A new age is upon us. An age of going to the theater and wearing a mask, unless you’re eating. The age of an almost empty theater. My grandson and I have been waiting for The Croods sequel all year. I was worried it may not get a theatrical release. Much to our surprise it did and it was worth the wait. A New Age is filled with same humor as the first and we laughed all the way through.
In The Beginning
In 2013, The Croods first appeared on the big screen, bringing in almost $600 million at the box office. Grug (Nicholas Cage) is an overprotective father just trying to keep his family safe. What Grug wasn’t able to do was accept change. Eep (Emma Stone) played his daughter and shifting continents had them running into Guy (Ryan Reynolds). The two fell in love. That’s were The Croods: A New Age picks up with them on the road looking for a new home for Guy’s “Tomorrow”.
Wouldn’t you know it they find “Tomorrow” and it’s a beautiful exotic land ran by friends of Guy’s deceased parents. Hope (Leslie Mann) and Phil Betterman (Peter Dinklage) live a much more modern and luxurious life. They have found a way to have showers, fashionable clothing, beds, and live in tree-house that has windows and gives everyone privacy. The Betterman’s also have a beautiful, modern, civilized, non dragging knuckle daughter named Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran).
In the Middle
At this point we can see where this movie is going. In Betterman’s eyes they think Guy is better suited for their civilized daughter Dawn. Family feuding begins for the parents; as for Dawn and Eep they strike up a friendship that brings them to escape the land and jump the wall for a joyride on Chunky. Eep has always been the adventurous one and Dawn is dying to break free, only she comes back with her hand swelled up from a bee sting. Guy chides Eep for being so reckless.
Soon after Eep and Guy are fighting, the men are taken by punch monkeys and insanity begins. In A New Age the women are the ones who come to the rescue. Girl Power! Gran (Cloris Leachman) we find has no hair but a flying wig. When Grans hair took off into the sky to find the men we were all busting up laughing. The women eventually form a team the Thundersisters, an old girl group Gran was in when she was young. Things like this in The Croods is what keeps us laughing.
In the End
The Betterman family, played by Peter Dinklage and Leslie Mann; are great additions to the cast. Phil Betterman is always showing the Croods there’s a Betterman way to do somethings. Like When Ugga (Catherine Keener), Grug’s wife, tries to scale the wall of one of the tree / buildings instead of taking the elevator, Phil stops her and shows her “The Betterman way”.
The Croods have crude humor and for some of us that works. The animation was awesome and colorful, the story line was a little lacking and predictable. My grandson really enjoyed and laughed the whole way through. In the end Guy never stops loving his tough girl over the fashionable, pretty one. We learn we need to work together as a community and on social collaboration. All the while being entertain by the families prehistoric antics, spiderwolves and primates that communicate by getting socked in the arm or face.
Overall, I really enjoyed this movie there was never a dull moment. There were only three families including ours in the theater, which made us feel special. Everyone seemed to enjoy and all the kids were talking about it when it was over. When it hits streaming I’m sure my little man and I will be watching The Croods and The Croods: A New Age back to back, and over and over. I give it a B+ and put it in my extra cute box.
Mamma, Mimi, Michele, call out any one of those names and I will answer. There are several hats on my shelf. My passions are photography, being outside, movies, tv, pop culture and anything haunted or spooky. People are my other interest, I love meeting new people and socializing. When I lived in Savannah GA I worked as a tour guide both haunted and historical tours. I met people from all over the world, that was the best part of the job. All of this I can write about too, that’s the beauty of being a writer.
