The Croods (2013)
★★½
This review may contain spoilers.
there is a lot to love about this film but on some level it falls short..
notes below
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- I like the opening almost somber track, I wish we had stuck with it for longer, maybe it would have been the prologue track.
- also I wish that these opening moments were done in cave drawling's the red ones from the end of the film without features or anything it would have made the ending a bit more impactful when they showed who the drawling's represented.
- I really like the opening 2d animation, it's nice.
- I like how the title card fell into place.
- I like how brass and up beat the soundtrack is.
- I also love how charismatic Nic Cage and Emma Stone are.
- I like the choreograph on this chase scene.
- Abbi Jacobson would have been a spectacular pick for Eep, not saying Emma Stone isn't great but Abbi would have done a spectacular job.
- the animation quality is really good, hats off to the animators it looks great.
- I like the close ups on the hands leaving the cave.
- I liked the sniffing sound effects.
- reiterating that I do really like the brass-y soundtrack.
- that spin shot was a nice way of showing the world turning upside down for our characters.
- I really like the colors in this new area, verry bright and vibrant.
- I liked that shot that was like a camera was strapped to his chest.
- I liked that mixing on the grandma trying to eat his foot, the mux had them in the distance.
- I liked that feather transition.
- also when she prompts Grug to tell a story for a second time, right before he starts the story there was a lot of emotion in the words "that's a good idea"
- when guy is telling his story he is doing some pretty good acting.
- the character models up close look truly impressive, the hair, the lighting, the skin, the scars some great character modeling and design hats off!
- but Grug's model in particular is a stand out.
- damn that water looks freaking great as well.
- the environmental design looks great in this film, the lushes caves, the rich environments, the colorful places.
- I like how the camera moves specifically in action scenes.
- I like the diegetic xylophone, very nice.
- I feel like there is a bit of a pacing issue, I can't tell if it's to fast or if it's too slow, it feels like we are falling somewhere in the middle.
- I do like the reoccurring motif it is a very nice addition, the trumpets singing.
- the emotions that should be carrying this ending scene aren't really working for me and i think that is because we spent the entire film mad at Grug and so we didn't really have any normalcy we didn't see them happy she has kind of just been mad at them for the entire film.
- I really liked that electronic bwaaam when the light went out, that was a good sound effect.
- I did like that explosion that looked very nice and cool.
