"The Croods" Trailer Is Surprisingly Not Awful

Dreamworks Animation is nigh-on-legendary for god-awful trailers. They can take good movies and make them look abysmal, ripping the proverbial defeat from the jaws of success.

The Croods lies slightly in between. First, and unfortunately most saliently, the name of the movie sucks. It sounds like something Nickelodeon conjured up, which is one of the worst insults that I can imagine. Second, the trailer makes it seem like it's trying to be Brave, which I doubt will appear in the actual movie, and this trailer is specifically calculated to make it appear as though the movie is similar to Brave. Third, is it just me, or are these some of the worst character designs since Tin Toy's baby? And finally, why do the cavemen appear to be living on Pandora?

That said, the trailer's drama is good. The movie appears to be suitably epic. The tempo is good. And aside from Nic Cage's flat voice, the others look decent. I wish Dreamworks would understand what other animation houses understand: you don't simply get stars to do voice work. You get voice actors to do voice work. Actors learn to act with everything, thus making overacting with any one element bad. They learn not to do it. But when one is a voice actor, doing 100% of acting with voice is required! Sigh. Regardless... moving on.

The trailer makes the movie look big, colorful, and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we have a bit more information than the trailer lets on and know that a more "evolved" human named Guy, voiced by Ryan Reynolds shows up. This character, and everything associated with him, is going to be a giant cliche. I know this because the pictures of Guy are absolutely dripping with 'tude. He may as well be Sonic The Hedgehog. Seriously. How the fuck haven't be moved past 'tude? Wasn't ever male character from 1988 to 2002 having 'tude enough for people?! Why do we need more?!

So yeah. Here's the trailer.