There's No Fart Jokes in THE CROODS?!

THE CROODS

3 out of 4 stars
Directed by: Chris Sanders, Kirk De Micco
Voice Cast: Nicholas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Cathrine Keener, Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke

Can you believe that a movie called THE CROODS has nearly no scatological humor to speak of, at least, none that I noticed.  Not a single flatulence gag, or even a burp.  Zilch.  Go figure.
Anyway, now that that tantalizing question is out of the way; THE CROODS is the newest animated feature from the studios at DreamWorks, the studio whose best films include the likes of SHREK (2001), SHREK 2 (2004), KUNG FU PANDA (2008) and THE PRINCE OF EGYPT (1998), while some of their lesser features have included SHARK TALE (2004), MADAGASCAR (2004), BEE MOVIE (2007) and SHREK THE THIRD (2007).  So where does THE CROODS rank on the DreamWorks Animation scale of quality?  Eh, somewhere in between, like, the upper end of in between.  It's a very good movie that's been stifled by a mediocre script; a formulaic, stale story, but one that's told in earnest with exuberance, albeit, arguably misguided.
The Croods of the title are a prehistoric family of cave-dwelling Cro-Magnons, led by their paranoid patriarch, Grug (Nicholas Cage), whose creed is "Never not be afraid," but his stereotypically rebellious teenage daughter, Eep (Emma Stone), has grown weary of her dad's rules that have helped them survive, but have kept them from living.  One night, Eep sneaks out of the cave and meets a handsomely evolved homo sapiens inventor named Guy (Ryan Reynolds), who warns her of the approaching seismic shift he calls "the end of the world".  When the earthquakes come and destroy the Croods' cave, the family is forced to venture out into the unknown world, so Grug takes Guy hostage so that they can use his fire at nights until they can find a new cave.  Included in this family expedition are Eep's mom, Ugga (Catherine Keener), the savage baby, Sandy, Eep's oafish (younger?) brother, Thunk (Clark Duke) and Ugga's cantankerous mother, Gran (Cloris Leachman), whom Grug is regularly making attempts to kill.  Predictably, Eep develops a crush on Guy, and Guy's inventions prove to be far preferential to Grug's rules, both of which threaten Grug's role as patriarch and leave him feeling out of the loop.

The obvious irony here is that the formulaic plot mechanics are in blatant contrast to the pro-thought and pro-progress themes that pervade the film, but then again, the visuals are plentifully original.
THE CROODS was written and directed by accomplished Disney alumni Chris Sanders and SPACE CHIMPS (2008) director Kirk De Micco, and while it's all too easy to suspect De Micco of the film's more significant faults, given his writing and story credits on past generic family fare like RACING STRIPES (2005) and QUEST FOR CAMELOT (1998), it's usually a combined influence on such things.  However, it is Sanders whose influence is definitely more prominent in the look, style and overall direction of the film (for reference, Sanders previously directed HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010) and LILO & STITCH (2002), was production designer on THE LION KING (1994), and did additional story and animation work on animated Disney features from the early to mid-nineties).  The brightly colored and stylized environments and creatures the Croods encounter on their adventures bring to mind the "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" sequence that Sanders worked on in the THE LION KING, and I don't think that, out of the abundance of creature designs, there was a single reality based creature.  Noted though, that is a bit of a partial truth in that the animals are all hybrid designs of real animals, such as a canine-like skunk with an alligator head or an ostrich with a ram's horns, but otherwise, the closest they get is a vibrantly blue and green sabertooth tiger with wildly stylized proportions.
An especially entertaining element of the animation is the frequent simulation of handheld camerawork, as opposed to the usually very clean, close-ups and master shots style most common in animation.  I'm not actually a fan of handheld camerawork, but the novelty of seeing a richly-detailed yet cartoonishly-stylized computer-rendered world through a seemingly raw perspective is really fun, especially in some of the earlier sequences.

This poster is the WORST.

Next to the visuals, the film's trump card is its humor, based in a pleasantly twisted comedic sensibility, such as a running gag involving Grug's attempts to kill off his mother-in-law, Gran, including flipping her in the air to see if she lands heads or tails to start off a football-esque egg hunt, or Eep's old teddy bear, called Crispy Bear, which is actually a dried out bear cub carcass, hence "Crispy", with her "last look of terror" still frozen on her face.  Of course, on the whole, the film has a sweet-natured heart with some genuinely moving, albeit generic, moments, though it may be a little too sweet toward the conclusion, but I'm sure parents don't mind.
And while in almost any and every other case, the rebellious teenage girl character that's become all too common in family film would be a death strike of annoyance, it's just too damn impossible to not like Emma Stone, even if its just her voice.  Her irresistible charms translate to animation vocals unblemished.  The rest of the voice cast is pretty good too, but Emma Stone...