The Croods: A New Age is a 2020 animated sequel set after the first film with the titular prehistoric protagonists meeting up another family called the Bettermans.
The Croods was, surprisingly, a really enjoyable flick from DreamWorks Animation. It’s a fun movie that both kids and adults can have a good time with, and we now have ourselves a sequel titled The Croods: A New Age. It is a follow-up to the previous installment, but you don’t really need to watch the first one to understand what’s going on. This time around, Joel Crawford takes on his feature directorial debut by replacing both Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders. While the original has a touching story and clever humor, the sequel is unfortunately a little predictable, messy, and uninspired. The studio has made some remarkable features such as Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon, but now it’s apparent that they have lost their magic.
Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman have all reprised their roles as the titular prehistoric family. Following the events of the previous film, the Croods have been going on an adventure to find a place they can call home. As their journey goes on, they eventually meet up with another family called the Bettermans, and tensions start rising. However, an upcoming threat will start emerging that will unite these two families to work together and embrace their differences. It sounds like a cool and entertaining premise, but the problem is that it doesn’t always work.
Visually, it’s spectacular to look at. Whether you like or dislike DreamWorks, we can all agree the animation team deserves lots of praise for their hard work. It’s a very colorful and vibrant world that the filmmakers have successfully brought to life on screen. Once again, the entire voice cast does a wonderful job, including the newest additions like Peter Dinklage, Leslie Mann and Kelly Marie Tran who play the Bettermans. Sadly, some of the characters are pretty useless and don’t add anything to the plot. Not all of them have been given a lot of development for the audience to care about them. There’s also a romance in the movie, but it’s not really interesting.
The biggest gripe with The Croods: A New Age is that it can be unfocused at times. It’s nothing original, and you’ll get the feeling that you have seen it plenty of times before. It goes from one character to another, but it’s never cohesive. The humor is hit or miss as well. It goes from being genuinely funny to cringe-worthy sometimes. Admittedly, the second half is way better than the first half, and things start getting a lot more exciting. As a whole, it’s still not memorable.
The Croods: A New Age is another case of a sequel not being as good as the original installment. The animation and voice cast are the only elements that truly stand out, while the narrative has some issues. Kids will undeniably have a blast, but parents might want a better film to watch as a family.
The Croods: A New Age will be available to own on Digital February 9th and on 4K Ultra-HD, Blu-ray and DVD on February 23rd, 2021