Croods Family 2

[Temika]

TheCroods are the last known family of cavemen due to all their neighbors getting killed by predators, environmental hazards or illnesses. As such, their leader, Grug Crood, is very protective of his family, cautioning them to believe:

Slapstick fantasy violence throughout, including some that is intended to be humorous. Mean behavior and passive-aggressive language throughout. Some scary wild animals and high-intensity action (though characters don't seem like they're in peril).

Parents need to know that The Croods: Family Tree is a TV spin-off of the Croods movie franchise; it's fairly similar to the movies, but without the excellent writing and humor that made the first movie shine. The series' storyline picks up where The Croods: A New Age left off: The Croods now live in a much less scary world, but they can't shed their tendency to solve every problem with physical aggression. Expect slapstick fantasy violence throughout, much of which is intended to be funny, as well as some scary wild animals and high intensity action. The punch-monkey characters, who communicate by hitting each other, are also back. While there's no iffy language, there's mean behavior and passive-aggressive exchanges throughout. Eep and Guy's teenage romance continues to blossom and is a major plot point, but their attempts at physical affection are thwarted by family members.

THE CROODS: FAMILY TREE picks up where The Croods: A New Age movie left off (but without any of the celebrity voice talent from the movie). The prehistoric Crood family has left their predator-filled former home to live in a utopian garden with their rivals, the more-evolved Betterman family. While they're no longer fighting for their very existence, the Croods face a new problem: boredom. Thunk adapts easily to the new relaxing lifestyle, but the rest of the Crood clan has difficulty turning off their fight-or-flight impulses. The Bettermans are not exactly thrilled with this chaotic intrusion on their idyllic lifestyle either. Meanwhile, teenagers Eep and Guy are still in love and trying to figure out how to flirt without family intruding. Can the Croods and Bettermans figure out how to co-exist peacefully?

In the attempt to wring yet another spin-off out of the Croods franchise (following two movies and a prequel cartoon), it seems that there may be no more compelling stories left to tell. Kids who like the prehistoric world of the Croods will enjoy the fantastical animals and vibrantly colorful world in Family Tree. Otherwise, the storylines rely a lot on extended adventure scenes and there's not a ton of character development. Grown-ups wary of rude behavior and casual slapstick violence may have been willing to look the other way with the redeeming qualities of the fun original The Croods movie, but the subpar plots of Family Tree may not make the tradeoff worth it.

Families can talk about how the Bettermans and Croods treat each other. Sometimes they say nice-ish things but act in a mean way. What do you think would be a better way for them to resolve their conflicts?

There's a lot of hitting and injuries that would hurt in real life but are meant to be silly in the show. What do you think about cartoons showing violence as being funny? When is it okay, and when isn't it?

What do you think it would've been like to live in prehistoric times? Do you think you'd be able to live in a world where you have to find your own food and build your own shelter? What about living without electricity or internet?

Lots of affirming messages. Eep and the rest of the Croods learn that hiding leads you nowhere, that courage opens up your world, and that love needs to be expressed. Also, to be yourself. As one character says: "Don't hide -- live!" Some bodily function humor (nose picking, etc.).

Though Grug is fearful and makes clear (albeit jokingly) his disdain for his mother-in-law, he does make decisions out of a need to protect his family. He's the first to throw himself over them when the Earth rumbles and rocks start falling or when animals around him attack. (He does sic his baby, who's pretty tough, onto prey that he's trying to catch for food.) Most of all, he cares deeply about Eep, his daughter on the verge of womanhood. He admires her but worries for her. Eep adores her father but isn't swayed by his fears; she's eager to expand her horizons, literally and figuratively. She pushes Grug to explore, and he encourages her to think before she acts. Ultimately, he also teaches her how to share her feelings by modeling that behavior himself. Guy also shows Eep the joy of living freely, unencumbered by anxiety. Female characters sometimes rely on male characters to save them, and Eep sometimes acts a little silly around Guy.

Frequent talk about death/the risk of death in this wild, unstable world; at one point, viewers are even led to believe that a central character may have perished. Guy mentions the death of his parents, and a bedtime story includes a reference to a character dying as well. There's also plenty of talk about the end (of the world) being nigh, what with all the earthquakes and fires and such, which could scare younger or sensitive viewers. Mountains tumble, the ground splits, and animals big and small descend on others they deem prey. (The animation is so top-rate that you can practically feel the rocks crashing down on the ground.) There's some pretty serious -- and seriously competitive -- hunting and gathering going on (admittedly in a cartoonish way), with Grug urging everyone to huddle for a "family kill circle" before they go nuts trying to catch anything they can eat. Characters push and shove and hit one another to get at the (potential) grub. Characters wield spears and rocks and fiery sticks and fall or hurl themselves off cliffs. It's definitely survival of the fittest, and the bravest, in Croods-land.

Parents need to know that The Croods, while quite funny and gorgeously animated, deals with some pretty heavy themes: the constant risk of death and worries about the end of the world. Prehistoric times are convincingly wild, dangerous, and unstable: Rocks fall, mountains tumble, and the Earth opens up and swallows the ground whole. The frequent peril and talk of the end of the world are likely to make younger kids nervous. And then there are the conversations about parents dying and kids themselves being in danger; at one point, viewers may even think a central character has perished. Other scenes show characters battling other creatures for supremacy and food, so there's plenty of slapsticky whacking and hitting, too. Female characters do end up getting saved by males, and you may find yourself heading to the Internet to research the accuracy of the movie's creatures and events. All of that said, The Croods has a wonderful message of courage and celebration of adventure at its core, and there are strong, loving family relationships. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.

Eep (voiced by Emma Stone), a teenage cave-girl living in prehistoric times, longs for adventure in the big open world right outside where she lives with her entire family -- mom Ugga (Catherine Keener), grandmother Gran (Cloris Leachman), brother Thunk (Clark Duke), baby sister Sandy (Randy Thom), and dad Grug (Nicolas Cage). Grug is a traditionalist, believing that there's no safe place beyond the cold dark of their hideout cave. He thinks that Eep should rein in her adventurous side because it can only lead to danger, that you should "never not be afraid." He means well, but Eep feels very constrained. She longs to explore what lies beyond their hole-in-the-mountain wall, and not only when it's time to hunt for food. One day, she sneaks out, lured by a sliver of light, and meets a young man named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who knows how to start a fire. He's a confident explorer with an adorable creature named Belt (Chris Sanders) as his only companion. Guy knows there are big changes ahead: The ground is literally shifting under their feet. Guy thinks Eep and her family have to run to safety with him, but to where? A whole new world that even the anxious Grug concedes may be the only key to survival. But that means going out into the open for the Croods, and they aren't used to being so vulnerable.

What makes THE CROODS great is how it doesn't just rest on its CGI glories (though they're pretty amazing -- see below!). Though the visuals are exciting, there's a steady heartbeat that booms at the movie's center. Stone Age they may be, but Grug -- and, to a certain extent, Ugga -- struggle with a parenting dilemma that iPhone-lugging moms and dads experience, too: having to let go of children on the cusp of adulthood and, even more important, learning from them, too, as they experience a bigger, more complicated world. The Croods explores this dynamic with compassion and surprising depth. There aren't as many knowing winks at the audience as most other movies in this genre, but you won't miss them much. Would it be icing on the cake if a film with an assertive, intelligent teenage girl as its main character didn't end up having her -- and the other females, for that matter -- rely on the men to save them? Yes. Does it take away from the film's girl-power message? A little. Is this an awesome film anyway? Definitely.

And now back to those visuals: The Croods brings us into a world we've only imagined, animating it with what begins as a textured, painterly rendering and changes into a colorful, remarkable prehistoric world filled with every color on the wheel. The landscape is a buffet of eye candy. The characters' voices are expressive, their faces and gestures equally so. When Eep is lured out into the sun by a tantalizing ray of light, her joy in exploring is palpable. When we see what she sees, we understand why she disobeys. Directors Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders don't hurry the story along -- a welcome relief -- because there's so much to see and experience with Guy and the Croods. Some scenes are actually a bit overstuffed, teetering on the edge of migraine-inducing: Prehistoric animal mash-ups whiz by, squawking and squealing, while Eep and her family grunt, hurl, bounce, jump, shimmy, and serve up quick banter to boot. But thankfully, we also get quieter moments that allow the characters -- and, by extension, the audience -- to think and appreciate the previous thrills.

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