The Croods — A New Age: Feels somewhat primitive

The Croods: A New Age (2020) • View trailer

Three stars. Rated PG, for mild rude humor

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 11.27.20

The Croods: A New Age — now playing in whatever theaters are open, and available via video-on-demand closer to Christmas — is akin to its 2013 ancestor … only much more so. 

 

Eep displays her strength by hoisting new best friend Dawn aloft, while the others — from
left, Ugga, Grug, Guy, Hope and Phil — watch with a blend of admiration and concern.

Director Joel Crawford eschews the subtler wit that filmmakers Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders brought to the original, instead favoring relentless pacing and a shrieking tone; both prove exhausting before this new film is even half over. These characters rarely chat; they’re always yelling, screaming, bellowing, howling … well, you get the point.

 

We’re once again in an imaginary prehistoric past, set — as DeMicco and Sanders cheekily suggested — somewhere between the Jurassic Age and the “Katzenzoic Era.” The entire voice cast has returned; the cave-dwelling Croods consist of father figure Grug (Nicholas Cage) and his wife Ugga (Catherine Keener); their teenage daughter Eep (Emma Stone), adolescent son Thunk (Clark Duke) and toddler Sandy (still not speaking); and Ugga’s mother Gran (Cloris Leachman).

 

As before, Grug maintains an inflexible set of rules intended to ensure their survival, most notably that the pack (which is to say, the family) Must. Stay. Together. Alas, this is becoming less likely, because Eep and Guy (Ryan Reynolds) — the young man they came across in the first film — have become a serious item, and are thinking about starting their own pack. 

 

It’s every father’s nightmare, and Cage once again is hilarious in full-tilt exasperation mode.

 

This sequel grants Guy a back-story, during a prologue that picks up years before the first film’s events, when — as a young boy — he’s orphaned during a close encounter with a tar pit (a rather grim opening for a family-friendly animated film). His parents’ final words direct him to “follow the light, to find tomorrow,” so the boy wanders … and wanders … and wanders.

 

Along the way, he finds the cuddly three-toed sloth, Belt, that becomes his constant companion and fashion statement. Years pass, and they eventually meet up with the Croods, and so forth.

 

Moving forward, the search for food remains a constant challenge that hasn’t gone well of late. The pack therefore is astonished to discover an idyllic, impressively farmed, food-laden paradise sheltered behind tall wooden walls. This proves to be the home of the aptly named Bettermans: Phil (Peter Dinklage), wife Hope (Leslie Mann) and teenage daughter Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran).

 

The Bettermans live in a well-appointed tree house that would be the envy of the Swiss Family Robinson; the inventive Phil also has re-routed a nearby mountain stream in order to irrigate this garden of plenty. The Croods are welcome to as much as they desire … but they’re never, ever to eat the bananas.

 

(This isn’t merely a case of Neanderthals bumping up against Cro-Magnons; the Bettermans seem totally present-day, down to the presence of mirrors and modern clothing. That’s an evolutionary eyebrow-lift, but you gotta go with it.)

 

Given the insulting disdain and condescension with which Phil and Hope treat the Croods — and the obvious irritation this sparks in the latter — it’s pretty clear the scripters are tweaking our real-world divide between snooty liberal city dwellers who view themselves as superior to rural “deplorables.” The comparison definitely hits home; Phil and Hope are insufferable, and the Croods — despite their “primitive limitations” — become more admirable by comparison.

 

Turns out Phil and Hope knew Guy’s parents, and are overjoyed to see that he survived, because — and here’s the kicker — they regard him as the perfect mate for Dawn. Surely, Phil insists, his daughter is far more suitable than a backwards “cave girl.”

 

The resulting romantic angst and us-versus-them relationship dynamics are offset by all manner of “retro” sight gags and encounters with an increasingly crazed menagerie of hybrid predators and prey: kangadillos, chicken seals, pigators, rumblebees, bumblerhinos, wolf-spiders and so forth.

 

The funniest running bit is Thunk’s immediate fascination with the new-fangled invention — a “window” — in his private shack. He becomes entranced by the constant “show” taking place through it, failing to understand that he could step outside and experience the same environment. (The comparison to kids glued to their screens, at the expense of living in the real world, is impossible to miss.)

 

And just when that gag seems to have been exhausted, fresh fun erupts when Thunk discovers a portable window.

 

Unlike her parents, Dawn is genuinely nice and friendly. One of the film’s high points comes when this sheltered young woman — having never been allowed beyond the wall — is taken by Eep on a gal-power “joy ride” in the outer world.

 

Unfortunately, Crawford loses control of his film shortly thereafter, with a third act that becomes silly rather than funny, and also rather tedious. When Gran and the other women adopt alter-egos for a climactic fight, things feel more like a video game, and less like a coherent story.

 

As was the case in the first film, Cage and Stone are by far the best voice talents; the latter is spot-on as the audacious, resourceful and ferociously strong Eep. Stone also is amusing, early on, while Eep is mooning over Guy. Tran is a hoot when Dawn gets “drunk” after being poisoned by a rumblebee sting, but Leachman’s feisty old lady shtick isn’t as funny as it was in the first film (and, frankly, gets a bit weird during the aforementioned third act).

This film has moments — and young children certainly will be entertained — but, mostly, this is a case of everybody trying too hard. Too much of the humor is forced, rather than feeling organic to the storyline.