Tag: DreamWorks

Booyah! Looking at How Dawn of the Croods Fits in the Continuity

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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The translation of the family-adventure comedy film The Croods to a Netflix television sitcom, simply titled Dawn of the Croods, works well enough to sate fans of prehistory’s first dysfunctional family. To see them survive being turned from a 3D to hand drawn animation in Dawn of the Croods is great. The character designs are faithful to the film’s cave drawn intro. The two that stand out are Sandy (the youngest child, voiced by Grey Griffin), who takes after the eldest, Gran (Laraine Newman), in looks while Ugga (Cree Summer) — the matriarch — tries to keep the family together Flinstone’s style. She rarely gets livid, and the best episode of this lot is with the eighth episode, “Mom Genes.”

The later half of the 13 episode full-season release is far more engaging, and this series is amusing because the problems the Croods family has to deal with is typical for a modern nuclear family. There are moments where this series becomes reminiscent of Married…with Children meets Family Guy. Had the writers dealt with authentic problems cave people faced, one of them would have included how they turned from hunter gatherers to agrarian. They trade in meat instead of plants. Surprisingly, this concept is gently explored when the tween, Eep (now voiced by Stephanie Lemelin) decides to become vegetarian and tries to convince her family to switch in “The Garden of the Eaten.”

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Can DreamWorks’ DinoTrux Build a New Franchising Opportunity? A Review & Analysis

Dinotrux_posterBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Toy Tempest)

Anyone who loves dinosaurs, monster trucks and demolition derbies should find DreamWorks’ DinoTrux on Netflix amusing. It’s made for children who do not stick firecrackers under their Hot Wheels. Well, if they did, the product would be a touch more violent. Instead, this series focuses on team building exercises and how to get along. The producers are certainly on the right track to focus in on looking at how diverse talents can gather their resources together to get a job done. In the world of construction, that’s especially important.

In a strange way, if this world actually existed, these sentient mechanical creatures most likely helped build neolithic wonders like Stonehenge. In the Mechazoic period that they live in, these robots live a simple life. Transformers fans might wonder if these creatures might predate the coming age of Cybertron. The idea is very probable, but for creator Chris Gall who authored the children’s books of the same name, that’s most likely not what he had in mind.

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Celebrating 5 Family Friendly Funny Father’s Day Films

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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Happy Father’s Day to all, and to some, it’s time to sit back and relax. That includes looking at what films are a fun watch for everyone after a long day. My criteria is to consider films that can do for the good of the family, with father (or a father figure) as part of the plot or not. Or in how easy or uneasy it is for dad to manage the family unit.

Finding Nemo (2003) – There is a lot of charm in this father-son tale where Marlin, a clownfish, realizes there has to be a time where he has to learn to let go, and let his little boy grow up. Pops is devoted to what’s left of his family, and how he feels may well be a good life learning lesson for any real life family dealing with heartbreak after the loss of someone near or dear at any stage of that bonding process.

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