The 2013 CG animated film The Croods was quite the surprise hit. The film managed to make $600 million at the box office and saw itself nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Set in a fictional prehistoric Pliocene era known as "The Croodaceous", the original followed a cave family who must trek through a dangerous but exotic land in search of a new home after being threatened by the arrival of a prehistoric genius who comes up with revolutionary new inventions. And while the sequel was immediately announced after the first film's release, it went through several challenges to get made.
Despite a classically-animated series being produced on Netflix in 2015 titled Dawn of the Croods and clear larger plans to make the film a franchise, the sequel was shut down in 2016. This was primarily because of the then upcoming acquisition by Universal Pictures of DreamWorks, and by extension DreamWorks Animation, the studio behind the film. However, in 2017, the studios joint announced the sequel was back on track. However, things were further complicated at the end of production earlier this year when the COVID-19 pandemic led to production being shifted to the crew working on it in their homes (One perk of being an animated film where everything is made on computers). And now, the film is finally here, titled The Croods: A New Age, set to hit theaters November 25th as the theater chains have begun to reopen with new social distancing policies. The synopsis is as follows:
After leaving their cave in the first film, The Croods encounter their biggest threat since leaving the cave: another family called The Bettermans.
Most of the original voice cast are set to return, including Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, and Cloris Leachman, with new cast members Leslie Mann, Kelly Marie Tran, and Peter Dinklage joining them. However, and this also lent to the film's initial delay, the first film's original writing/directing duo Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco are not returning, despite initially doing so when the sequel was first announced. DeMicco had even teased at the time that the sequel would focus on Ugga and motherhood, making it, his words, "the first chapter of society". This would have expanded on the first film, which he said is about "the last chapter of the caveman." In any case, the new film's script is attributed to Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman (Who did a rewrite for the film in 2016 right before the sequel was shut down) and Joel Crawford will take the helm this time around. And now, today, the sequel's official poster has been released to begin promoting the film. Check it out below:
Stay tuned!