The Croods isn't particularly smart, but it has just enough wit to keep us engaged and just enough speed to keep us from feeling restless.

| Mar 24, 2013

It captures the wonder (and more gently, the anxiety) of discovery time and time again. And the filmmakers have a hoot playing with the Croods' encounters with, as well as their misunderstandings of, all things new.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 22, 2013

As family viewing, it's pleasant enough: primitive, yes, but in a digitally sophisticated way that's boisterous, funny and will no doubt sell a lot of toys.

| Mar 22, 2013

The animation is first-rate, with moments of genuine visual imagination, and the story, while unremarkable, is entirely adequate.

| Mar 22, 2013

How to Train Your Dragon" and "Lilo & Stitch" are completely indicative of the experience you'll have with "The Croods," which is to say a supremely positive one.

| Original Score: B | Mar 22, 2013

It may not be an instant animated classic, but it's a charmer that will leave the kids ... feeling warm and fuzzy ...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 22, 2013

The family-dramedy genre that the film inhabits demands a bit more narrative ingenuity than is on display.

| Mar 22, 2013

Bold visually but thumpingly ordinary storytelling.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 22, 2013

DreamWorks has done much better, and Pixar appears to be in a different league altogether.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 22, 2013

Fast-paced, inventive animated comic adventure of a Stone Age family gets an extra boost from the lively vocal performances of stars Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds.

| Mar 22, 2013

While their situation sounds dire, "The Croods" is not. The DreamWorks animated film has enough slapstick humor, furry sidekicks and zippy 3-D action sequences to keep the story light.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 22, 2013

Even the lively visuals and unrelenting thrill-ride pace can't disguise rough-hewn storytelling, or the fact that the tale of a old-fashioned macho cave dad and his family seems a bit yabba-dabba done that already.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 22, 2013

This movie not only has its heart in the right place, it has its brain in the right place.

| Original Score: B | Mar 22, 2013

I'd like to take back all those times I said Nicolas Cage was one of the most annoying actors on film. It turns out he's equally terrible when he's only on the soundtrack.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 22, 2013

"The Croods" is light fare, but it explores a serious theme, if only superficially.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 22, 2013

The latest advances in computer animation have been applied to a truly primitive comedy-Ice Age recast with a family of nattering Neanderthals.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 21, 2013

Co-directed by Chris Sanders, brains behind the excellent How to Train Your Dragon , the latest flick from DreamWorks turns out to be moving, funny and highly original.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 21, 2013

Like the continents, it's a little too easy to drift away.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 21, 2013

[It] might even give the little ones something more challenging to think about than its tired main plot.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 21, 2013

A sort of methadone for die-hard Ice Age fans.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 21, 2013