violent Content

Early on, we see a flashback to a young Guy watching his mother and father, who are stuck in a rising tar pit. They lovingly encourage him to leave them, to turn around and walk toward the safety of “tomorrow” and the rising sun.

There’s lots of slashing and slamming peril to be found in this prehistoric world, from the likes of sharp-toothed critters to lunging beasties, as well as oversized bees, pummeling swarms of monkeys, huge wolf-spider hybrids and a gigantic King Kong-like ape. But those threats are always played as broad, frenetically cartoonish adventures; they’re never too intense or truly scary.

In that light, Eep shows new friend Dawn all the scrapes and scars she’s gained while battling various attacking creatures. Dawn laments, “My parents won’t even let me get scars!” So when, later, a bee stinger is jammed through Dawn’s palm, she celebrates the wound and the badly swollen mitt.

There’s a running gag that involves people and creatures being accidentally poked in the eye by a stick. (There’s no evident injury after an initial yelp.) A large group of monkeys communicate through a language consisting of Three Stooges-like slaps and punches. We also find that there are kick-monkeys, headbutt-monkeys and low-blow monkeys in their midst.

At one point, Grug’s pack believes it’s under attack and creates an outward facing “kill circle.’ But they accidentally pummel Grug with rocks and spears as he walks out of a wooded area. They apologize profusely, but Grug grunts wearily: “Never apologize for an effective kill circle.”

Crude or Profane Language

There are several exclamations of “What the heck?” and an “Oh my gosh!” in the dialogue mix. And when told to “just chill,” the hot-headed Grug growls, “I’m gonna chill your—” before being silenced by a loving kick from his mate. Someone is called a “twit.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Dawn gets stung by a prehistoric bee, and the bee venom causes her to wobble about as if drunk.

Other Negative Elements

In an act of teen rebellion, Eep and Dawn break the rules and cause havoc outside the Bettermen compound walls. They come back in a disheveled, seemingly drunken, state. Some people make choices designed to ostracize and hurt others. But eventually all involved admit to their wrongs and apologize.

The Croods: A New Age is a rare, moving cave-drawing indeed. It started out as a sequel to a fun 2013 film about family togetherness and growth. But through almost pure happenstance, The Croods: A New Age has now become a pic that reflects our current crazy world.

As a cave family, the Croods have to do everything as a pack. They stand back to back facing the dangers of the world, sleeping in a giant pile and locked together for survival. And when encountering the Bettermen family, they face off with people who don’t think like them or understand them, people who are seemingly at total odds with them.

Does any of that remind you of parallels in our Coronavirus plagued culture?

Even if you don’t notice those parallels, though, A New Age is a fun, rollicking film that touches on everything from parental concerns about teenage love, to thoughts about the strong bonds of family, to encouragements to find common ground with others. There are even some winks at kids struggling with too much screen time and nods toward female empowerment. I mean, this family romp is packed with uggs , oops and growls of every thoughtful stripe.

Yes, there is silliness, a bit of troglodyte toilety stuff and some light monstery perils to navigate. (Hey, this is a world full of animated neanderthal goopy dangers, after all.) But it’s all thumped and splatted about with colorful cartoony glee.

In my own grunting assessment, I’d say that if there’s ever gonna be a movie morsel that’ll tempt families to crawl out of their caves, wince in the bright sunlight, and amble back to the movie theaters, this mostly sweet treat might be the one to do it.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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The Croods: A New Age (2020) Review

A CHARMING AND ENTERTAINING SEQUEL

After the critical praise yet middling box office results from 2012’s Rise of the Guardians, DreamWorks Animation released The Croods, their latest computer animated comedy adventure, the following year. Written and directed by Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders, the film, which starred the voice talents of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, and Ryan Reynolds, is set in a fictional prehistoric Pliocene era known as “The Croodaceous” (a prehistoric period which contains fictional creatures) when a prehistoric caveman’s position as a “Leader of the Hunt” is threatened by the arrival of a younger / innovated newcomer, who comes up with revolutionary new inventions as they trek through a dangerous but exotic land in search of a new home. The Croods went on to received mostly positive reviews from critics and moviegoers as the film went on to garnish roughly $587 million at the box office worldwide. In 2015, Dawn of the Croods , an animated televisions series, continued the adventures of the Croods family on Netflix for four seasons. Additionally, there was plans for a potential sequel, but was the future The Croods 2 project was delayed / cancelled a few times. Now, a sequel installment emerges as DreamWorks Animation and director Joel Crawford present the movie The Croods: A New Age . Is this long-awaited sequel worth the watch or has this “caveman” family have gone extinct?

Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a now full-fledged pack member of the Croods caveman family, is madly in love with Eep (Emma Stone) and is beginning to feel their blossoming relationship is camped by their daily life in the family, who remain close all day and every day. Searching for a place know as their “Tomorrow” dwelling, Guy and the Croods discover a paradise walled-in farm filled with an abundance of delights and natural glorious to partake. To their discover, the oasis is home to Phill (Peter Dinklage) and Hope (Leslie Mann) Betterman, who are joined by their daughter, Dawn (Kelly Mare Tran), homo sapiens who have found comfort and evolved beyond their primitive ways within their splendorous dwelling and modernizes amenities. On top of that, the Bettermans once knew Guy’s parents, welcoming the young man into their family, with the hopes to finding a companion for Dawn. For Grug (Nicolas Cage), however, such comfort is suspicious, watching the rest of the family, including Ugga (Catherine Keener), Thunk (Clark Duke), and Gran (Cloris Leachman), get used to their surroundings. Trying to understand this new way of life, Grug attempts to befriend Phil, while Eep is frustrated by Guy’s alluring desire to remain behind the Betterman’s wall, which goes against her wild family’s instinct. Unfortunately, the Bettermans’ are keeping a secret to their lush oasis; dragging Guy and the Croods on a journey that will test their bonds together.

THE GOOD / THE BAD

To me, DreamWorks’s animated movies have had a bit of bumpy road, with some hitting it out of the parks and others completely missing their intended target. The Croods, in my regards, is somewhere in-between. Its story was simplistic and not the most original tale to be told (as previously mentioned above), but the film did work to hit its targeted demographic and make a decent return on its investment. Plus, no one can deny how absolutely colorful (visually speaking) the movie was as well as the terrific voice talents that were selected for the various characters. In short, while it does have the same palpable animated effectiveness in amongst some of its better cartoon features (i.e. Kung Fu Panda or How to Train Your Dragon ), The Croods still managed to a solid endeavor from DreamWorks. As a side-note, while I did mention that there was a four-season TV series that continued the adventures of the Croods after the movie ended, I actually never watched it. Heck, I really didn’t know it even existed until a few days ago. Though, I’ve never been the biggest fan of DreamWorks’s TV series, but that’s neither here nor there.

This, of course, brings me back to talking about The Croods: A New Age , the 2020 sequel film to the original 2013 animated tale. Given how The Croods ended, it was somewhat a forgone conclusion that DreamWorks’s animated movie would be a “one and done” endeavor, with not much interest (beyond the TV series) to create a film franchise or even a “next chapter” sequel effort. However, I do remember when it was announced (a few years ago) that a Croods 2 movie was “in the works” and the DreamWorks was gonna going to release the project in the coming years. After that, I really didn’t hear much about the movie, which was probably due to its several theatrical release delays dating all the way back from its original November 2017 release as well as the film being cancelled a few years prior to that (during when Universal bought up DreamWorks Animation rights). However, I remember hearing little “tidbits” about the movie being developed, which was fully realized when I saw the film’s movie trailer, which dropped online a few weeks ago. Personally, I was definitely intrigued to see this movie as, while the first movie wasn’t my favorite DreamWorks movie, was quite entertaining and this new trailer for a sequel to The Croods looked to fun and a great distraction piece for many during the hardships of 2020. So, I waited a week or two after its release (the film was released in theaters on Thanksgiving weekend) and I actually saw the movie in theaters during the beginning part of December (I went to a Cinemark theater that was still open). And what did I think of this Croods sequel? Well, I actually liked it. Despite a few nitpicks, The Croods: A New Age is a colorful and funny animated movie that’s quite a welcomed distraction to watch. It doesn’t surpass the original 2013 film, but its humorous and vibrant follow-up that’s quite entertaining from start to finish.

The Croods: A New Age is directed by Joel Crawford, whose previous works includes working on various animated projects like Kung Fu Panda 2 , Rise of the Guardians , Shrek Forever After as a storyboard artist. Given his background in some of DreamWorks’s animated films, Crawford seems like a suitable choice to direct their latest film and does so with A New Age , which makes his directorial debut with this particular sequel project. In truth, Crawford actually does do a good job in his first time in the director’s chair; approaching the movie with a sense of family friendly entertainment that was accustom to the first Croods film. In this matter, A New Age succeeds. It doesn’t quite capture first Croods (more on that below), but Crawford gets the ball rolling on this second installment that keeps breezy, entertaining, and fun from start to finish. Crawford continues the first feature’s trend of the themes and narrative beats of family and unity with the Croods family; shaping A New Age to test the prehistoric caveman family to new limits, especially in Guy and Eep’s budding relationship and Grug’s attempts to give their family together. Additionally, there’s a good dose “female empowerment” that Crawford shines upon in the film’s various scenes (most notable in the second half). Plus, I do have to admit that the film’s various comedic jokes and gags are pretty funny as I found myself laughing out loud many times. It’s kind of like a combination of some of the writing material (storyboard moments), physical / sight gags, and the dialogue spoke by the film’s acting talent. Collectively, while the movie doesn’t outshine the original, Crawford’s A New Age is a fun follow-up to the first film and I think that Crawford did a great job helming this project.

