It’s not often that a sequel to an already successful movie manages to surpass the original, but an animated movie that just joined Peacock did just that. The NBCUniversal streamer has been bringing subscribers can’t-miss titles throughout December, stocking everything from The Addams Family to Paul Blart: Mall Cop in its streaming library already this month. This week saw the streamer’s animated lineup grow with a DreamWorks sequel that is better than the original.
That movie is The Croods: A New Age, a sequel to The Croods that centers around the titular family as they discover a walled-in paradise and must learn to live in harmony with the Bettermans, a family a couple of steps above the Croods on the evolutionary ladder. The movie features a star-studded voice cast that includes Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, and Cloris Leachman. It started streaming on Peacock on December 9th, joining both the original movie and the spinoff series The Croods: Family Tree TV show on the platform.
The Croods: A New Age Is a Perfect Sequel
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The Croods: A New Age couldn’t quite match the original’s massive $587 million box office haul, grossing $215 million worldwide against its $65 million budget, but it blew it away when it came to critical and audience reception. The movie secured both “Certified Fresh” and “Verified Hot” distinctions on Rotten Tomatoes with a 76% critic score and 94% audience rating, improving upon its predecessor’s 71% and 77% scores.
The film managed to surpass the original’s high scores because it did exactly what a sequel is supposed to do: maintain the original’s charm while successfully expanding the story. Everything that fans know and love about The Croods is still present in the sequel, including fan-favorite characters, great humor that even adults will laugh at, and amazing visuals that make the world vibrant and immersive. But in The Croods: A New Age, the stakes are higher, including the emotional stakes, and the world is bigger, with inventive creatures and new imaginative environments.
The movie explores the characters’ evolution beyond just survival and expands upon the original’s world and heart with new characters in the Bettermans and Grug’s struggles as a father as his children grow up, making for a more impactful and emotional core. The movie doesn’t lack humor, though, delivering more than enough fast-paced, silly gags and jokes to keep viewers of all ages laughing from beginning to end. The Croods: A New Age is simply a successful and enjoyable follow-up that fans of the original will enjoy.
What’s New on Peacock?
Peacock subscribers have plenty of new options for movie night. This December has seen the platform stock titles including 10 Cloverfield Lane, the Bill & Ted movies, several Bridget Jones entries, Gladiator, Pacific Rim, and Unaccompanied Minors. The platform also has new options to get you into the festive spirit, with A Christmas Carol, Jingle All the Way, and both the 1947 and 1994 versions of Miracle on 34th Street now streaming.
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