The Croods (2013) Written and Directed by Kirk Di Marco and Chris Sanders

 

I was in love once. He was a hunter, I was a gatherer. It was quite the scandal. We fed each other berries, we danced. Then father bashed him on the head and traded me to your grandfather.—Gran

 

Are you White, Asian (and I think this includes Native Americans and Latinos), or African American? Then you are probably 2.5% Neanderthal.  Do you hail from New Guinea, the Pacific Islands, or are an Australian Aborigine?  Then you may have up to 5% Denisovan (another branch of the human family tree) genes.  The point is, we emerged out of Africa, then got to know some Neanderthals really well, and our bloodline carried on from there.

 

This movie reflects that basic scientific fact.  And it does it in a most human way.

 

Meet the Croods: Grug and Ugga, their son, Thunk, their daughters Eep and Sandy, and of course, Gran.  They are all that are left of a small community of Neanderthals.  They have survived largely because of the efforts of Grug, whose personal motto is “Never *not* be afraid.”  And to Grug’s credit, it has kept his family alive through very harsh times that saw their friends, the Gorts, the Horks, the Erfs, and the Throgs who died by mammoth stompage, sand snake swallowing, mosquitos and the common cold, respectively.

 

Of course, being a teenage girl, living in a cave with no one but family to interact with can be difficult, and Eep, in the manner of teenage girls everywhere, shares that difficulty back. Any father with a daughter older than 13 knows exactly what I am talking about.

 

Then two events happen that change everything.  First, Eep meets a stranger, Guy, a Cro-Magnon, and the world ends. 

 

Oh, the world ends in nice stages; natural disasters timed to move the story along at the right speed.  The cave is destroyed, they have to move towards higher ground.  And if communications break down too far…well, a disaster stops the bickering and gets them moving again.

 

Guy is full of ideas.  He wears boots, giving him the clear advantage in covering thorny ground.  He has a belt, a sloth who is part side kick, part comic relief, and also keeps his pants up.  Guy has fire.  That’s a big one.  Grug just has Neanderthal strength (which is considerable, and consistent with what we know about prehistoric hominids) a collection of stories, and a bone deep distrust of anything new.  He also has the boundless love for his family that half hampers him, and makes him rise above his own limitations.  There is a theme, as old as time, of the competition between father and suitor for the affections of the daughter;

Grug: Don't. It could be dangerous.

Eep: Dad, you always say that.

Guy: Careful.

Eep: Oh, okay.

[Grug sighs in exasperation]

Yep, somethings are just written in the genes.  Literally.

 

And ultimately, that is what the Croods are about; the old and the new coming together to create something different, yet fundamentally the same.  Whatever the case when our ancestors met the Neanderthals, the children of those unions were raised in families.  That is one of our races great secrets of survival…we are families.  Each has a role, each contributes to the whole.  And which families survive? The ones who adapt.  It’s a good message.  It’s a good movie. Share it with your family.

The Cast:

  Nicolas Cage  ...  Grug (voice) 

  Emma Stone  ...  Eep (voice) 

  Ryan Reynolds  ...  Guy (voice) 

  Catherine Keener  ...  Ugga (voice) 

  Cloris Leachman  ...  Gran (voice) 

  Clark Duke  ...  Thunk (voice) 

  Chris Sanders  ...  Belt (voice) 

Randy Thom  ...  Sandy (voice) 

“Release the baby!”—it’s not a good thing.