THE CROODS

 Animated comedy\adventure

PRINCIPAL VOICE MEMBERS

Emma Stone: teenager Eep Crood

Nicolas Cage: Eep’s father Grug

Catherine Keener: Eep’s mother Ugga

Clark Duke: Eep’s 9-year-old brother Thunk

Randy Thom: Eep’s younger sister Sandy

Cloris Leachman: Eep’s grandmother Gran

Ryan Reynolds: teenager Guy

Chris Sanders: Guy’s pet sloth Belt

REVIEW

This story about a prehistoric family coming to terms with changing conditions borrows heavily from other movies and so lacks in originality:

• the rebellious red-headed teenage daughter facing off against a protective parent we saw in Brave
• rather odd looking creatures encountering one calamity after another we saw in Ice Age
• the well worn messages about being your own person and living life to the fullest has been around for ages

 Relying upon slapstick rather than witty dialogue to appeal to the younger crowd it keeps their attention by employing the age old technique of non-stop peril. That soon becomes boring and the outcome is entirely predictable with the result there is a temptation to leave and get on with your life.

CLASSIFICATION

 for some scary action.

P.S.

This one gets my vote as the dumbest movie title of the year.