"The Croods" Review

There's something about cavemen, man. Our early ancestors have been interpreted and re-interpreted time and time again, varying from outlandish parodies of modern life (see The Flintstones or B.C.) to fairly realistic takes on the prehistoric world (see Quest for Fire or Clan of the Cave Bear). It seems like the world has a natural fascination with humans' granddaddies, and the latest caveman work to hit the screen is Dreamworks Animation's The Croods.

The Croods are a family of Neanderthals - father Grug, mother Ugga, daughters Sandy and Eep, son Thunk, and grandma Gran - living in an extremely loose interpretation of prehistoric Earth. The Croods spend their days holed up in their cave, only venturing outside to grab food, such as the eggs of the dangerous beasts that live outside. They are uncomfortable but happy, save for Eep, who's innately curious about the outside world. One night, she sneaks away from the cave and meets up with Guy, a Homo Sapiens with an uncanny knack for invention, whom she instantly takes a very adorable liking to. According to Guy, the End of the World is imminent, as proven by the coming of earthquakes- one of which almost immediately destroys the Croods' cave. With nowhere else to turn, the family looks to Guy to lead them to the paradise of "Tomorrow"... much to Grug's resentment.

The Croods is co-directed by Chris Sanders, he of the venerable Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon. His latest film features the same imaginative creature design and gorgeous visuals of his prior work, with many truly amazing sights to see. Have you ever seen a pair of lemurs that have the same tail? A giant green tiger with a bulbous head? Whales that scoot about on land? Human-sized flowers that move about on their own? Well, you have now. The love that went into the production is clear from the opening sequence, which introduces the family using a series of animated cave paintings, which look great and have an adorable style to them.  The next scene, showing the family working together to get "breakfast" (it's nightfall by the time they finally succeed), is just as well-done, wisely giving equal focus to the frenetic and breathtaking visuals and the introduction of the family.

Ah, but with a film as lovely looking as this, there is always a very easy trap for the filmmaker to fall into: spending so much time on the visuals, that they forget to keep the story up to scratch. Sanders and co. seem to recognize this, and take some crucial first steps: with that aforementioned first scene, they set up an important dynamic between the characters, giving each their own roles and establishing their personalities, and are aided by a stellar voice cast- like Emma Stone as Eep and Nicolas Cage as Grug. Though the characters are clearly meant to ape some standard "family sitcom" archetypes (dumb dad, level-headed mom, rebellious teen daughter, snarky grandma (who the dad hates), etc. etc.), they're good archetypes that still have plenty of mileage left in them. Eep goes well beyond her Cloris Leachman is always a good choice for a grandma, and Ryan Reynolds plays as good a love interest as always. At The Croods' onset, it feels like we're going to get a family adventure film for the ages...

...but it never really delivers.

For a film with only 7 characters, it still feels like there are too many. Perhaps a longer work could have juggled them all, but the movie can't balance so many in its 90 minute time frame. There is a quick little moment near the film's end between Grug and Ugga, that serves to highlight this: as Grug is apparently about to leave the group, they grasp each other's hands, and intimately touch foreheads. See, this would be very lovely and poignant... if the two characters' relationship was even the least bit explored. As far as I can remember, Grug and Ugga have two conversations, each about 30 seconds long, and otherwise sparsely interact. Ugga has no scenes to herself, either, and I couldn't tell you a single thing about her personality... hell, until I looked the film up, I didn't even remember her name! Thunk, at least, has a few moments to himself: a scene has him find an animal that he decides to keep, which seems to be setting up a "learning responsibility" subplot for him, but this point is suddenly dropped (literally) and never picked back up. Gran makes a few snarky comments and there is a scene or two where she discusses her life, like a typical grandma character, but she doesn't do or say anything of note. Sandy, the baby, seems to undergo some form of maturation - from a feral, animalistic, violent little toddler into a happy and giggling child - with nobody making any comment on it whatsoever. It seems pretty clear that these characters once had more to do, but their scenes were cut out or reworked. It'd have been wise to completely remove one or more of these characters, so the rest of the cast could get better focus.

Eep and Guy's relationship, as well as Grug's resentment of Guy's leadership role, are the two plots that are actually focused on, and as a result, they are the ones that work. Eep and Guy actually feel like an original kind of couple- unlike the comical awkwardness and nervousness of so many other teen romances, these two are open and intimate from the onset (as cavemen, with no social standards, probably would). Eep is especially adorable in her open admiration of Guy, and never hesitates to get as close to him as she can. Grug's fear of new things and anger over his growing uselessness is presented as humorous (and it often is), but at the same time, his behavior is always understandable and relatable, and by the end, you'll want to cheer for him.

Well, if there's one thing that The Croods has changed about me, it's that I'm finally able to write words like "Eep", "Grug", and "Ugga" in my reviews, which I've always deeply dreamed of. For those who aren't unprofessional film critics, there's still enough fun to be had with Croods' imagination and creativity, so if you haven't got anything better to do, it may be worth a look.

Stars: ***

All Right

"Rise of the Guardians" Review

Every time you see a poster or watch a trailer for Rise of the Guardians, listen closely. If you listen hard enough, you can hear the regretful moans of countless movie studio executives, tearfully crying out, "Why didn't I think of this?!"

Yes, the central concept of Rise of the Guardians - that of a superhero team consisting of various childhood fables - is so brilliant and full of potential that it's really astounding that no one has tried it before. And with an artist like William Joyce involved (the film is based on his Guardians of Childhood book series), you'd have every reason to expect great things. Well, we've received good things, certainly good things, but a fair share of bad things, too. Rise is good enough for me- but with all the potential it has, it's a bit of a disappointment.

