Today’s Prayer Focus

Oscar® Nominee for Best Animated Feature Film

MOVIE REVIEW

The Croods

MPA Rating: PG-Rating (MPA)

for some scary action.

Reviewed by: Kirsten Palmer
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating:	Average
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:	Kids Family
Genre:	Animation Kids Family Adventure Comedy IMAX 3D
Length:	1 hr. 38 min.
Year of Release:	2013
USA Release:	March 22, 2013 (wide—3,900+ theaters) DVD: October 1, 2013

Copyright, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, DreamWorks Animation

Relevant Issues

don’t be ruled by fear

Parents need have a wise balance in their protectiveness.

importance of a strong, loving family

CAVEMEN—How do cavemen fit with the Bible? Answer

caves in the Bible

Has there ever been a time on Earth that was truly pre-historic?

SLOTH—What can a sloth teach me about life? Answer

fire in the Bible

Origin of man

MISSING LINKS—Who’s who and what’s what in the world of “missing” links? Answer

MISSING LINKS—Is there fossil evidence of “missing links” between humans and apes? Answer

ADAM—What was the first man, really like? Discover the fascinating facts about this unique man from whom we are all descended! Answer
This answer is in our children’s section, but it’s written on a level that adults will enjoy.

DESCENDANTS OF NOAH’S FAMILY—How could all the ethnic people groups come from Noah, his three sons and their wives? Answer

Top choice for accurate, in-depth information on Creation/Evolution. The SuperLibrary is provided by a top team of experts from various respected creationist organizations who answer your questions on a wide variety of topics. Multilingual.

Adventures in the rainforest! Learn about the Creator of the universe by exploring His marvelous creation. Fun for the whole family with games, activities, stories, answers to children’s questions, color pages, and more! One of the Web’s first and most popular Christian Web sites for children. Nonprofit, evangelical, nondenominational.

Featuring	Nicolas Cage … Grug (voice) Emma Stone … Eep (voice) Ryan Reynolds … Guy (voice) Catherine Keener … Ugga (voice) Cloris Leachman … Gran (voice) Clark Duke … Thunk (voice) Chris Sanders … Belt (voice) Randy Thom … Sandy (voice)
Director	Kirk DeMicco — “Space Chimps,” “Quest for Camelot,” “Racing Stripes” Chris Sanders—“Lilo and Stitch,” “The Lion King,” “How to Train Your Dragon”
Producer	DreamWorks Animation Kristine Belson … producer Jane Hartwell … producer
Distributor	20th Century Studios, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios, a division of The Walt Disney Company

The family that prays together stays together. However, in “The Croods,” the family that hides from darkness and avoids anything new or different survives together—at least, according to the father Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage). In this prehistoric setting, Grug aims to keep his family safe, because that is his job. To do so, he keeps his family in line with rules that should never be broken. Grug considers fear a very good thing, because it helps his family survive. His daughter Eep (voiced by Emma Stone) is tired with the same old routine, day in and day out, and she especially hates the cave. As her curiosity grows, her father attempts to keep her safe by telling the family stories that warn of the dangers of curiosity, warning them that curiosity leads to death.

FEAR, Anxiety and Worry—What does the Bible say? Answer

Despite these warnings, curiosity wins Eep over one night as she follows a light that turns out to be fire. She meets Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a more modernized human, in his advanced ways of thinking. Guy warns Eep that the end (insert cute sound effect, “dun dun dun”) of the world is coming, he’s seen it and tells her of the signs (earthquakes, lava). She declines his offer to take her with him; she has to stay with her family. So he gives her a gift, a conch shell to play, if she survives “the end.”

Before she can return to her family, Grug awakens to find Eep is gone. Believing her to have been snatched by one of the dangerous creatures forever chasing the Crood family, he goes looking for her. Discovering she left of her own choice and met some guy, he tells her she’s grounded. As they return to the cave, “the end” begins, and the Crood family is forced to abandon their now destroyed cave.

Grug leads the family on a search for a new cave, but, in a moment of danger, Eep finds a horn and is able to play it and get Guy’s attention. Guy returns for Eep and meets her family, the father who wants Guy gone, her mother Ugga (Catherine Keener), her brother Thunk (Clark Duke), Gran (Cloris Leachman), and the baby. Afraid of Guy’s advanced ways of thinking, yet impressed by his ability to make fire, the Croods force Guy to help them journey to a group of mountains where Grug hopes to find a new cave.

Slowly, Guy wins over the whole family with his ideas, such as shoes, setting traps for food, and animals as friends/pets. Grug is set in his ways and unwilling to change and starts to become jealous of his family’s affection for Guy. This is where I will stop summarizing, because I don’t want to give away too much more.

