The Croods: Family Tree ran for eight seasons and 52 episodes, premiering September 23, 2021, and closing November 9, 2023. It is an American animated series produced by DreamWorks Animation under DreamWorks Animation Television, based on the 2013 film The Croods and set after The Croods: A New Age. Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco, and John Cleese are credited as creators. The series aired on Hulu and Peacock.
The premise is simple. The Croods and the Bettermans have to learn to get along in the Betterman treehouse.
Trailer, via Hulu.
The Betterman Treehouse Is the Whole Show
The show’s own synopsis puts it warmer: two very different families join forces to create a new community, an us-against-the-world, cave person co-op on the most amazing farm in the history of prehistory.
That is not a premise that generates plot so much as friction. Grug is loud and physical. Phil Betterman is fussy and status-minded. Ugga and Hope are the two mothers. Gran is the wild card.
The show does not try to build a mythology. It builds a house and moves furniture around inside it for 52 episodes.
Kiff VandenHeuvel Carries Grug
The voice cast is the reason the friction works. Kiff VandenHeuvel plays Grug. He also voices Lighting Bolt in season four.
Ally Dixon plays Eep. Darin Brooks plays Guy. Amy Landecker plays Ugga, and Artemis Pebdani plays Gran. A.J. LoCascio plays Thunk. Amy Rosoff and Matthew Waterson play Hope and Phil Betterman. Tru Valentino plays Hwam in seasons five and eight.
The one cast change worth flagging: Dawn Betterman, voiced by Kelly Marie Tran in seasons one through four, is voiced by Abby Trott in seasons five through eight. The show does not make a thing of it.
Dee Bradley Baker Plays Five Creatures
Dee Bradley Baker handles Sandy, Chunky, Douglas, Belt, and Sash. That is five roles for one performer, and it is the quiet craft of the series. Baker makes each creature distinct without making any of them a bit.
Recasting a supporting character mid-run is normal in animation. It is also a small tell about how the show is built. Dawn’s voice changes and the series keeps moving.
The Farm Is the Setting
The farm is the most amazing in the history of prehistory, per the show’s own description. It is also the ceiling. The genres listed — animation, family, action and adventure, comedy, kids — promise more adventure than the show usually delivers.
What it delivers instead is comedy of manners with stone tools. Phil wants things done correctly. Grug wants things done now. The Bettermans have rules. The Croods have instincts. Every episode is a negotiation between those two positions, and the show is honest about the fact that neither side is fully right.
Hulu and Peacock Split the Audience
The Croods: Family Tree ran on Hulu and Peacock. That split distribution is the most interesting structural fact about it. Eight seasons and 52 episodes is a real run, and it happened without much noise.
A family animated series with a recognizable film franchise behind it should have been a bigger deal, and it wasn’t. That is not a knock on the show. It is a knock on how the show was sold.
What Actually Works, Ranked
Judged on its own terms, the show’s strengths are specific and repeatable. Here is what The Croods: Family Tree does well, in order of how much it matters:
- Kiff VandenHeuvel’s Grug, which gives the show a center of gravity it otherwise lacks.
- The Grug-Phil rivalry, which is the only relationship with real stakes.
- Dee Bradley Baker’s five creature roles, which give the farm its texture.
- Artemis Pebdani’s Gran, who gets the sharpest lines and the least screen time.
- The treehouse itself, which is a good set for a family comedy.
And here is what does not work:
- The action and adventure billing, which the show rarely earns.
- Dawn’s recasting, which is handled without comment and lands without impact.
- The show’s refusal to leave the farm, which keeps it safe and small.
A 7.2 Is the Right Score
The published audience score for The Croods: Family Tree is 7.2 out of 10, based on 759 votes on TMDB. That number is fair, and it is fair for a specific reason: the show is competent, consistent, and almost never surprising.
A 7.2 is not a dismissal. It is a measurement of a show that knows exactly what it is and does not reach past it. The Croods and Bettermans learn to get along. That is the arc. It takes 52 episodes, and the show never pretends the arc is bigger than it is.
What keeps it from a higher score is ambition. The Croods: A New Age had a movie’s worth of scale. The Croods: Family Tree has a farm, a treehouse, and a cast doing more work than the scripts ask of them.
What keeps it from a lower score is execution. The show is not lazy. It is small on purpose, and small done well is still done well.
The verdict: The Croods: Family Tree is a solid family series that never becomes a great one. It ran eight seasons on two streaming services, and it sits beside the films rather than above them. That is a real achievement and a real limitation, and the score reflects both.
7.2 of 10.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.