Animation-wise, The Croods: A New Age is great and is definitely showcases the top-notch animation visuals that DreamWorks has to offer to us (the viewers). Visually speaking, all the vibrant colors throughout the entire feature was definitely one of the biggest highlights of made me like first Croods movie and I was kind of expecting that for A New Age and I wasn’t disappointed in this category. Every scene is brimming with color and incredibly style and I even notice a lot of small intricate detail that seemed quite enhanced throughout the movie, including sweat / grime on various characters and on background layouts. Definitely A New Age is one of the year’s best “looking” animated movies, so big kudos to all the various animators on this particular project. Additionally, the various members of the film’s art department for bring all the imaginative prehistoric world to life as well as continuing the trend of the first Croods movie with all of the unique and creative animal / creature designs that are different and interesting to see. Lastly, the film’s score, which was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, delivers a great score that compliments the feature’s various scenes…. whether its quiet dialogue moments, wonderous expansive scenes, or bombastic action sequences.

The main criticism of A New Age is a harsh one as the film isn’t a disappointment (by no means), but rather it simply lacks the heartful merit that the first film was able to achieve. Again…. the film isn’t terrible or unmemorable as there is plenty to love and like about, but this second installment just seems to lack the same type of caliber that 2013’s The Croods conjured up. Why do say that? Well, the plot of the story is not exactly the most “freshness” narrative / plot to be produced for a cinematic animated tale as its quite clear where the story is heading almost immediately (even without glancing at the film’s movie trailers). Thus, there is a certain formula that A New Age follows and the result is something that definitely works, especially considering the movie is more “blaring” than the previous one, but lacks the extra “X factor” of drama / creative energy that the first movie had. Perhaps this with the script handling, which was penned by Paul Fisher, Bob Logan, Kirk DeMirco, Chris Sanders, and Kevin and Dan Hageman, for A New Age as there seems to be “too many cooks in the kitchen” with plenty of ideas, but not enough resolve to make for a “meaty” substance.

Like a lot of sequels or building franchises that DreamWorks has cultivated over the years, sometimes something gets lost in the passing of one film installment to the next and the certain ideas gets lost in that process. A New Age has plenty to offer (and I love it) and yet there is a lack of substance in the narrative department throughout the feature and the film could’ve been better with a more solid formation in the story / plot, especially considering DreamWorks can produce great stories (a balance of comedy and drama) within several of the animated features ( Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon franchises). In short, A New Age is a solid distraction for better animated movie stock that DreamWorks has to offer, but lacks the originality and extra touch.

Additionally, there are a few minor criticism points that I also have with this movie that (like above) don’t derail my likeability for A New Age , but just a few nitpicks here and there. This includes some of the characters getting sidelined a bit for others, some of the climatic moments near the ending seem a bit recycled from other similar properties (i.e., the first How to Train Your Dragon movie), and a few “on the nose” political references that, while harmless, are little bit over-the-top.

What definitely helps overlook some of the points is in the voice talent department; finding A New Age’s cast to be incredibly solid with most (if not all) of the actors and actresses that provided the voices for the Crood family returning to reprise their roles for this new sequel. Despite the lengthy gap between both films, the characters (and their respective vocal performances provided) haven’t aged and are still incredibly fun and colorfully energetic throughout. Leading the charge in the movie are several of these returning characters, especially in the roles of Guy and Eep, who are once again played by actor Ryan Reynolds and actress Emma Stone. Reynolds, known for his roles in Deadpool , Woman in Gold , and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu , has been busy since recording the voice for Guy in the original 2013 film, but that doesn’t change the same likeable quality and frenetic energy he provides to the role of which he easily slides back into with joyful glee. Similarly, Stone, known for her roles in The Help , The Amazing Spider-Man , and La La Land , has become more of a prominent star in recent Hollywood films, but can still manages to bring a fun / free flowing charm to the role of Eep. Together, both characters of Guy and Eep are the more central focus on A New Age ; creating the central conflict of the these two throughout the movie, alongside the various plot points in the feature. Additionally, both Reynolds and Stone’s infectious vocal energy is great and they certainly play off of each other in their dialogue banter.

Behind those two, the character of Grug plays a pivotal role in A New Age , with actor Nicolas Cage reprising his role once again. Known for his roles in The Rock , Face / Off , and Next , Cage was a big star in Hollywood during the 90s / early 00s, but has somewhat drifted to the wayside since then; offering up smaller roles here and there. Perhaps one of his best roles during this slump is in vocal performance in the role of Grug in 2013’s The Croods ; projecting the right amount of heart, humility, and larger-than-life parental / father comedic charm into the character. Thankfully, Cage succeeds in bringing the same maniac and comedic charm persona back into Grug in A New Age and proves to be quite effective and definitely is one of the best. Grug’s story is a bit more secondary comparted to Guy and Eep, but Cage’s Grug is still capable to produce a memorable voice role in the character throughout.

The rest of the returning talents, including actress Catherine Keener ( Get Out and Incredibles 2 ) as the matriarch of the family Ugga, actor Clark Duke ( Bad Moms and Hot Tub Time Machine ) as Grug and Ugga’s son Thunk, and actress Cloris Leachman ( Young Frankenstein and The Last Picture Show ) as the Crood’s grandmother Gran, make up the rest of the Croods’s family. These particular characters don’t have strong narrative storyline arcs in the movie as Guy Eep, and Grug, but the characters themselves are still amusing and colorfully fun in this sequel, with these vocal talents bringing them to life in a very charismatic way. Collectively, all of the returning acting talents from the previous film are the true “spark” of the movie as all seem to “gel” with each other and harmonize / playing off one another that makes this prehistoric family hilarious and congeal from onset to conclusion once again.

With all the previous returning voice actors returning to their posts, A New Age does bring on-board several new characters for this sequel as well as new voice talents, which are certainly welcomed addition to the feature. Naturally, I’m talking about actor Peter Dinklage ( Game of Thrones and X-Men: Days of Future Past ) and actresses Leslie Mann ( Blockers and How to be Single ) and Kelly Marie Tran ( Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi and Sorry for Your Loss ) as the Betterman family; playing the roles of Phil, Hope, and Dawn Betterman respectfully. With both Dinklage and Mann having very distinct voices, the pair shine the best and produce the some of the most memorable moments in the movie as both Phil and Hope, while Tran does a good job as Dawn. I just wish she was a bit more in the movie, but what gives is still solid. Collectively, the Betterman family, while not entirely original, are a comical bunch of new characters and definitely add a new flavor the Croods family and to A New Age . There are several other minor voice roles scattered throughout the movie, which are played by a few cameo-like voice talents, so be on the look out for them.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Croods family is back and a new adventure awaits them; one that will test the very fabric of their close-knit family bonds in the film The Croods: A New Age . Director Joel Crawford’s latest film returns to the narrative of the comedic / yet family-oriented caveman family for another adventure wacky adventure of danger and discovery that works within the parameters of what was established in the original 2013 film. While the movie isn’t as strong as its predecessor (due to its narrative and various plot beats), the film does manage to be a very fun and entertaining animated endeavor that has plenty of charm and laughs, thanks to the feature’s visuals, humorous bits, colorful characters, and solid voice talents. Personally, I liked this movie. It was definitely a fun and amusing animated sequel that’s bright, colorful, and quite entertaining. Definitely one of the better DreamWorks sequels of late, yet not as strong as Kung Fu Panda or How to Train Your Dragon sequels. Still, for what its worth, A New Age is a solid cartoon movie. Thus, my recommendation for this film is hard “recommendation” as I’m sure it will delight fans of the first film and the feature’s intended target audience. While the movie’s ending leaves open for a possible Croods 3 entry, I don’t think that the its quite necessary (DreamWorks shouldn’t ruin a good thing). In the end, The Croods: A New Age might not offer up “animation gold”, but proves to be a solid distraction to partake in the latest humorous adventure of the Croods family once again….

4.0 Out of 5 (Recommended)

Released on: november 25th, 2020, reviewed on: december 14th, 2020.

The Croods: A New Age is 95 minutes long and is rated PG for peril, action, and rude humor

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In today's minisode, we review a monstrous amount of new films: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the prequel The First Omen, the monster coming-of-age yarn Arcadian, the vampire ballerina showcase Abigail, as well as violent action movie Boy Kills World, Alex Garland's Civil War, and Luca Guadagnino's ode to tennis lust, Challengers.Host: Jeff EwingEditor: Jeff Ewing

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‘We Grown Now’ Review: A Child’s Eye View

Minhal Baig’s third feature follows two boys living in a public housing complex in Chicago as they cope by building their own dream worlds.

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Two boys stare out at a cityscape beyond a chain-link fence.

By Manohla Dargis

The two boys in the gauzy nostalgia piece “We Grown Now” are total charmers. They’re also worryingly vulnerable, something you clock soon after the movie opens. Set in 1992, it takes place primarily in Cabrini-Green, at the time a public housing development in Chicago. There, the boys frolic and dream amid cinder block walls. Every so often, they wander outside to the concrete playground and to a jumble of old mattresses that the local kids use as cushioning. One boy likes to vault through the air and onto the mattresses; he likes to fly.

