Croods, The MPAA Rating: PG Entertainment: +3 Content: +3

Voices: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Cloris Leachman, Catherine Keener. Animated family adventure/comedy. Written & directed by Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders.

FILM SYNOPSIS: The prehistoric world is still formulating and a single troglodyte family, afraid to venture out into the daytime, preferring the relative safety of a boulder plugged cave, find their lives uprooted when a caveboy catches the eye of the Crood’s teen daughter, Eep. He’s smarter than your average Stone-ager, so when he warns that the end is near (earthquakes that cause land re-forming would suggest he’s right) and that they must all seek higher ground, they listen. Against the father’s wishes, the primitive family sets out on this new adventure. Life lessons are learned along the way.

PREVIEW REVIEW: I still think the 3-D process is too dark. Haven’t you noticed when you lift those glasses, it’s far brighter? Why can’t the 3D studios get the process more radiant? Or, perhaps it’s the theater’s fault. Maybe a brighter bulb in the projector is needed. Whatever the cause, the process is too dark for me and therefore annoying. But it doesn’t seem to bother most moviegoers. I’m trying to figure out just what does annoy most moviegoers these days. They’re very accepting of whatever the entertainment world wishes to put before them. Much like the general public and the direction Washington D.C. leadership is taking our nation. But I digress.

I kept wondering what the film’s message meant: “Go toward the light.” Could the maker of a film from DreamWorks be suggesting we seek God? Yeah, right. More likely, these storytellers are saying, leave the old ways behind; forget traditional beliefs and social ways and embrace new values, new social programs. Well, that sounds a bit paranoid. So, maybe whatever the filmmaker’s intent, we can just appreciate a film about a family that survives the unknown.

The action is nonstop, yet it doesn’t beat us up. We simply get enthralled with the relationships and their struggle to outwit the hostile surroundings. The voice characteristics work well and the film is full of clever, often funny dialogue. What’s more, it’s a clean movie, the filmmakers using creativity rather than crudity to entertain. I’m just wondering how they got that cast to avoid profanity for an entire film.

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: DreamWorks