Review: "The Croods" is tired story but pretty

"The Croods" PG
     The prehistoric modern family that is not the Flintstones is here, Dreamworks' cartoon spoof of all those old Ug/Finstones/Thundarr cartoons, or a possible rip off, the Croods. They have the typical brutish Neanderthal father figure, a sort of Fred Flintstone/Peter Griffin clone in animal skin cloth.The mother is identical to Lois from Family Guy or possibly any sassy mom type. The mother in law is basically any sassy old lady. The son is basically Bart and Bud Bundy and Fry from Futurama, or any teen male dweeb type. The daughter is like any sassy Disney princess of trhe past decade, and Guy is the smart know it all prince.
      The family are cavemen living out a life of foraging for bird eggs and other stuff to eat, and then going back to their cave, but when one fateful hour the cave is destroyed in an earthquake, they must move to another place. Thankfully, the headstrong daughter has found Guy, modern man, who has fire and becomes a kind of male rival to the father. He is not at all like Bam Bam from the Flintstones. He is also similar to Bud Bundy, a smart know it all, or like Bart also in a way, and like the kid from Up, even though he was less resourceful.
     The family and their new companion begin a trek through the strangest prehistoric Earth land forms ever, (for 3D) which includes flying piranha, a land whale that walks on legs, a saber toothed cat with green matted fur, and an eerie resemblance to Stimpy from Ren and Stimpy were he prehistoric, and various birds and mammoths. The big toothy characters are similar to those in Shark's Tale. That's not good. This is all forgiven since it's a fantasy and there is no way they intended to make it accurate, any more than those Ice Age movies. Some kind of doomsday messes up land forms rapidly so they have to keep moving, even though this would destroy everything and they'd have no food. The part where they chuck each other through the air and they land intact was ridiculous. Suggesting as the Guy character does, flying off a cliff is a good thing, it makes one wonder if he was trying to get rid of them, but then they fly off cliffs and nothing happens.
     This movie was like many movies in concept, but it had some pretty visuals. It could be an odd rental.
Review by Adam Browne