The two boys are around 10 years old, and the closest of friends. They live in the same broken-down tower building, one of several in the complex, where sometimes they hang out in an abandoned apartment. There, they like to talk and stare at the stained and cracked ceiling, conjuring up visions from it the way they might do under the sheltering dome of the sky. Malik (Blake Cameron James) turns out to be an especially dreamy child, a pint-size philosopher who lives with his loving mother (Jurnee Smollett), doting grandma (S. Epatha Merkerson) and sister (Madisyn Barnes), a typical if benign sibling thorn in his side.

For his part, Malik’s best friend, the more prosaically drawn Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez), lives with his older sister (Avery Holliday) and their father (Lil Rel Howery), a kindly fount of praise and disappointment. The friendship between Eric and Malik — the child performers are dear — is one of the truest parts of the movie, and it’s easy to fall quickly into step with them as they wander Cabrini, head to school and one day briefly escape from their routine. Bored one day while in class, the boys jump on a train and eventually make it to the Art Institute of Chicago, where they roam its galleries, at one point pausing before Walter Ellison’s striking painting “Train Station,” a 1935 canvas that depicts a segregated terminal.

Their interest in the painting is easy to believe: It’s beautiful, arresting and at once familiar and mysterious (as the child of a former museum guard, I can relate). At the same time, like so much of this movie, the scene also feels forced, partly because the writer-director Minhal Baig’s expressionistic reveries don’t always fit with the issues she recurrently invokes. When the boys run through the museum, the other patrons remain frozen in place, as if they were in a different dimension. Yet when Malik connects the painting to his grandmother’s home in Mississippi, he opens a window onto a profound history that’s too heavy for this otherwise fanciful scene. He also sounds more like a filmmaking conceit than a child, however wise.

This is the third feature movie that Baig has directed, and it certainly has qualities to appreciate. As she demonstrated in her second , “Hala” (2019), about a Pakistani American teenager navigating the divide between her parents’ lives and her blossoming desires, Baig knows how to create sympathetic characters. You’re immediately invested in Malik and Eric, who together have formed a private world that, like the museum, exists apart from real life, its pressures and its dangers. The sound design is particularly effective at conveying the little bubble that the children have created for themselves. The babble of outside voices and music in Cabrini never seems to stop flowing, but you never really hear what anyone says.

At one point, the real world does catastrophically pierce the boys’ bubble when a near-army of police descend on the complex in the wake of a shooting, ransacking homes and turning residents into suspects. This violence gives the story dramatic tension, creating a crisis in Malik’s life when his mother considers moving elsewhere. The police raid also widens his (and the movie’s) horizons when he learns that his grandparents moved to Cabrini to escape the violence in their Southern hometown. Some of this is effective, even if too many of Baig’s filmmaking choices — the honeyed cinematography, the score’s agitated violins and Malik’s preternaturally knowing voice-over — finally overwhelm the story’s fragile lyrical realism.

We Grown Now Rated PG for images of police violence. Running time 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

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This collection may be the closest we'll ever come to a dickinson autobiography.

Maureen Corrigan

A new collection of Emily Dickinson's letters has been published by Harvard's Belknap Press, edited by Dickinson scholars Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell. Three Lions/Getty Images hide caption

A new collection of Emily Dickinson's letters has been published by Harvard's Belknap Press, edited by Dickinson scholars Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell.

Among the Great Moments in Literary History I wish I could've witnessed is that day, sometime after May 15, 1886, when Lavinia Dickinson entered the bedroom of her newly deceased older sister and began opening drawers.

Out sprang poems, almost 1,800 of them. Given that Emily Dickinson had only published a handful of poems during her lifetime, this discovery was a shock.

" 'Hope' is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul," begins one of those now-famous poems. Whatever Dickinson hoped for her poems, she could never have envisioned how they'd resonate with readers; nor how curious those readers would be about her life, much of it spent within her father's house in Amherst, Mass., and, in later years, within that bedroom.

Every so often, the reading public's image of Emily Dickinson shifts: For much of the 20th century, she was a fey Stevie Nicks-type figure — check out, for instance, the 1976 film of Julie Harris' lauded one-woman show, The Belle of Amherst .

A feminist Emily Dickinson emerged during the Second Women's Movement, when poems like "I'm 'wife' " were celebrated for their avant garde anger. And, jumping to the present, a new monumental volume of Dickinson's letters — the first in more than 60 years — gives us an engaged Emily Dickinson; a woman in conversation with the world, through gossip, as well as remarks about books, politics and the signal events of her age, particularly the Civil War.

