If you enjoyed your visit with the prehistoric Crood family in 2013, you’ll get a kick out of revisiting them again in “The Croods: A New Age.”
The DreamWorks animated concept – sort of a rework of the “Flintstones” from the 1960s, gave us a family of what I guess are neanderthal people, complete with dad, mom and kids, voiced by the likes of Nicolas Cage as dad Grug, Cloris Leachman as grandmother Gran, Emma Stone as teenager Eep and Catherine Keener as mom Ugga.
The Croods run into a family of what I guess you could call Cro-Magnons – more highly evolved people with better table manners and fashion sense.
Their names are the Bettermans, with dad Phil (Peter Dinklage,) mom (Leslie Mann) and daughter Hope (Kelly Marie Tran.) They live in a lovely tree house behind a wall that keeps their teenage daughter safe from the outside world … or does it keep her imprisoned?
The Bettermans even have bedrooms, much to the consternation of Grug, who can’t sleep because he misses the “sleep pile” of his family. The Croods offend the Bettermans at every turn.
The Croods have brought with them a teenager named Guy (Ryan Reynolds,) the abandoned human from the first movie. Guy is glad to see the Bettermans, who knew his parents.
They’re glad to see Guy because they think he’d make a perfet match for Hope. Eep is wild with jealousy when she realizes how similar Guy and Hope are.
The comedy – comparable to the Flintstones – includes the beginnings of television binge-watching and of course the teen love triangle.
I loved the color and the action. There’s nothing like a ride on a sabre-tooth tiger for exhilaration. And the look of the Bettermans’ Garden-of-Eden-like environment is a wonder to behold.
It’s a good-natured look at what makes us human – a good time for human families to spend some time together.
3 out of 4 stars
At Cinemark, Davenport, and the Blue Grass Drive-In.
Running time: One hour and 35 minutes.
Rated: PG for coarse humor and dangerous situations.