You can usually tell it’s the holidays when adverts for the latest animated film start popping up everywhere.

Dreamworks, who created the Shrek films, is clearly fast on the track of animation giant Pixar, helped by fantastic advances in technology and have come up with The Croods, set in a pre-historic world – a sort of human version of Fox’s Ice Age, but with more fantastical creatures.

Eep (Emma Stone) is a typical teenage girl, in that she wants to break away from her father, Grug’s (Nicholas Cage) controlling rules – except that Eep lives in a cave in pre-historic times and Grug’s rules are his attempt at keeping his family alive. However you get the feeling that keeping them in a constant state of terror is not particularly healthy.

Eep finds herself wandering further and further away from their cave, until one day she discovers Guy (Ryan Reynolds), who has mastered the art of fire. He is also bringing news of an impending ecological disaster, in good time to see the family cave destroyed – not before everyone is out of there and the Croods, and Guy head for a distant mountain, where he reliably informs us, there is a better world.

Along the way Guy’s “ideas” lead Grug to become more estranged from his family, particularly his daughter who is becoming more fond of Guy by the day.

The Croods is great fun, and is perfect for the young. However one criticism is that the plot and dialogue isn’t on a par with the rival kinds of films Pixar and Fox have come up with in the past.

The best animated films are always the ones which treat the younger audience with a certain amount of intelligence, as well as throwing some treats for the parents who inevitably will be dragged along.

Cage gives one of his better performances, helped by the fact it’s just his voice and Reynolds and Stone make a cute couple.

There are thrills and spills and it’s definitely an enjoyable 90 minutes or so, but just not as good as other recent animation. Pixar’s reign remains unthreatened.

6/10

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