The Croods Reviews

It captures the wonder (and more gently, the anxiety) of discovery time and time again. And the filmmakers have a hoot playing with the Croods' encounters with, as well as their misunderstandings of, all things new.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

As family viewing, it's pleasant enough: primitive, yes, but in a digitally sophisticated way that's boisterous, funny and will no doubt sell a lot of toys.

Full Review

The animation is first-rate, with moments of genuine visual imagination, and the story, while unremarkable, is entirely adequate.

Full Review

How to Train Your Dragon" and "Lilo & Stitch" are completely indicative of the experience you'll have with "The Croods," which is to say a supremely positive one.

Full Review | Original Score: B

It may not be an instant animated classic, but it's a charmer that will leave the kids ... feeling warm and fuzzy ...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

A film which, if not truly sophisticated, isn't nearly as crude as advertised.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

The family-dramedy genre that the film inhabits demands a bit more narrative ingenuity than is on display.

Full Review

Fast-paced, inventive animated comic adventure of a Stone Age family gets an extra boost from the lively vocal performances of stars Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds.

Full Review

While their situation sounds dire, "The Croods" is not. The DreamWorks animated film has enough slapstick humor, furry sidekicks and zippy 3-D action sequences to keep the story light.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Even the lively visuals and unrelenting thrill-ride pace can't disguise rough-hewn storytelling, or the fact that the tale of a old-fashioned macho cave dad and his family seems a bit yabba-dabba done that already.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

This movie not only has its heart in the right place, it has its brain in the right place.

Full Review | Original Score: B

I'd like to take back all those times I said Nicolas Cage was one of the most annoying actors on film. It turns out he's equally terrible when he's only on the soundtrack.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4

"The Croods" is light fare, but it explores a serious theme, if only superficially.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

It's the kind of rib-tickling, emotionally satisfying, universally appealing effort that gives computer animation a good name.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Like the continents, it's a little too easy to drift away.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

[It] might even give the little ones something more challenging to think about than its tired main plot.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

The pace is brisk and occasionally slapstick, and some amusing situations stem from the cavemen displaying brawn over brains.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Had the movie figured out a way to stay the less-cliched course, it might have helped the DreamWorks oeuvre take steps toward Pixar's emotional resonance.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Considering the fact that a young girl is picking her nose on the movie poster, "The Croods" is surprisingly evolved.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Neither as thrilling nor as funny as it ought to be.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

The movie is well-edited and lean, a fast-paced, action-filled bit of froth that manages to be diverting and surprisingly fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

When it gets past the Stone Age humor, this weird film manages to find some gentle revelations.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Although state-of-the-art in its rendering of textures, movement and stereography, DreamWorks' latest 3D toon, The Croods, adopts a relatively primitive approach to storytelling.

Full Review

In an interesting way, "The Croods" is about storytelling - cave paintings, hints of oral tradition, stumbling upon metaphors - and the impulse to remember amid change. There's something touching in that ...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

"The Croods" rests on the notion of the patriarch who must learn to adapt and let go. (I resent this storyline, for the record.)

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Despite a few too many mother-in-law jokes, "The Croods" nicely makes it clear that even before they had fire, families understood how important it was to cherish and protect each other.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

This material could have easily fallen into sitcom clichés with a heaping scoop of anachronism jokes on the side, but The Croods takes these characters and their situation seriously enough to make the story matter.

Full Review

It's all well enough.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

A handful of adrenalizing sequences of animated anarchy can't save this story from feeling overly primitive.

Full Review | Original Score: C+

It's all entertaining enough, and will surely sell plenty of stuffed toys. But it winds up a fair few rungs below the likes of 'Brave' on the evolutionary ladder.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

"The Croods" is both brisk and beautiful, and should be sufficiently entertaining for family audiences for whom few such options exist these days.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Further back on the evolutionary chain than the Flintstones, and also lagging in the comedy stakes, this sweet Stone Age clan nonetheless will captivate the youngsters.

Full Review