Overall, I was fairly impressed with this movie. There was no bad language and no inappropriate innuendos, that I noticed. They are cave people, so they’re wearing animal skin clothing to cover what needs to be covered. The exception would be Guy, who wears no shirt, just pants for the most part.

CAVEMEN—How do cavemen fit with the Bible? Answer

ADAM—What was the first man really like? Answer
(Discover the fascinating facts about this unique man from whom we are all descended!)

The only thing I would like to warn potential viewers about is, if you have little ones who are sensitive to violence in movies, there are scenes of scary looking animals chasing the Croods. Grug gets beaten up by some monkeys; Guy takes a beating a few different times. Some cute looking birds who descend on what appears to be a land whale (a whale walking, with legs and all), and when the birds take off there’s nothing left but the bones. My oldest son probably would have been terrified by this movie when he was three.

I really enjoyed this movie. It made me laugh, it made me cry… One thing I truly like about this movie is appearance isn’t always everything. As I just mentioned, there are some adorable looking creatures who turn out to be vicious, but there are also some threatening looking animals who end up becoming cuddly pets. Grug is a flawed, but, loving, father who wants what’s best for his family. He believes that keeping his family alive is what’s necessary, that fear is a good and necessary thing for survival. He tells his family stories that always end in death, hoping that fear will keep his family safe. But remember, 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us…

“for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (ESV).

Then they meet Guy, who tells stories of hope. As the family turns from Grug to Guy for leadership, Eep tells her father that “not dying” is not the same thing as “living.” They leave a life of surviving for a life with purpose, “following the light.” While there is no mention of a creator or higher power in this movie, the message of the movie is that there is hope, there is purpose in life when we follow the light.

The biggest fear held by the Croods and some of the animals in the movie is a fear of darkness, but John 8:12 reminds us…

“Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’.”

For those looking for a family-friendly movie to take the kids to this weekend, “The Croods” is pretty good and family safe… but if your little ones are sensitive to movies with a little violence in them, this may not be for them.

Violence: Moderate / Profanity: None / Sex/Nudity: Minor

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

Positive
Negative
Young people
Non-viewer comments

Positive

Positive—I took my 9 year old daughter to see this movie, we enjoyed it. Great family movie.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Good / Moviemaking quality: 5

Sharon, age 37 (USA)

Positive—Caught this movie last weekend. Really don’t know what the critics are thinking, as most of the reviews are negative. The movie is high caliber, funny, and creative. Been awhile since I have seen something this family-friendly, relatively speaking. All three of my kids (boys) enjoyed it and said they would go again (14, 12, 10).

I don’t remember anything questionable in the movie. Most of the humor is slapstick. No potty humor or language. I recommend seeing it. Only issue at all is it would have been nice if the teenage girl would have been dressed a bit more modest. Just watch a trailer to get an idea. For those of you worried about an Evolution agenda, there isn’t one that I saw. I never heard a mention of it, or any reference to any timeline. It is just presented as some isolated people living awhile ago.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Excellent! / Moviemaking quality: 4

Tom, age 44 (USA)

Positive—I’m a bit surprised at all the negative comments. I found this movie to be charming, entertaining, and with a very pro-family, pro-fatherhood slant. Fun for the whole family, and I can’t remember anything significantly offensive in the whole thing. The teenage girl’s outfit? Appropriate for the setting and more modest than anything you’ll see on the beach today.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4

Jeremy Klein, age 57 (USA)

Positive—This is a movie that the U.S. Congress should watch. It illustrates in heart-warming fashion that opposing parties, no matter how deeply divided, can eventually work out their differences, if good will is present. And it must be present—it says so on the money: “In God We Trust”.

As a counterbalance to the complaints about the short dress on the character voiced by Emma Stone: Neither my wife nor I found anything prurient about it; in fact, it was appropriate for the level of activity. The undergarment was more encompassing than anything seen on a tennis court or skating rink.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Good / Moviemaking quality: 3½

Brian Schacht, age 66 (Canada)

Positive—I want to comment about the content and how seeing this movie sends mixed messages. You must do what is right for your family, but I was pleased when my 5 year old said to me at one point, when the dad was talking (I forget the exact part, I think it was about his strength), she said “He’s talking about God.” I was touched by that. He was not talking about God, but that is how she saw it, and that was great and her mindset is on God.