The Guardians of Childhood are a group of world-renowned folk heroes who have been chosen by the Man in the Moon to protect the sanctity and purity of children. The team, for hundreds of years, has consisted of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman - the "Big Four" - but the Man has finally decided on a fifth: Jack Frost. Frost and the Guardians aren't the only mythological creatures out there, but to have the powers of a Guardian requires children to believe in you. If kids don't believe, you have no such power. This is bad news for Jack, who's long been forgotten by the world. And the world is about to get much worse- a sinister, feared presence, also long forgotten, has appeared to make his mark, and he aims to destroy the Guardians and all that they have worked for.

Rise of the Guardians is a winner based on the art alone. So much imagination went into every single scrap of the Guardians, and it's a sight to behold. Santa's Workshop is filled with toys, elves, and Yetis bustling around and mingling in fun and amusing ways; the Tooth Fairy's castle is run like a bustling business, with little helper-fairies scrambling all across the world to obtain lost teeth; and the Easter Bunny's warren is covered in beautiful and vibrant colors, where Easter eggs grow from flowers (!) and the rivers run in every hue of the rainbow. The Sandman doesn't have a domain, but he does have sand, and what incredible sand! Anyone who knows much about animation understands how incredibly difficult it is to even draw sand on a computer, but Dreamworks has created sand that dances, floats, and flies about in all directions, and it's gorgeous. Jack Frost, similarly, is a wanderer, and he controls snow and ice. Both of these are just as hard to animate, but once again, it's achieved with flying colors. Jack performs some impressive feats with the ice, molding it, controlling it, and drawing on it, but it never stops looking real. At the film's very beginning, where Jack breaks through a frozen lake and it crumbles into fragments around him, it looked so real and so beautiful that I teared up. I really did! And that wasn't even the only time the gorgeous animation moved me so.

Now, with a hero team made up of folk icons like these, there's only one possible choice for their arch-nemesis: the Boogeyman! And, yes, our villain in the film is indeed the Boogeyman... or as they inexplicably insist on calling him most of the time, "Pitch Black". Unfortunately, the otherwise limitless imagination of the film's art design staggers to a complete standstill when it comes to him. While the Guardians have beautifully designed homes and abilities, Pitch is depressingly simple, just a tall man with grey skin and a black coat. His lair is similarly bland- it's just a dark basement with a bunch of cages. The really sad thing is, the Boogeyman is quite possibly the only character of the group that allows complete artistic freedom. While the Guardians each have common depictions or simple requirements that limit the ways they can be designed (Tooth Fairy has to be winged and colorful, Santa has to be a fat old man in red, Easter Bunny has to be a rabbit, etc.), there is absolutely no limitations on what the Boogeyman could look like. I mean, go ahead- name me a physical trait of the Boogeyman! You can't! There was so much they could go with here, especially since Pitch is supposed to be the very embodiment of a child's fears. Is a middle-aged Edward Cullen lookalike really the best they could come up with?

Oh, and his minions are just a limitless horde of black horses made of dream dust. "Night Mares", see? Har dee har har.

Easily the weakest part of Rise is its screenplay. Taken on its own merits, it's junk! Most attempts at comedic dialogue fall flat, there's an abundance of cliché lines, and the story structure is sophomoric. I was able to accurately quote entire lines of dialogue, despite having never seen the film before (the villain's annoyingly standard "join me, hero!" scene happens, in the most predictable way possible. And guess how the hero responds!). The plot feels unfocused, and sometimes seems to be structured more like a miniseries than a movie. One 10-minute plot thread has the Guardians helping the Tooth Fairy to help her with her job, and it all goes swimmingly. The next 10 minutes have them trying to save Easter. The next 10, Jack's trying to discover his past. There is no real overarching journey of any kind- or at least, not a physical journey. The intended storyline is basically your standard "Hero's Journey" for Jack, where we're supposed to see him move past his own doubts in himself and become a real hero. The only problem is, this is rather botched. It's not made clear that Jack is insecure about himself, only that he isn't interested in joining a group. This fits his established status as a drifter, and the concept that he's looking for answers in life is only directly informed to us by other characters as they speak to him. The film's climax is disappointing, as despite the global consequences at stake, the final battle is confined to a single small area, and it's over in quite a short period of time.

Rise's is saved, partially by the animation, and partially by the spirit and drive of the cast. Some surprising choices are made, but they all work amazingly. Alec Baldwin is Santa, who has a Russian accent, and yet after the initial surprise wears off, this fits him perfectly. Hugh Jackman is the Easter Bunny, and while his accent is unexpectedly based on a stereotypical Australian (Jack even calls him the "Easter Kangaroo"), it actually fits with his rugged-adventurer personality. Isla Fisher's cute and friendly voice sounds perfect for a fairy, and Chris Pine gives Jack a young, roguish tone that's befitting of Captain Kirk himself. Even Pitch, a bland character as far as design goes, is made at least somewhat interesting by Jude Law's dark, imposing interpretation.

Rise of the Guardians, if nothing else, may go down in my mental history books as the only mediocre movie I've ever actually cried at. If you're like me, and are a fan of animation or appreciate art and character design a great deal, then this is one movie you definitely should see. If you prefer plot, then there's not much to recommend.

Stars: ***
All Right