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Back to the Croodaceous Period The team behind DreamWorks’ delightful Croods sequel talk about bringing the eccentric prehistoric family to a new world. By Ramin Zahed
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hen DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods was released in spring of 2013, audiences around the world embraced the film’s lovable prehistoric family and their wacky world. Directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, the colorful film went on to make over $587.2 million worldwide and received both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. This holiday season, audiences can catch up with Grug, Ugga, Eep, Thunk, Guy and Gran in a new sequel, in which the family sets out to find a safer place to live and come face to face with another human family. The Croods: A New Age is directed by Joel Crawford, a DreamWorks veteran who worked on Trolls and the Kung Fu Panda franchise, and is produced by Mark Swift (Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted). During a recent phone interview, Crawford talked about the rewards of helming a new chapter in the lives of characters he fell in love with about seven years ago. “I was a huge fan of Chris Sanders and loved the characters and the world that Chris and Kirk DeMicco had created in the first movie,” says Crawford. “When I was given the opportunity to direct the sequel, I felt it was my duty to approach the movie as a fan, knowing which things I wanted to see more of — to www.animationmagazine.net
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treat it as a big celebration that this family is back. Something that was very helpful to me was that Chris Sanders was kind enough to give me notes on the early version of the script. He gave me the handoff, and I was able to retain his sensibility while adding my own take on his vision.”
Growth Patterns Among the many things that excited Crawford about the movie was that it picks up where the audience left the characters at the end of the original outing. “We see how the relationship between Eep and Guy grows from puppy love into a real one,” he notes. “The world around them is changing and the family dynamics is also evolving, and we all know that Grug doesn’t deal with change very easily. It’s hard for him as a father to see his little girl grow up, but he has accepted Guy as part of his pack.” Crawford says in the past few years, many elements of the scripts changed and evolved, but the heart of it all stayed the same. “The
fact that the Croods were going to meet another family that was more evolved than they were was part of the script in one of the earlier drafts of the script,” he says. “But the relationship between Eek and Dawn, the daughter of the other family, changed. There was actually jealous and catty, and had a love triangle with Guy — but that seemed very formulaic. And when you come think of it, Eep has this wide-eyed curiosity, so we felt that she wouldn’t be jealous of another girl her age. She would celebrate her and see their differences as a great thing. So, we had a lot of fun emphasizing the girls’ friendship instead of having it be about Guy.” The director mentions that he also loves that the film is set in such a crazy and fantastical era, which is dubbed the Croodaceous period. “The background and the whole set piece which is the Earth during this time between time — is so fantastic and epic,” says Crawford. “This is a period when the world was trying to figure itself out, like an awkward teenager! So
‘The movie is ultimately about two different families who realize that their future is brightest when it’s shared together. I think that’s a very sweet and timely message about embracing each other despite our differences.’ — Director Joel Crawford
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january 21
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