Heartwarming / The Croods

Touching the light, together.

• Right after the very first sequence of the movie, everyone gets enough to eat for breakfast except Grug. The upset look on his family's faces is bad enough, but then he smiles the genuine Team Dad smile of heart-wrench-heart-melt and says it's alright- he ate last week.
• When the first earthquake hits, Grug yells for his family to get to their cave - but as they approach, a massive sheet of rock falls from the cliff above. Grug, the only one who sees it, frantically screams for his family to stop, but they don't hear him.
• Eep's wide-eyed fascination with wind-blown cinders, drifting and glowing in the darkness. The moreso if you consider it's possibly the first time in her life she's had the chance to savor the sight of something beautiful.
• When the collapsing rock crushes the cave and shrapnel explodes towards his family, Grug immediately shields them with his body. There's not a moment of hesitation: his first, last, only thought is to protect them.
• Grug and Guy coming to a mutual understanding while trapped in tar, then helping each other get out. Their method of escape would be best put under Funny moments.
• After being manhandled within an inch of his life, Guy finally escapes the Croods! But while he is hiding, he catches a glimpse of the family looking for him. Eep stares after the spot where he disappeared, looking hopeful and confused. With a sigh, Guy returns and offers to help them so long as he's not a prisoner.
• Picture it: Grug and Eep are at the edge of the cliff, with the world collapsing behind them. Right before Grug gets ready to throw her across the chasm, he pulls her in for a hug. It just goes to show, despite the bickering they've done throughout the film, there remains that bond between father and daughter.
  • "I call it a hug, 'cause it rhymes with Grug. You can change that, if you want." "No, I like 'hug'."
  • Not to mention Ugga and Grug touching foreheads before he throws his mate across, because there's no words that can express what they're both giving up to ensure their children will live and have a mother's guidance. Who says this movie can't have romance that isn't about Eep and Guy?
• This:
  Gran: You've surprised me today.
  • To elaborate, Grug was willing to make the Ultimate Sacrifice by tossing everyone over the chasm, knowing full well he will be alone and impending death. He does this with no hesitation, because as he tells his son, as long as they make it, so will him, and that extends to Gran as well, who has been his biggest thorn. She may not admit it, but she does love him dearly.
  • Anytime Gran shows she doesn't hate Grug as much as she acts, which is more often than you might think. After the first hunt, when the entire family is sad about Grug not getting to eat, Gran has a sort of resigned irritation on her face, like she's not happy about it but can't find someone to blame. Later, when Grug voluntarily sacrifices himself to save the others by throwing them across the chasm, Gran has the same alarmed look on her face as Ugga—she doesn't want her family to lose their protector, or her daughter to lose the man she chose regardless of her mom's kibbitzing.
  • Every time Gran triumphantly declares herself "Still alive!", Grug looks disappointed - until she shouts it after he tosses her over the chasm, and he smiles and nods.
• When Ugga tells Guy that she knows how difficult it must be for him to travel with them, and thanks him for helping them have "the best day of our lives." It's an extremely sweet, maternal moment from her, especially for Guy, who has been on his own from such a young age.
• After Grug and Guy have escaped from the tar and Chunky is about to attack them, Grug can be seen trying to shove Guy behind him the same way we've seen him do to his family.
• Grug going from giving up, to The Determinator, the instant he hears the horn call.
  • Grug going back to save Douglas and other critters from the eruption.
  Grug: Douglas? Hey I know that guy!
  • After he crash lands, what's the first thing Grug does? Run up with a battle cry on his lips and an giant rib-cum-cludgel in hand, asking if anyone's in danger.
• "I love you too."
• The first night after the family loses the cave, Grug tells a story about why Eep's curiousity is bad. Guy, who is not part of the group yet, offers a story of his own: Once upon a time, there was a girl who kept getting too close to the edge of a cliff. Her parents warned her it was dangerous, but she wanted to follow the sun. One day she got too close to the edge of the cliff, fell off...and FLEW. The hope and happiness on Eep's face is heartbreaking and wonderful, and it becomes a huge transitional moment for the whole family...except Grug, who points out that they don't know how to fly.
  • Of course, later Grug is the one who helps Eep to fly: by using his strength to hurl her from the cliff across the lava pit that is obstructing their way to the other side.
    • And then LATER, Grug figures out a very...interesting way of flying. From a distance, it looks as though he is riding the sun.
• When Grug raises his hand to "touch the light", showing that he finally understands Eep and Guy's desire for a new life.
• Easy to miss, but when Guy leads the others up to the top of the tree to view the night sky, Thunk reaches up to try to touch the little dots of light. While the adult Croods have probably caught a glimpse of them at some point, and Eep's sneaked out at night, Thunk has always obeyed Grug's rules so strictly and was so exhausted on the previous evening that he's probably never had a good look at the stars before.
• After making it across the chasm, Eep won't stop blowing her shell to call to Grug. Behind her, the others try to figure out how to get her to give up. Gran volunteers...but after looking into her granddaughter's eyes, takes up her own shell and starts blowing out the call as well. Soon everyone joins in: they want to know that Grug is safe, and they want Grug to know that they love him and are looking for him.
  • Out of all the group, excluding Guy whom she didn't know about, she was the only one who'd lost her parents, and knew what Eep was going through. This make's Gran's volunteer, and her actions afterward, all the more heartwarming.
• The moment Grug, left behind and facing certain death, finds himself face to face with Chunky, the huge saber tooth tiger chasing his family for much of the trek, and finding he's a friendly fellow who somehow knows that they need each other to survive this mess. After they manage to get to safety, Chunky becomes Grug's mount, eager to explore the new land with him.
  Grug: "Turns out, I'm a cat person."
  • The exact moment that Chunky becomes friendly to Grug also counts. It looks for sure that Grug is about to be eaten by the vicious carnivore, who blows out his torch seemingly for a Gory Discretion Shot...and then, after they hear an explosion from the impending apocalypse in the distance, helps him light it up again because he's just as scared of the dark as Grug is. Chunky cuddles up to Grug, firmly believing that the end is here and he just wants some comfort in his final moments. Anyone who's had a cat will recognize that body language and it is so touching.
• "1, 2..., 3..., 4, 5, 6. And 7."
  • And a half...sigh...8...*facepalms* 9...
• Belt and Sandy saying "Dun dun duuuuuuun" together...and then hugging.
• Grug's cave painting after being separated from the rest of the family at the chasm, though it doubles very heavily as a Tear Jerker.
  • Not only does Grug include Guy in the painting, but envisions him holding hands with Eep. Not only has he accepted Guy into his family, but he has fully accepted his relationship with his daughter.
  • The finishing touch is himself. He draws himself with his arms encircling everyone else. Awww.
• Combines as Tear Jerker. Remember when Guy and Grug were stuck in tar? Belt wasn't. Yet he clinged to Guy's waist, with every intention of going down with him.
• We never see them, but the last thing Guy's family says to him before they died was "don't hide".
  • Grug seems to have taken that story to heart, with his own parting words to his daughter.
• When Guy first encounters Eep's family, his first instinct is to protect her.
  • Basically, everything about Guy and Eep's relationship. Despite Guy's initial apprehension upon first meeting Eep and her family, Guy genuinely grows to love Eep.
  • Special highlights include Guy throwing flowers for her, the Umbrella of Togetherness and that heart-melting look they share during his story of tomorrow. You just want them to go and make cave-babies, they're so adorable.
  • When Guy reaches to throw another flower to Eep, she sneaks up behind him, startling him off the ledge with a teasing "You dropped these!" As she laughs and throws the flowers back to him, one lands on his face, and all Guy can do is just smile after her adoringly. It's such an adorable moment that's bound to warm any heart.
• It's a small moment, but the night that the Croods eat the roasted bird, there's a short period where you see all of them gorging themselves on the meat, fighting each other for the best pieces, and generally showing how they're not really used to having enough to eat. But throughout that entire sequence, not once do you see Grug fighting with his family over any food. Instead, he's sitting off to the side with a (relatively) small amount of the meat. Even though we know for a fact that Grug has eaten the least among them recently, he's still waiting until all of the others are satisfied before he tries to eat his fill.
• It's a given that, like the rest of his family, Grug likely is terrified of the dark and the night (because of all the dangerous predators). When he wakes up and Eep is missing, he calmly informs Ugga of the situation. He then, with barely any hesitation, leaves the cave to look for Eep. Given how much he emphasises that you should never go outside at night, it's a testament to how much he loves Eep that he's willing to leave his cave in the dark for her.
• Grug and the Sabercat are racing against time to escape The End, barely getting out with destruction at their heels. So what happens when he spots small, terrified, trembling animals as they get away? Every time, EVERY TIME, he forsakes the threat of death and jumps off of the flying contraption to grab the poor creatures and toss them onto the contraption so that they can escape too. And all of them, including the Saber Cat, become the family pets.
  • Just before Grug's improvised bone-and-piranhakeet aircraft is engulfed by volcanic smoke, Chunky draws the other animals close to shield them from the danger and the sight.
• The adorable, pleading look on Chunky the Death Cat's face when he and Grug jointly blow on the torch to re-light it. Pleading, as in "Truce, truce, okay, just please don't let the dark come back!"

