If Shrek Forever After marked the rock bottom of DreamWorks’ animated ventures and its Aardman co-productions the pinnacle, The Croods: A New Age settles itself somewhere comfortably in the middle. In the land of perfectly acceptable viewing, which is a little north of pure mediocrity and south of above-averageness. The boy fishing on the crescent moon pulls us up with an enticing-enough bait, offering escapism of the most colourful kind, some timely messaging about tribalism, and an anchor in recognisable celebrity voices.
Returning to the big screen seven years (eight for us here in India) after their debut outing are the titular Cro-Magnons, who stumble upon a family who have reached the Flintstones stage on the evolutionary chain. Calling themselves the Bettermans, they have walled themselves in a utopia of food, comfort and safety. The two families clash until outside threats force them to find common ground.
If the original aimed for a photorealistic rendering, the new one ditches any such aspirations for the absurd. Gone are any pretences to depict the prehistoric period accurately. The Croods and the Bettermans encounter all sorts of hybrids. Paleozoologists, look away. Cryptozoologists, behold chicken-seals, spider-wolves, land-sharks, and wig-bats. There’s a whole civilisation of monkeys who worship and fear a King Kong-sized mandrill who loves his bananas more than the Minions. Such imaginative flourishes inject some life to the setting, if not the story.
Don’t go questioning how these 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.
If you do have to ask a question at the end of it all, it has to be: “What the hell were the animators smoking?” Stoners will surely find a ton of eye-candy appeal in this world, that doesn’t command an honest enchantment as much as it does a sugar-rush excitement. There’s a curiosity compelled by a spirit of outdoorsiness, as director Joel Crawford and his team jaunt through the magnificent vistas, the camera swooping along to contemplate the immersive scale of their creation. The colours will pop on screens big and small, drawing the viewer into the movie’s warm embrace.
A quick prelude catches us up to speed before A New Age kicks off. Our cave-dwellers have survived the extinction-level event of the first movie. They are now in search of a safer home, a better “tomorrow.” New tensions add to the old. Patriarch Grug (Nicolas Cage) still feels threatened by the Croods’ new adoptive member, Guy (Ryan Reynolds). Adding to Grug’s dismay is his daughter Eep (Emma Stone) and Guy’s teenage romance, which has blossomed to the cloying phase (soundtracked to what else but Spandau Ballet’s 'True').
Running into the Bettermans — dad Phil (Peter Dinklage), mom Hope (Leslie Mann), and daughter Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran) — causes a culture clash. Grug doesn’t care for creature comforts like showers, toilets, bedrooms and privacy. The Bettermans don’t really care for the Croods and their feral ways. All they care about is Guy, whom they want to set up with Dawn. Being passive-aggressive people, they don’t explicitly come out and say, “Get off our land,” but resort to manipulative tactics to get the point across. Hope gifts Grug’s wife Ugga (Catherine Keener) a travel basket. Phil takes Grug to his man cave. The two lock horns before their relationship evolves into a sweet bromance. Cage’s manic energy is perfectly complimented by Dinklage’s smug condescension, and their odd-couple chemistry is a riot.
Laughs are drawn from the anachronistic introduction of modern-day ideas into the movie’s absurd retelling of prehistory. Grug’s preteen son Thunk (Clark Duke) becomes a couch potato, addicted to watching life through a window. There’s a joke about Phil spending a lot of time in the bathroom – as dads tend to do. There’s a ton of slapstick involving the punch monkeys, who communicate with their fists. Guy is the only one who speaks their language, and Reynolds’ voice captures the pain of each jab with small shifts in cadence.
A refreshing subplot sees Eep and Dawn become immediate BFFs. The film avoids the pitfalls of love triangles by bringing Guy between them, even if Phil and Hope try to. Finding commonality in wanting to see the world beyond their overbearing parents, Eep and Dawn hop on their pet Macawnivore, Chunky, and go on a joyride. This girl power is doubled down in the climax, as Gran (Cloris Leachman) leads a rescue mission of the men who have been held hostage by the punch monkeys. Branding themselves the “Thunder Sisters”, their grand entrance is underscored by a Haim heavy metal special.
No animated movie comes without some thematic musings. In the clash between the Croods and the Bettermans is a call for community over tribalism, endorsing the value of sharing technology and pooling resources to advance together as a society. Sequels are often easy punching bags, especially in cases where they’re made simply because the original made a ton of money at the box office. But it has to be said: The Croods: A New Age is a slight improvement over its predecessor. All it took was juicing up the animation a little and adding some new cast members. Dreamworks’ new chapter of the Dawn of Man may not possess the staying power of a Shrek or a How to Train Your Dragon. Nor is it going to push the boundaries of animation. But it is a testament to the heights the medium has reached that even such a middling work can offer some delight.
Rating: 2.5
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