Modern Family (Dark Ages)

With its graphics in place and a plot that is from the scriptwriters' textbooks, The Croods is an above average film that will entertain you. This Chris Sanders and Kirk De Micco film highlights the element of surprise in discovery and lets you enjoy the doubts and predicaments of its characters, who are compelled to experiment with something new.

Described as the world's first family road trip, the film tells a tale of The Croods, a family from the stone ages that has internalised the art of survival. With a safe-haven cave and a family motto of 'never not be afraid', Grug, the patriarch in the family, tries his best to protect his family from whatever evil lurks outside - be it the predators or darkness. However, when their cave is destroyed, they have to embark on a journey to find a new, safer home. And while world as they know it crumbles behind them, the Croods encounter an imaginative nomad in Guy. With his innovative thinking and advanced ideas, he guides the family to a better home, but not before their survival skills are duly tested.

What makes this film so special is its retrospective treatment, wherein you are looking at the characters from the vantage point of the present. The family dynamics are no different than any urban western family, where the teenage daughter is rebellious; the youngest child is an uncontrollable force of nature and their old grandmother who is always pulling punches at her son-in-law. Some moments in the film where Grug invents the photograph or, Epe's reaction when she wears shoes for the first time or, for that matter, Guy's pet, who he uses as a belt, are the simple parallels drawn between two worlds that are separated by thousands of years.

The story lacks in delivering something new, but the first half has some scenes which one may remember for a long time. For instance, a scene where the Croods have returned to their cave from their daily hunt for food, just before sun down, Epe goes climbing a steep cliff in a feeble attempt to stay under the sun for some more time. Sadly, that longing for light is the only deep emotion in an otherwise thin narrative.

Since it is summer now and your children are getting restless at home with nothing to do, The Croods presents itself as a great opportunity for a family outing to the multiplex. And in that regard, one couldn't ask for more.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on April 20, 2013