The Letters of Emily Dickinson, by Emily Dickinson, edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell Harvard's Belknap Press hide caption

The Letters of Emily Dickinson, by Emily Dickinson, edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell

This new collection of The Letters of Emily Dickinson is published by Harvard's Belknap Press and edited by two Dickinson scholars, Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell. To accurately date some of Dickinson's letters, they've studied weather reports and seasonal blooming and harvest cycles in 19th century Amherst. They've also added some 300 previously uncollected letters to this volume for a grand total of 1,304 letters.

The result is that The Letters of Emily Dickinson reads like the closest thing we'll probably ever have to an intimate autobiography of the poet. The first letter here is written by an 11-year-old Dickinson to her brother Austin, away at school. It's a breathless, kid-sister-marvel of run-on sentences about yellow hens and a "skonk" and poor "Cousin Zebina [who] had a fit the other day and bit his tongue ..."

The final letter, by an ailing 55-year-old Dickinson — most likely the last she wrote before falling unconscious on May 13, 1886 — was to her cousins Louisa and Frances Norcross. It reads:

Never Mind The White Dress, Turns Out Emily Dickinson Had A Green Thumb

Little Cousins, "Called back." Emily.

In between is a life filled with visitors, chores and recipes for doughnuts and coconut cakes. There's mention of the racist minstrel stereotype Jim Crow, as well as of public figures like Florence Nightingale and Walt Whitman. There are also allusions to the death toll of the ongoing Civil War.

Dickinson's loyal dog Carlo walks with her, and frogs and even flies keep her company. Indeed, in an 1859 letter about one such winged companion, Belle of Amherst charm alternates with cold-blooded callousness. Dickinson writes to her cousin Louisa:

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Film celebrates emily dickinson's poetry and 'quiet passion'.

I enjoy much with a fly, during sister's absence, not one of your blue monsters, but a timid creature, that hops from pane to pane of her white house, so very cheerfully, and hums and thrums, a sort of speck piano. ... I'll kill him the day [Lavinia] comes [home], for I shan't need him any more ..."

Dickinson's singular voice comes into its own in the letters of the 1860s, which often blur into poems: cryptic, comic and charged with Awe. A simple thank-you note to her soul mate and beloved sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert Dickinson, reads:

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You don't know 'dickinson'.

Dear Sue, The Supper was delicate and strange. I ate it with compunction as I would eat a Vision.

There are 1,304 letters, and, still, they're not enough. Scholars estimate that we only have about one-tenth of the letters Dickinson ever wrote. And, on that momentous day in 1886, Lavinia entered her sister's bedroom to find and successfully burn all the letters Dickinson herself had received from others during her lifetime. Such was the custom of the day. Which makes this new volume of Dickinson's letters feel like both an intrusion and an outwitting of the silence of death — something I want to believe Dickinson would have relished.

Emily Dickinson

The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt is an entertaining ride through the world of action movies

Ryan Gosling in aviator sunglasses and a sleeveless vest leans an arm against a doorframe

The double-edged sword of being a stunt double — the extreme visibility of the death-defying manoeuvres they perform to audiences of millions, the dearth of acknowledgement and the invisibility of their labour — is mined to perfection in The Fall Guy.

A reimagining of the 1981 TV series directed by David Leitch (John Wick, Deadpool 2) — himself a seasoned stunt performer — The Fall Guy is an ode to films and the unsung heroes who make it all happen.

Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is the stunt double of mega celebrity actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson); he's the beating heart of Tom's blockbuster movies, the best in the business. He's also in a casual situationship with cute camerawoman Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), united by their shared love language of car doughnuts, and as happy as anyone can be in a job where you're routinely catapulted off great heights, burned and pummelled.

A man with sandy-coloured hair and a beard faces a woman wearing a large straw hat on a film set

That is, until a freak accident leaves Colt with a broken back, a broken heart and a broken sense of self.

Working listlessly as a valet for a Mexican restaurant, Colt is jolted out of his depressive stupor when pugnacious producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) calls him out of the blue with an enticing proposition.

Jody is directing her debut feature — a comically naff futuristic sci-fi romance called Metalstorm — with Tom in the lead role, and apparently wants her thwarted lover to be the stunt double.

The plot thickens further when Tom disappears, and Colt is sent on a wild goose chase to hunt him down for the sake of Jody's movie. If he discovers Tom, maybe he'll have another chance with Jody.

If this sounds needlessly convoluted, it is. But The Fall Guy is nonetheless an entertaining romp through the shadowy world of drugs, murder and thugs — set in our very own Sydney, with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge the picturesque backdrop to many a scene.

An aerial shot of a man being dragged behind a truck, sparks flying

There are high-octane chase sequences, big explosions, implausible helicopter leaps and a French attack dog with one trick (spoiler: it's not kind to men).

Appearances by Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once) as Tom's downtrodden assistant and Winston Duke (Black Panther) as Metalstorm's stunt coordinator ups the star power of an already star-studded line-up.

