The Croods (2013)
Directors: Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders
Writers: Chris Sanders (Screen Play), Kirk De Micco (Screen Play), John Cleese (Story), Kirk De Micco (Story), and Chris Sanders (Story)
Voices include: Nicholas Cage (Grug), Emma Stone (Eep), Ryan Reynolds (Guy), Catherine Keener (Ugga), Cloris Leachman (Gran), Clark Duke (Thunk), Chris Sanders (Belt) and Randy Thom (Sandy)
Story: The Croods (2013) is a story involving a family of cave people attempting to survive during volatile times. The teenage girl (Eep) meets a wanderer (Guy). From then on the course of their lives change. They must use their brains and their brawn in order to survive in a world that is changing in disastrous ways.
Plot: The animation opens with a cave family getting ready to hunt breakfast. The daughter, Eep (voiced by Emma Stone), is narrating the story in the beginning. She is an adventurous spirit seemingly seeking something outside the every day occurrences of her family life. At night she sneaks out of the cave to look off into the distance and wonder about all the possibilities that she may be missing out on. At some point she sees a moving light and proceeds to pursue it. She meets Guy (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), a presumed Neanderthal, thus setting the plot of the movie rolling. Eep's father, Grug, finds her and they proceed back to the cave. As they are headed back to their cave an earthquake occurs destroying their cave in the process.
They find themselves thrust into a situation where they must experience the 'new', which is bad in their eyes. As they make their way through what looks like a rain forest, Eep ends up using a conch that Guy gave her in case of emergency. They are about to be attacked by flesh-eating birds. Guy comes to the rescue to the chagrin of Grug.
They all continue on their way facing multiple challenges along the way that Guy seems to breeze through. Grug is extremely resentful of Guy's perceived 'smarts' as well as Eep's crush on Guy. At one point, Grug tries to come up with ideas of his own in an attempt to make his family look to him for guidance instead of Guy.
In the final minutes of the movie, Grug and his family seem to have to go their separate ways and he throws them to safety as the earthquakes and such move closer. Grug, then, has an idea which reunites him with his family. They continue to face their fears each day.
This film was told in chronological order. This made the moral of the story easier to follow as you watched the characters make their way through new situations and new/changing relationships. This helped the watchers come to realize that though change is most definitely not easy, it must be done in order to be successful.
If this film had not been told in chronological order, I do not think that the viewers would have learned as much about each of the characters as they did. They would not have been able to be proud of Grug's growth as a man, husband and a father.
References
Belson, K, Bloodworth, B, Hartwell, J.(Producer), De Micco, K, Sanders, C. (Directors). (2013). The Croods. [Motion picture]. United States: Dreamworks Animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmQjK2hSyUc
