A Nicolas Cage Movie Has Been Popular On Netflix All Week

Nicolas Cage isn't widely known for his voiceover work, but one of his animated films is crushing it in the United States on Netflix.

By Doug Norrie | Published 3 years ago

This article is more than 2 years old

Nicolas Cage is known for a ton of different movie looks over the years. He’s got into the big-budget action flick, the award-winning ethos, low-budget knock-offs, comedies, love affairs, really you name and the dude has pulled it off on-screen. Where you might not think he’s also excelled is in the voiceover roles. But one of his animated movies is crushing it on streaming right now. The Croods is currently the tenth-most streamed movie in the United States on Netflix this week.

The Croods came out in 2013 from DreamWorks Animation and, in many ways, is a simple story. The Crood family is a group of Neanderthals living their lives in a cave with very little exposure to the outside world. That’s because their father and patriarch, Grug Crood (voiced by Nicolas Cage) refuses to let the family leave at all under almost any circumstances. Life outside the cave, at least to him, is considered extremely dangerous and he makes it clear about what will happen if you venture out (you die).

Nicolas Cage has a voice that shines through in this role and though it isn’t exactly what you’d expect out of a caveman, it works from a comedic effect. The issue at hand for the Croods is they have a daughter, Eep, who’s got more than a little wanderlust. She senses there is a much bigger world out there than what she can see on the cave walls and is constantly fighting to explore and ultimately leave. They are given that chance when a massive earthquake destroys the cave and the Crood family has to venture out into the world. Here, check out the trailer for The Croods:

Joining Nicolas Cage in the cast for The Croods are a number of other A-listers. Emma Stone handles the aforementioned Eep who’s had about enough with living in the cave. Catherine Keener is Ugga Crood, the family matriarch and Clark Duke plays Thunk Crood, the imbecile younger brother. Finally, Ryan Reynolds plays Guy, a smarter caveman who’s got the inventor bug in him.

The Croods performed well with critics with reviews trending mostly positive on the story and the overall comedy levels. Nicolas Cage helped here with his role as Grug, but the writing is what won the day in a story about wanderlust and moving outside your comfort zone. That’s the core issue for Grug and something that only cataclysmic events can really ultimately change in him. But it’s Stone’s Eep who carries the story, wanting so badly to make the outside world live up to the hype she created in her mind. And does it ever. It’s sitting at 72% on Rotten Tomatoes and 55 on Metacritic.

The Croods scored an excellent box office haul, earning $587 millon on its roughly $160 million budget. That got it a sequel, The Croods: A New Age. Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds were all back in their roles and the film added Peter Dinklage and Leslie Mann as well. This one failed to deliver though, earning just $164 million at the box office thanks to mistiming around the pandemic. It actually released in late 2020 which wasn’t amazing considering the state of theater-going.

For Nicolas Cage, this isn’t his only voiceover work. He’s had a couple of other well-received movies in which he’s played a major part. For Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse he deftly handled both Peter Parker (he was hilarious) and Spider-Man Noir. Meanwhile for Teen Titans Go! to the Movies he was the voice of Superman. While The Croods might have been one of his first rodeos, he’s certainly proving to be able to handle these types of films.

Nicolas Cage might not take a ton of voiceover roles, but the dude still churns out movies like nobody’s business. He just had the horror-comedy Willy’s Wonderland in which he’s fighting off demonic animatronics. A movie with this theme should be a B-film through and through, but it actually played well enough with critics. And there is also the upcoming Joe Exotic series on Netflix in which he’ll play the title role. It might be a part made for the actor and I can already see him embodying everything the documentary captured.