It would appear that those at Dreamworks and Hulu think that the Croods and the Betterman’s need to make a return to show how their lives have continued to turn out, and as one could guess, they’re still getting used to one another. The two families that met and clashed before bonding during the second Croods movie are apparently now moving forward as it was established at the end of the second movie that everything had been sorted out. Judging by the trailer that’s been released the one thing we can tell at the moment, well, a couple of things really, is that the original voice actors won’t be coming back, and the animation is going to take a serious downturn from the movies. This might not matter as much to those that are willing to take a look at the show and see what it’s all about, but for those that enjoyed the movies, it might actually be a bit of a deal-breaker. If the show ends up doing as well as the movies then it’s bound to happen that I’ll be eating my words, but from the first look it doesn’t feel as though it’s bound to happen.
There are a few reasons for that, and two of them have already been listed since the overall quality of the animation is kind of expected to become slightly less detailed since moving from a feature-length movie budget to a TV show usually brings this type of transition. In some instances, it doesn’t really matter since people care more about the story than the way it looks and will keep watching. But The Croods were built up as characters that did have a certain look and it’s fair to say that a lot of fans might notice the switch. As a TV show, it might have a chance to shine, but one has to realize that the celebrity voices kind of made this thing work in a big way since the actors really brought the characters to life.
It could be that I’m being too skeptical, but there is something missing in the show as far as the trailer has revealed, and getting into it might take a concentrated effort for some folks that are bound to take note of the changes and find that they simply can’t look past them. For those that don’t care, it might be just fine since the story is picking up from where the second movie left off. The Croods have moved in with the Betterman’s, and Guy and Eep are together. Grug and Phil still have a lot to learn about getting along, and the rest of the family have their own struggles as well. In other words, the growing pains aren’t quite over since the two families are quite different and are still learning a lot about each other. But the best part is that there’s a lot of fun to be had along the way since the hijinks that the two families get up to tend to be pretty funny since, like any other cartoon, they tend to take a lot of damage and just shake it off.
But there is a question of how many other big threats might be coming down the pipeline since in the last movie a giant baboon was the big threat, while in the first movie the cataclysm that was threatening the Croods turned out to be the major issue. It’s bound to be kind of interesting to see what kind of threat might present itself in the future since anything short of a huge and terrifying monster isn’t really bound to do much for the two families since they’ve already weathered so much. One thing that’s kind of hopeful is that things will balance out once again since the first movie showed the value of ingenuity and critical thinking versus the old way of running and hiding, while the second movie took a more feminist approach that ended up kind of emasculating the male characters in a big way. There’s no doubt that the female characters in these movies are tough, resilient, and definitely capable of forward-thinking, but dismissing Grug as a toxic male and Phil and Guy as little more than ineffectual, narcissistic tools was kind of an odd direction to take.
It could be a matter of perceiving such a thing in the second movie, but it’s fair to think that a more balanced approach in the show would be fully appreciated by a lot of fans that happened to enjoy the first movie that showed two very different dominant male characters that were matched by an equally dominant female character. If the show can find a way to balance this out then it should have a chance, but leaning too far one way or the other is bound to be enough to get some people to say ‘nope’. Here’s hoping for the best.
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