The Croods opens with a visual reminder that spiffy digital animation actually belongs to an ancient line of storytelling methods that can be traced back to cave-wall paintings. These doodles helped pass narratives down from one generation to the next. Sadly, Croods itself likely won’t enjoy such staying power, as its sentimental messages are garbled by its noisy, repetitive action sequences. But it’s entertaining enough for younger audiences seeking a colorful trip through a familiar land.
“Familiar” because an inordinate amount of kid-friendly entertainment is – and, for a while now, has been – set in prehistoric time. Blue Sky Studios squeezed four feature-length Ice Age films out of a woolly mammoth making his way through multiple geological eras. If you’re my age, you grew up on Captain Caveman cartoons, and The Flintstones was a primetime sitcom.