The humour in The Fall Guy is both clever and slapstick. Gosling has previously proven his versatility as a comedic actor in Barbie and The Nice Guys, and it's gratifying to see one of the biggest film stars of our time play an underdog.

He delivers offhand, pithy one-liners with his trademark crooked smile and affable charm, expertly balancing machismo with the vulnerability of being the perennial punching bag. Blunt's Jody is his perfect counterpart with her endearing dorkiness, resourcefulness (that saves Colt from many a pickle) and straight-faced comic delivery.

Emily Blunt winding an arm up to punch someone in a movie costume

Playing into the structure of a film within a film and taking place predominantly on a set, there's a heightened appreciation for the art of filmmaking in The Fall Guy.

It's a mosaic of film references: the characters speak to each other in metaphors and similes that recall Memento, Notting Hill, The Fugitive and The Last of the Mohicans.

There are meta references to the framework that governs films, like when someone asks Jody if her Metalstorm characters should reference the trouble she's having in nailing the third act (in many ways reminiscent of The Fall Guy's sagging final act).

Ryan Gosling pressed up against a wall looking scared, a woman is holding a sword to his throat

Complementing the action-packed scenes is the film's upbeat soundtrack, a nostalgia-fest for anyone born before 1995.

It's fitting that the unofficial theme song is KISS's I Was Made For Lovin' You, but less expected is the inspired choice to set one of the chase scenes against Phil Collins' power ballad Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now), a truly rousing choice that resuscitated my love for this 80s banger. The Darkness, Bon Jovi and Taylor Swift feature, too.

With much of his currency located in his uncanny likeness to Tom, Colt transcends his forever status as the "fall guy" to exact justice and seek retribution, while Jody's trajectory from camerawoman to director places her at the forefront of dictating her creative vision, instead of enacting someone else's.

The Fall Guy is foremost an action-comedy flick, yes, but it's also a love story between two people becoming the main characters in their own stories.

The Fall Guy is in cinemas now.

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The Croods: A New Age (2020)
The Croods: A New Age (2020)
The Croods: A New Age movie review
The Croods: A New Age (2020)
'The Croods: A New Age' review: Overstuffed sequel has heart
The Croods: A New Age (2020)

