The Croods 2: A New Age

Eight years and over half a billion dollars in box office revenue later, DreamWorks presents the second Crood family adventure entitled The Croods 2: A New Age. Picking up shortly after where the first film left off, the Crood family, along with the newly accepted addition of Guy (Ryan Reynolds), continue their journey in search of a new home. Guy still dreams of finding the “Tomorrow” that his parents had told him about, but in the meantime his eyes and heart belong to Eep (Emma Stone); the duo fall in love and dream of their own version of home, much to the displeasure of overprotective patriarch Grug (Nicolas Cage).

When the group stumble upon a utopia created by the Bettermans that is blessed with a seemingly endless supply of food, it seems their worries are at an end, but Hope (Leslie Mann) and Phil B (Peter Dinklage) have other plans, and soon their own battles to keep the outside world out come bursting through the paradise walls.

Firstly, the visual editing for this production is off the scale: a colourful, fun-filled bonanza with a number of extraordinary sequences, it is breathtaking to behold what extreme levels of detail can now be achieved in animated film. It is simply staggering how even the most minute facial expressions can now be changed and created in a way that makes them more lifelike than ever, telling a thousand more stories in the process. Behind the animation, Stone, Reynolds, Mann and Dinklage notably stand out with their excellent voice work throughout the 95-minute duration, bringing their characters to life with illustrious force. Cage reprises the role of Grug, playing a character with more depth and thoughtful dialogue than a majority of his other physical roles in the past five years.

The dialogue is filled with countless quips and jokes, some hitting harder than others, but in general a bounty of modern references for the audience to get their laughing chops around. There certainly are chucklesome moments, albeit none that particularly blow the doors off, and it becomes noticeable that a heavy reliance on these moments of humour is what keeps the plot chugging along, amid a lack of much hard-written story. The character-building witnessed in the first Croods film is no longer present, the sense of exploration and endearment replaced with vibrantly coloured action sequences in the hope of causing a distraction. 

As a whole, there are also fewer themes in general, the narrative instead retelling the story of a father’s insecurities over his child, and learning to accept changes as they grow older. However, as a visual piece The Croods 2: A New Age is a far superior animated movie, and it is without doubt a crowd-pleasing sequel that will once again be a hit at the box office (although it is hard to think of any other children’s cinema with as intense hallucinogenic action sequences as this, so maybe get the kids to lay off the sweet popcorn).

Guy Lambert

The Croods 2 is released nationwide on 16^th July 2021.

Watch the trailer for The Croods 2 here: