2. Main Characters
◦ Grug Crood – Overprotective Father Cavemen
◦ Eep Crood – Rebellious Teenage Cavegirl
◦ Ugga Crood – Grug’s wife & Slightly Protective Mother Cavewoman
◦ Gran – Ugga’s Mother & Ferocious Cavewoman
◦ Guy – Wondering Caveboy who is Brave and Curious
3. The Plot
◦ The Croods are a Cave-family; one of the only cave families left. All of their neighbors
met recent and unfortunate demises. Eep, who tries to defy her father is always pushing
the limits and go on adventures, while her father Grug is just trying to keep the family
alive. One night, Eep escapes from their cave and meets Guy. Guy talks about ‘The
End’ and warns Eep she is in danger. Eep doesn’t leave with Guy and a huge
earthquake strikes that destroys their family cave. Grug is forced to change his ways
and trust Guy in order to save his family.
4. Primary Concepts
◦ Intercultural Communication
◦ Verbal Messages
◦ Nonverbal Communication
◦ Spatial Usage
◦ Listening
◦ Responding
◦ Empathizing
◦ Disclosure
◦ Power
◦ Managing Conflict
5. Intercultural Communication
◦ Interactions that occur between people whose cultures are so different that the
communication between them is altered.
◦ Generation: Communication Between Different Generations:
◦ Ex: Eep has a hard time seeing eye to eye with her father due to generational difference.
◦ Race: Communication Between Different Races.
◦ Ex: Grug does not trust Guy, and doesn’t want to go with him due to ‘race’ differences.
6. Verbal Messages
◦ Messages that are spoken using language.
◦ Specific language: Messages with concrete and precise words.
◦ Ex: Grug tells a story of a little bear. He used precise words such as terrible
problem, curiosity, and terror to describe the story.
◦ Slang: Informal Vocabulary
◦ Ex: Thunk calls his nose sniffer. Guy calls the Croods ‘Caveys’
7. Nonverbal Communication
◦ Any & all Communication outside of spoken words.
◦ Gestures: Hand Arm and Finger Movements which replace words
◦ Ex: Guy holds his hand out to Eep when he wants her to join him.
◦ Facial Expressions: Using facial expression to communication and provide feeback.
◦ Ex: Gran looks angry at bath time. She snarls her teeth and squints her eyes.
8. Spatial Usage
◦ The way we use the space around us.
◦ Personal Space: The area that surrounds a person
◦ Ex: When Eep is angry she sleeps on her own instead of the ‘family pile’ to preserve her personal
space.
◦ Territory: The space we claim ownership of.
◦ Ex: Grug is territorial over his cave and family especially around Guy.
9. Listening
◦ Receiving and constructing meaning from a message
◦ Active Listening: Understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding to a message.
◦ Ex: Eep listens to have father when they talk about heading to the mountain. She makes eye
contact and nods her head in response.
◦ Poor Listening: Not actively listening to or accepting a message.
◦ Ex: Grud does not listen to Eep when she wants to take Guy with them.
10. Responding
◦ Providing Feedback to your speaking partners message.
◦ Proper Responses: Includes waiting till the message is completed, responding to the
subject at hand, and back channel cues.
◦ Ex: Thunk wait til Guy is done then paraphrases what Guy says and asks if he can get his own
stick, when Guy talks about the wonderful aspects of the mountain, which includes sticks.
◦ Poor Responses: Include cutting off the speaker, changing the subject, and simply not
responding in any way.
◦ Ex: Grug interrupts Eep when she talks about the beautiful shell Guy gave her, then changes the
subject.
11. Empathizing
◦ Perceiving how other’s are feeling acting on the perception.
◦ Perspective taking: Empathizing by uses what we know about our partner to
understand how they are feeling.
◦ Ex: Ugga rubs Grugs back when she understands how he feels about the cave being gone.
◦ Sympathetic Responsiveness: Feeling concern, compassion, or sorrow for another
person but not identifying with the specific emtion.
12. Disclosure
◦ Revealing Confidential or Secret Information
◦ Owning: Using ‘I’ language to own behaviors and feelings.
◦ Ex: Thunk states: I would like a smaller cave. When the Croods talk about getting a new cave.
◦ Disclosing Feelings: Owning and explaining your feelings precisely.
◦ Ex: Grug states: I am so mad right now. When talking about Eep leaving the cave at night.
13. Power
◦ The potential that you have to influence the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of someone
else.
◦ Legitimate Power: The potential to influence others rooted in a certain role.
◦ Ex: Grug uses legitimate power over Eep to get her to stay in the cave.
◦ Referent Power: The potential to influence others rooted in liking, respect, or admiration.
◦ Ex: Guy has referent power with Eep because she likes him, thus she wants to go with him.
14. Managing Conflict
◦ Dealing with conflict
◦ Forcing: Resolving a Conflict by satisfying your own needs only.
◦ Ex: Grug uses forcing with Eep by making her go back to the cave and not listening to her
needs.
◦ Compromising: Resolving conflict through give and take.
◦ Ex: Grug decides to go to the mountain with Guy however he sticks Guy in a log, that way Guy
can’t just do as he pleases.
15. Evaluation. The Croods
◦ I think the communication in the movie does seem realistic. Throughout the movie
there is a constant power struggle between Eep and her father. Her mother constantly
tries to play the peace keeper. I feel this is very real. Eep is a teenager trying to define
herself, and the struggles between the characters are real. Not all of them are perfect
communicators, and there is struggles, however the reaction the characters have to
various messages is real.
16. Evaluations. Myself vs. Croods
◦ I can definitely relate to Eep. I was very independent as a teenage so I can imagine
that I would have rebelled against my parents had they used forcing as a conflict
management style at that point in my life. I would have handled the relationship the
same as Eep in a negative style.
◦ I would like to believe that I have better communication styles then most characters in
the movie, even though their styles improve in the end. However, I would say I can
relate to the conversation because when I was younger I was strong willed and would
use forcing styles similarly to the movie.
