The Croods
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: March 22, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
14
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMar 20, 2013
A spirited and eye-popping stealth charmer. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubMar 21, 2013
Considering the fact that a young girl is picking her nose on the movie poster, The Croods is surprisingly evolved. Read full review
75
Film.comLaremy LegelMar 21, 2013
This Chris Sanders fellow knows how to craft a heart-warming animation, and if not for a few minor problems this would have had a legitimate shot at the best animated movie of 2013. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesNell MinowMar 20, 2013
Familiar family dynamics are amusingly exaggerated in the Paleolithic setting, where the most basic necessities require everyone's full-time attention. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMar 20, 2013
The first pleasant surprise of spring, a gorgeous kids’ cartoon with heart and wit, if not exactly a firm grasp of paleontology. Read full review
70
NPRBob MondelloMar 21, 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. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSean DalyMar 27, 2013
Although The Croods has lazy patches throughout, the conclusion is exciting and, lo and behold, surprising. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasMar 20, 2013
The film itself doesn’t practice what it preaches: From the typically blocky DreamWorks CGI to the emphasis on bruising slapstick over verbal wit, The Croods takes the low road at every opportunity, giving lip service to enlightenment while following a Flintstonian instinct to keep punching the clock at the quarry. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMar 22, 2013
Just good, goofy fun, for a generation too young to have met Bamm-Bamm. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigMar 22, 2013
More than anything, the striking spectacle of primordial flora and one-of-a-kind fauna makes it easy for audiences to get pleasantly lost in the adventure. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMar 21, 2013
While paying lip service to the spirit of invention and adventure, the movie doesn’t do much for the evolution of children’s animated entertainment. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniMar 21, 2013
The movie is well-edited and lean, a fast-paced, action-filled bit of froth that manages to be diverting and surprisingly fun. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoMar 21, 2013
Some of the exotic landscape the group trailblazes looks imported from “Avatar” — happily, bringing that immersively dimensionalized, eye-catching quality along with it. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 21, 2013
At least there's Cage, who has become an astute voice actor, finding some odd, clever, energetic line readings consistently fresher than The Croods itself. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 25, 2013
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. Read full review
60
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerMar 21, 2013
The movie is at its most interesting and amusing when riffing on how cavemen might have reacted to new experiences and ideas, like fire and shoes. Whether the kiddies will appreciate that is unclear, but they’ll certainly like the voice work done by Emma Stone as Eep. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsMiriam BaleMar 21, 2013
The Croods are not meant to be beauties — they are, after all, a family of Neanderthals. But is the animation meant to be ugly, too? Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 20, 2013
The jokes only make up for the pedestrian plot for so long. There was a time when animated fare with generic stories sufficed. But now we expect more from them, because they have, pardon the pun, evolved. The Croods, like its title family, hasn’t. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyKeith StaskiewiczMar 20, 2013
A handful of adrenalizing sequences of animated anarchy can't save this story from feeling overly primitive. Read full review
58
The PlaylistJessica KiangMar 15, 2013
Though it's impressive in many technical and surface ways, The Croods lets us down on the essentials of character and story, and no amount of late-stage father/daughter bonding or vertiginous 3D cliffside tumbling can make up for that. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissMar 25, 2013
It’s "Identity Thief" with flying piranhas, or Plains, Trains & Automobiles on foot. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMar 21, 2013
Good stuff comes when bad stuff happens; that's when some of the movie animation prowess kicks into high gear. But too many of the "solutions" the guys concoct are so impossibly complex or just downright ridiculous — puppetry comes to mind — that like the continents, it's a little too easy to drift away. Read full review
50
VarietyStaff (Not credited)Mar 20, 2013
Although state-of-the-art in its rendering of textures, movement and stereography, The Croods, adopts a relatively primitive approach to storytelling with its Flintstonian construction of stock, ill-fitting narrative elements. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyFeb 19, 2013
Sanders and DeMicco’s script doesn’t have the robust plotting, consistent wit or flavorful character development of the best family animation. And some of the voice actors have too little to work with. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichMar 26, 2013
Aside from a few witty Looney Tunes–esque sight gags, such as one hilarious image of a woolly mammoth being swallowed up by the tectonically shifting earth, the stereoscopic visuals are a busy, personality-free digital blur. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 22, 2013
The Croods does a lot of things well -- even if it does none of them extraordinarily. The end result is a solidly middle-of-the-road bit of animation -- but the kind that is easily forgotten as soon as something more evolved, and original, comes along. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 22, 2013
It's amiable enough, but it makes "The Flintstones" look like it was scripted by Karl Popper. Read full review
40
Total FilmJames MottramMar 8, 2013
But for the most part it’s Neanderthal compared to the Pixar stable. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChris CabinMar 20, 2013
The film takes more than a few pages from the James Cameron playbook. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithMar 21, 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. And yet Cage is the least of the problems with The Croods. Read full review
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