To those on the fence about this movie, I was really impressed by its wholesomeness, which is so lacking in all movies.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 5

Andrea, age 40 (USA)

Positive—I am a little shocked by the negative comments below! I found this film to be an excellent choice for children! In my opinion, it had very good morals, and a neat message about following the light. We are having a movie night this summer at my church, and this is one of the options for it! I highly recommend this movie!
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 5

Brittany, age 20 (USA)

Positive—We finally saw this movie. It was better than average. Pretty simple, but entertaining. I will admit the evolutionary stuff was subtle. The main family walks and moves like different animals (the makers say they did this intentionally). The family is portrayed in the light of “unintelligent cavemen”. There is one line in the movie where the idea of having a pet is being explained. The line is something like this, “Pets are animals we keep, and we don’t eat them.” The grandmother says, “Oh, we call those children.” Lastly, the grandmother has a tail. Certainly a bone for Evolutionists. All that said, good popcorn flick.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 5

Michelle, age 38 (USA)

Positive—This movie was adorable and had some great messages to it. Of course, I didn’t like the lie that they make it look like we came from apes, with making these people cavemen and sometimes running like they were an ape and calling the baby animal and she acted more like an animal then a human. I just looked at them like characters, no different then the monsters in “Monsters Inc.”

I look for the message I can get out of it. It was odd how they had a regular human show up that was not a “cave man” yet they were living in the same time period. That didn’t make any sense. Sure if someone is not grounded in their faith in understanding we are made in the image of God, not from some ape, then maybe this would not be good for them. And might be hard for a child to understand that. The movie had great messages, it was HILARIOUS and the imagination of the creatures and animals was really neat to look at.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 5

Samantha Taylor, age 38 (USA)

Positive—Unfortunately, I did not have the pleasure of viewing this adorable movie in its entirety. Missing the first 10-15 minutes… prompted an immediate response following the credits of wanting to view it again. I was extremely pleased, my husband, two children, and I all left the movie theater quite happy and moved. The dynamics, I thought were intriguing and Biblically inspired in just the right proportion.

As for the non-christian practicing household; I pray this will serve as a neutral platform, a possible introduction, to encourage a bit of wonder of a new world on behalf their children, for the sake of a spiritual gateway towards a relationship with Jesus Christ. Perhaps, I was a bit on the fence about “Eve’s costume choice and or her body stature. But if you think about it, we don’t have a choice as to how God makes us. Therefore, we need to love ourselves. That’s what I absolutely love about this movie, their is so much to take away from it, so many lessons to be learned. See all »

Kendra B. Kitts, age 37 (USA)

Neutral

Neutral—I was looking for someone else to see what I saw, but apparently no one does. This is an adorable movie, however my problem is this: “The Croods” tells an impressionable child that adults are less sensible than boyfriend/peers, so they should be ignored—fear and caution are savage practices observed by scared old people and that modernism and dreams always wins over those older practices. Brains always beats brawn. If one movie aimed at kids came out like this fine. But a lot of them share the same school of thought.

Again, a hilarious movie, but not one I’d recommend for a child who already has issues respecting their elders or making rational, thought out decisions. By no means all the time, but sometimes fear is a good indicator bad things might follow and the old guy/old way is right. Sometimes there’s no thinking your way out of a problem, you just gotta punch through it, other times running back to the cave is the safest choice. That’s life. It’s too dynamic to be so one-sided.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 5

Terry, age 21 (USA)

Negative

Negative—We saw this movie as a family with our 9 and 12 year old sons. Our main observation was that the movie was so stupid, it was funny. The entertaining parts were really a result of involuntary silly laughter. Overall, the plot never developed very well.

I did have an issue with the underlying agenda of promoting evolution. One reviewer said no timelines were mentioned, which is true. However, what do you call comparing one group of humans to another, as if one group has become more advanced than the other group. The cave man family is portrayed as a group of virtual idiots compared to the “advanced” human they meet. Another evolution plug was creatures that were clearly land animal versions of whales waddling around.

Also, the teen daughter was highly disrespectful and disobedient. They could have had this storyline work just fine without the disrespect by being driven from their cave home by another method than disobedience. As mentioned by a couple other reviewers, her clothes were also ridiculous and too revealing, even for a cartoon. It made me wonder what the coverings provided by God for Adam and Eve looked like.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 3

Sam, age 43 (USA)

Negative—Sorry as a Christian parent, I took my three pre-teen girls to see this movie and I was extremely disappointed. While the movie was very funny, the movie’s message of evolution was constantly being thrown in your face, so much that I couldn’t believe it. The character development was not age appropriate, portraying way too much sexualization of the Eep and Guy characters. What are we trying to teach our young children? For parents who think that the message is innocent, as a student counselor I will tell you it is not.