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THE CROODS 2020
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The Croods: A New Age movie review (2020)
Every time that "The Croods: A New Age" feels like more than a generic retread, it returns to something safe and familiar. The irony is that these stories are about breaking out of a bubble—overprotective fathers who realize that the danger of the world is an essential part of growing up. If a third adventure surfaces for Grug, Eep, Guy ...
The Croods: A New Age
Rated: 4/5 • Jul 25, 2023. Rated: 3/4 • Dec 6, 2022. Searching for a safer habitat, the prehistoric Crood family discovers an idyllic, walled-in paradise that meets all of its needs ...
The Croods: A New Age Movie Review
Parents need to know that The Croods: A New Age is the sequel to 2013's The Croods, which centered on a family of Neanderthals trying to survive the elements, including teen daughter Eep (voiced by Emma Stone).This film focuses on Eep's romance with Guy (Ryan Reynolds) and her dad Grug's (Nicolas Cage) worries about losing his daughter.While the clan faces all kinds of perilous moments, most ...
'The Croods: A New Age' Review: More Civilized
Nov. 25, 2020. The Croods: A New Age. Directed by Joel Crawford. Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy. PG. 1h 35m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed ...
The Croods: A New Age review
The Croods: A New Age review - much yabba-dabba ado in caveman caper This article is more than 2 years old A-list voice actors leaven this hectic children's movie with gags for grownups
Movie Review: The Croods 2: A New Age, with Ryan Reynolds
Movie Review: In the Croods: A New Age, the prehistoric family (voiced by Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, and Emma Stone) returns, and discovers that there are people in the world ...
'The Croods: A New Age' Review: Caveman Cartoon Bludgeons ...
The Peter Max-like lunacy of "The Croods: A New Age" recalls the equally unhinged "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2," in which the mutant food of the first movie came alive.
The Croods: A New Age
The Croods: A New Age retains the cheerful comedic charm of the franchise's first installment while still feeling fresh and fun for 2020. Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 1, 2022. Don ...
'The Croods: A New Age' Review
'The Croods: A New Age': Film Review. Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds return as core members of the Paleolithic pack struggling to survive in 'The Croods: A New Age,' this time at ...
Review: 'The Croods: A New Age' is a sweetly chaotic follow-up
For "A New Age," Leslie Mann, Peter Dinklage and Kelly Marie Tran have been added to the mix, as the clingy crowd of Croods encounters a new family, the Bettermans, whose existence threatens ...
The Croods: A New Age (2020)
The Croods: A New Age: Directed by Joel Crawford. With Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener. The prehistoric family the Croods are challenged by a rival family the Bettermans, who claim to be better and more evolved.
Croods: A New Age Review
Published Nov 23, 2020. They're back. The Croods, released back in 2013, is an unsung gem in the DreamWorks Animation catalog - and one with a very complicated, improbable history. It started ...
Movie Review
The Croods: A New Age, 2020. Directed by Joel Crawford. Featuring the voice talents of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Peter Dinklage, Leslie Mann, Kelly Marie Tran, Catherine Keener ...
The Croods: A New Age Review: DreamWorks' Inoffensive Family Fun Film
'The Croods: A New Age' Review: Long-Awaited Animated Sequel Is Low-Stakes Feel-Good Fun After nearly a decade of fraught production news and release date moves, this colorful, feel-good ...
The Croods: A New Age
The Croods: A New Age (also known as The Croods 2) is a 2020 American animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures.The sequel to The Croods (2013) as well as the second installment of The Croods franchise, it was directed by Joel Crawford (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Paul Fisher, Bob Logan, and the writing team ...
The Croods: A New Age Review: Funnier Than the Original, but Still
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Peter Dinklage, Leslie Mann, Kelly Marie Tran. Release date: In theaters Nov. 25, 2020; available digitally Dec. 25, 2020. Joseph Stanichar is a ...
The Croods: A New Age (2020)
The first movie had a great feminist message that never seemed to patronize or get in the way of the story. The women in the first film were well characterized and felt like they had agency and purpose to the plot. The Croods: A New Age throws away all the subtlety and instead does a cringy, ham-fisted, WAMEN POWER!
Movie Review
The Croods 2: A New Age, 2020. Directed by Joel Crawford. Starring Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Kelly Marie Tran, Nicolas Cage, Catherine Keener, Leslie Mann, Peter Dinklage, Clark Duke and Cloris ...
The Croods: A New Age
The Croods: A New Age, as part of Universal and AMC's "from theaters to PVOD in 17 days" trial run, will release theatrically on November 25. Then, on a movie-by-movie basis, Universal will have the option of releasing it for video-on-demand in December. IGN's Matt Fowler watched the movie via a digital
'The Croods: A New Age' Review: An Unremarkable Sequel Best ...
The Croods: A New Age is better than these kinds of also-ran TV series, many of which serve to distract little kids for 20 minutes at time. But it's just barely better (and for full transparency ...
The Croods: A New Age
The Croods: A New Age is a rare, moving cave-drawing indeed. It started out as a sequel to a fun 2013 film about family togetherness and growth. But through almost pure happenstance, The Croods: A New Age has now become a pic that reflects our current crazy world. As a cave family, the Croods have to do everything as a pack.
The Croods: A New Age Review
The Croods: A New Age, as part of Universal and AMC's "from theaters to PVOD in 17 days" trial run, will release theatrically on November 25. Then, on a movie-by-movie basis, Universal will have ...
The Croods: A New Age (2020) Review
The Croods family is back and a new adventure awaits them; one that will test the very fabric of their close-knit family bonds in the film The Croods: A New Age.Director Joel Crawford's latest film returns to the narrative of the comedic / yet family-oriented caveman family for another adventure wacky adventure of danger and discovery that works within the parameters of what was established ...
The Croods: A New Age Showtimes
Find The Croods: A New Age showtimes for local movie theaters. Menu. Movies. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. TV Shows.
‎Humanoids from the Deep Dive: Review Minisode 4: Godzilla x Kong: The
In today's minisode, we review a monstrous amount of new films: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the prequel The First Omen, the monster coming-of-age yarn Arcadian, the vampire ballerina showcase Abigail, as well as violent action movie Boy Kills World, Alex Garland's Civil War, and Luca Guadagnino's ode to tennis lust, Challengers.Host: Jeff EwingEditor: Jeff Ewing
'We Grown Now' Review: A Child's Eye View
Minhal Baig's third feature follows two boys living in a public housing complex in Chicago as they cope by building their own dream worlds.
Emily Dickinson's singular voice comes into focus in a new collection
The Letters of Emily Dickinson collects 1,304 letters, starting with one she wrote at age 11. Her singular voice comes into its own in the letters of the 1860s, which often blur into poems.
The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt is an entertaining
What: A rollicking, action-packed, feel-good time. Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Hannah Waddingham, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. When: In cinemas now. Likely to make you feel: In awe of stunt ...

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The Croods: A New Age Isn’t Nearly As Fun As Just Repeatedly Saying ‘The Croods’ Out Loud

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‘The Croods: A New Age’ Review: DreamWorks’ Caveman Cartoon Bludgeons Audiences With Nonstop Jokes

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Reviewed online, Los Angeles, Nov. 22, 2020. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 95 MIN.

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