The Croods (2013)

 To continue the animation theme, the latest outing from the Dreamworks team is 'The Croods', an animation telling the tale of a family of cavemen who must try and find a new home after their cave was destroyed with a little help from a quirky stranger. With a voice cast made up of Nicolas Cage (Grug, the father), Catherine Keener (Ugga, the mother), Emma Stone (Eep, the daughter) and Ryan Reynolds (Guy, the helper) this film already has plenty of reasons why it should be good. But is it?

 In terms of originality (which I think is kind of important when it comes to animation) I guess some aspects of this movie really shine. For starters, the cavemen aspects hasn't really been done much, even in live action films, which allows for some new angles on situations and different jokes and scenarios. This is particularly evident in the comparison between the caveman family and Guy who is more evolved and more creative in his ways of thinking. The balance between the two occasionally creates some funny and also touching scenes. However, in most other aspects, the film is fairly predictable. The girl gets the guy, the stubborn Dad sees the error of his ways and a dysfunctional family becomes functional once again. At the end of the day though, seen as it is a kid's movie, there was no other way they could've taken it really.

 The animation is no better or worse than anything seen in the last few years, but a few scenes do stand out, mainly due to the fact that they are wide shots of landscapes. The animators quite clearly haven't attempted to stick to any sort of historical fact for this movie and this has allowed for a great deal of imagination which comes across strongly in the creation of the people, places and animals in this alternate world. These extra touches and the room given to the creators for invention leads to some funny and at times astoundingly visual scenes, adding to the overall feel of the movie.

 To compare it to other CGI films released over the past few years it is nothing special. A few slight moments may make it stand out when compared to the others, but it can't really emerge as one of the top animation films seen recently. That being said, it is still a good film with periods of humour as well as more serious scenes making it a film to watch if you have nothing else to really do.