If you are teaching your children to follow the Lord and seeing movies like this as being okay, you are sending mixed moral messages to your children. From personal experience, I did not become a Christian until much later in life, not because I wasn’t raised in a Christian home but because I was raised in a Christian home that was sending mixed messages about evolution, pre-marital sex, and the existence of God. For a movie targeting such a young audience, the writers message was very thought out and they know exactly what they are doing. Do not be deceived. See all »
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4

Michelle, age 32 (USA)

Negative—We were able to go to a pre-screening for this movie. I will say ahead of time that I am glad I didn’t pay for our 3D tickets. Other then it really doesn’t need to be made in 3D and you are wasting your money by going to a 3D showing, there was something else that just about made me walk out before 5 minutes of the actual movie even went by. The main character in the story is named Eep. Her cave man outfit or whatever it was was ENTIRELY too short! I mean it made me embarrassed to be there with my 8 year old son. I am not a prude by any stretch of the imaginatio,n per say, but this was VERY uncalled for. It added absolutely nothing to the story line and was very distracting for me.

My 8 year old son is VERY impressionable about these types of things as most 8 year old boys. The character’s dress was so short I would have said several times that you could see her underwear (if she was a real live person). In one scene she is climbing a rock face wall or a tree (I cannot remember which one) and the other main character “Guy” was climbing up behind her, and I am thinking that “He can see up her dress.” Because it was so short. It is very unfortunate the movie makers thought they needed to add this to the movie, because other then that it was a great movie and had a great message about family, sticking together and growing up.See all »
My Ratings: Moral rating: Excellent! / Moviemaking quality: 2

Rebecca, age 40 (USA)

Negative—The moviemaking quality was very good. Some of the humor was quite hilarious. As a Christian father of 3 girls, though, I was uncomfortable with teaching them about creation and, yet, taking them to a movie that seemed predominately evolution driven. Furthermore, I am getting very tired of movie after movie after movie having the girl in the movie be the strong, fearless, predominate one that beats up the guy… a far cry from “the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit,” I Peter 3:4. I didn’t say it; it is a straight quote from the Bible.

Everything educates our children. Lastly, although it was stated that it has a good father figure story line, once again, its another movie where the father figure doesn’t know best and the only way that he is respected is if he changes. I felt like the entire movie placed the Biblical structure of the family on its head. As appears typical of today, the movie portrayed the younger generation being smarter and knowing better than the adults. See all »
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4½

David, age 42 (USA)

Negative—I have noticed how, over the last 10 years or more, that we except a truth with a lie… just what Satan would have us believe, right? Yes, we can bring Scripture to this film, to make us feel better at having seen it, or better yet, our children. But their’s an elephant sitting in the screen… Evolution at it’s finest, and for the masses.

As a Christian, I’m talking about being a” bearer of Christ Jesus Name'… I have a difficult time watching all these so-called Christian views, claiming the “innocence” of this film. Do you seriously think the only things we should consider when making a decision to watch a film with our children, is foul language, violence, and sex?! There’s sooo much more to be keeping watch over… Satan knows exactly what he’s doing. See all »
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality:

Tammy, age 47 (USA)

Comments from young people

Negative—I was hoping to see one of Dreamworks latest with the expectation it would have the same awe and wonder as Rise of the Guardians or How to Train Your Dragon. I was disappointed. This movie was stupid. The plot was dumb, there was little character development, and the attempted humor fell flat. It was mostly slapstick, and no word play. What was I thinking! I was hoping to see a good movie and all I got was a movie that was primitive in every way but animation. It was a about cavemen, so what did I expect (silly me). I guess kids in ages 4-8 might like it.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 3½

Barbossa, age 11 (USA)

Positive—I saw this movie with my little sister and older brother, and I did not really care for it until I got it for Easter and watched it again, and I really liked it. It is funny has some action and is not lame to a person my age. I think it is fine for 5 and up.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 5

Matthew, age 13 (USA)

Comments from non-viewers

Negative—I haven’t seen the movie yet, but most likely will. I’m posting a negative comment because I did watch a behind the scenes available on Netflix for this movie. My problem is the fact that this movie is promoting evolution in a huge way. I’m surprised it’s not even mentioned in the main review. Origins and Biblical authority is one of the key reasons young people are leaving the church. If you can’t believe Genesis, why trust the rest? Parents be warned there is a message here and it will influence the hearts and minds of your children. The movie could be used for some good conversations.
My Ratings: Moral rating: / Moviemaking quality:

Michelle, age 38 (USA)

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.