'Croods' Adventure Travels a Bland, Prehistoric Road

Rebellious cave teen Eep (Emma Stone) ventures out beyond the protection of her cave.

It's been quite a few years since DreamWorks last stumbled along with one of their family-friendly animated features.  Having found out-of-the-blue success with How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation was certainly giving Pixar a run for its money as the undisputed king of animated superiority. That is, until now.

Their latest animated feature, The Croods might lack the signature charm and wholesome value seen in DreamWorks previous cartoony flicks, but there's no denying that this escape to this prehistoric world has a few tricks up its sleeve. The Croods are one of the last remaining caveman families that have survived thanks to their overprotective father Grug (Nicholas Cage), believing that anything beyond their humble cave dwelling is dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. Their plastic bubble is shaken when his teenage daughter Eep (Emma Stone) ventures out beyond the cave.

There's nothing that makes The Croods uniquely stand firmly on its own two feet. How to Train Your Dragon director Chris Sanders serves up a helping of bland storytelling that cycles through the typical family drama except with cavemen. The Croods themselves are nothing short of stereotypical caricatures, with only Emma Stone's rebellious Eep set apart with any sort of lively characterizations.

The animators fit Eep's physical characteristics to Emma Stone like a glove, never refuting the fact that any other voice actress could pull a more convincing iteration of the character. Nicholas Cage, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman round out the voice cast of the Croods, however none of the them own their characters. Cage is perhaps the closest, but as overprotective Grug, he's painted as an annoying stick-in-the-mud with very little to invest in.

Younger audiences will chuckle at many of the kid-friendly jokes, but for adults, there's little that actually works with the exception of the occasional slapstick moment. Even the comedic antics of the Croods' ferocious little ankle-biter has its limitations. Funny the first couple of times, the schtick loses its novelty rather fast. The same goes for the Cloris Leachman's Grandma Crood, who continuously brings up dying before reaching their ultimate destination.

The Croods is billed as the first road trip in history and that's what pushes the story along. Despite its plodding pacing issues, the various stages in the prehistoric trek conjure up workable obstacles and colorful environments to infuse a hint of intrigue here and there. Sometimes Sanders spends enough time in one area and others, stretches the point to meet the standard animated run-time. Too much of a stop-and-start journey impairs any of The Croods' potential.

At the very least, The Croods feel like a family, well a caveman family that is. The internal relationships, particularly the overprotective father and rebellious daughter dynamic may seem contemporary, but still relatable to today's audiences. Granted, there's plenty more that doesn't belong in the world of cavemen, but by brushing aside reality for a short while, the heavy-hitting messages about family and change in The Croods are more crucial than constructing realism.

Even if The Croods is seen in 2D, Sanders doesn't hide the fact that many of the scenes are a byproduct of 3D. Characters bullet towards the screen in a manner reeking of 3D gimmickry. While the aesthetic choices aren't a total distraction, there are many instances where the 3D usage is just too obvious and pull 2D-going audiences out of the moment.

If the blandness and mediocrity of The Croods is any indication of where DreamWorks Animation is  heading in the next few years, there should be some retooling for this summer's release, Turbo and 2014's Mr. Peabody and Sherman. They haven't returned to their less prominent years of the 90s and early 2000s quite yet, but this is the first warning shot.  

GRADE: C+ (6/10)