FROM CROODS 2

• Eep and Dawn becoming best friends for ever in the film is truly sweet and endearing.
• Dawn manages to avert the idea that she would steal Guy from Dawn and is just interested in having Eep as her friend.
• Guy calling Eep the only woman he loves.
• Grug giving his blessings in Guy and Eep living by themselves.
• When Hope none subtlety says that her family will take Guy away from the Croods. Urgga gets furious. And later when Hope insults Sandy. Urgga out says that she's gonna kill her and has to be phsycailly restrained.
• Hope apologizing to the Croods and Dawn.
• Eep and Guy realzing that they both messed up and apologizing to each other.
• Once the Croods and Bettermans beat the Spiny Mandrilla, the Punch Monkeys lose any threat and become quite friendly towards the humans. They’re even grateful for the loss of the Mandrilla, since he was a Bad Boss taking their bananas, and they’re open to any reasonable negotiation between the Bettermans and Croods.
• When the Mandrilla makes a last stand and tries to take Eep with it, everyone – Chunky, the Bettermans, the Punch Monkeys – leap in without hesitation to grab on to Eep.
• Sandy gives her first word in the film. And it’s “Boo” The Crood family fist bump.
• The final shot of the second film, despite the party ending, is of Eep and Guy having a quiet morning together. They found their tomorrow with each other.