The Croods
The Croods is a 2013 American animated adventure comedy film written and directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, it stars the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, and Cloris Leachman. It is set in a fictional prehistoric Pliocene era known as "The Croodaceous" where Grug, patriarch of the Croods, is threatened by the arrival of a genius named Guy, who comes up with revolutionary new inventions as they trek through a dangerous land in search of a new home.
The film premiered at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 15, 2013, and was released in the United States on March 22 by 20th Century Fox. It received generally positive reviews, and grossed $587 million on a budget of $135–175 million. It was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature.
The film launched a franchise, consisting of two television series, Dawn of the Croods and The Croods: Family Tree, and a sequel, The Croods: A New Age.
Plot
The Croods, a cave family, have survived various natural disasters, due to the overprotective father Grug refusing to let anyone leave the cave except for short periods to gather food. Eep, his teenage daughter, loves her family but frequently rebels against Grug's strictures. One night, Eep sneaks out after seeing a light, and encounters a antatomically modern young man named Guy and his pet sloth Belt, who have made a torch. He warns her of an impending apocalypse and offers to help her escape, but Eep elects to stay with the family. Guy leaves her a shell horn to blow if she needs help, but when Eep returns to her family, Grug and the others destroy the horn out of fear of the "New".An earthquake destroys the cave and surrounding lands, and the Croods flee into a jungle they discover below their home mountains. Encountering a "Macawnivore", a Saber-toothed Cat whom Eep's grandmother dubs "Chunky", the family flees him, until he is scared off by "piranhakeets" that devour a ground whale. Eep makes another horn and calls to Guy, who rescues them with his fire. After some confusion regarding the Croods' first contact with fire, Grug imprisons Guy in a log so he can guide them somewhere safe. To appease Grug, Guy suggests the Croods go to a mountain where there are caves, though in reality he and the other Croods doubt the wisdom of this.
During the journey, Guy is eventually trusted enough to be allowed out of the log. Grug attempts to steal a bird's egg for dinner, but catches a scorpion instead, and Guy teaches Eep how to lay a trap for the bird itself. Guy endears himself to most of the Croods by inventing rudimentary shoes for the family, and other "ideas" which help them along the way. He also talks about "Tomorrow", a land of light where curiosity is not to be feared. Grug becomes jealous of Guy, especially after noticing he and Eep are falling in love. His disastrous attempts to fight against change, and to come up with inventions and ideas of his own, distance him from his family and cause his wife Ugga to argue with him.
The family finds a cave. However, no one but Grug wants to go in, having learned to adapt to living outside. Angered, Grug attacks Guy, and the two fall over a cliff into a tar flow. Believing they are doomed, Guy reveals that he lost his own family to a tar flow. Touched by this tragic backstory, Grug decides to work together with Guy to escape. They make a puppet to attract Chunky, who mistakes them for a female cat and pulls them free.
A volcanic cataclysm begins, and Guy and the Croods flee until they are halted at the edge of a chasm where the continents are drifting apart. Grug feels the sun's warmth through the smoke, and realizes that there may be good land on the other side. Grug tosses the others over the chasm one by one, knowing he will be left behind. He shares his latest invention, a "hug" with Eep before throwing her over with the rest of the family. They land, unharmed, on fertile land on the opposite cliff, while Grug shelters alone in a cave.
Grug encounters Chunky, who reveals he is scared of the dark, and seeks comfort with Grug instead of attacking him. Hearing Eep blowing her horn to mourn him, Grug assumes they are calling for his help and comes up with a new idea. Using tar, fire, a whale ribcage and the piranhakeets, he creates a makeshift airship in which he, Chunky, and other animals escape the final eruption and fly over the chasm to join the others.
Grug is welcomed lovingly back as the leader of the family, and Eep returns his hug. They all start a new life on a tropical mountainside that leads down to the seashore, where they can follow the sun every day and enjoy Guy and Grug's inventions.
Voice cast
- Nicolas Cage as Grug Crood, an overprotective caveman who is Ugga's husband, Gran's son-in-law, and the father of Eep, Thunk, and Sandy.
- Emma Stone as Eep Crood, a teenage cavegirl who is Grug's and Ugga's first daughter, Thunk and Sandy's older sister, and Gran's oldest granddaughter. Eep is the eldest child and is much more willing to try anything new than the rest of her family. She holds romantic feelings towards Guy.
- Ryan Reynolds as Guy, a more evolved teenage caveboy that, with the help of his pet sloth named Belt, thinks of new ideas and inventions that can help themselves or others. He holds romantic feelings towards Eep.
- Catherine Keener as Ugga Crood, a cavewoman who is Grug's wife, the daughter of Gran, and the mother of Eep, Thunk, and Sandy. She is more open-minded than Grug, but also finds it difficult to keep her family safe.
- Cloris Leachman as Gran, an old and ferocious cavewoman who is the mother of Ugga, the mother-in-law of Grug, and the grandmother of Eep, Thunk, and Sandy.
- Clark Duke as Thunk Crood, a caveboy who is Grug's and Ugga's son, Eep and Sandy's brother, and Gran's grandson. Thunk is the middle child and is not bright and has bad coordination, but has a good heart. He gets a "Crocopup" named Douglas for a pet.
- Randy Thom as Sandy Crood, Grug and Ugga's youngest daughter, Eep and Thunk's younger sister, and Gran's youngest granddaughter who still bites and growls instead of speaking. Thom created her voice with creature noises.
- Chris Sanders as Belt, Guy's pet sloth.
Production
DreamWorks got a copy of their script and liked it, and invited Cleese and DeMicco over to take a look at the company's ideas to see if they found something they would like to work with. They chose a basic story idea about two cavemen on the run, an inventor and a luddite, and wrote the first few drafts of the script. In January 2007, with the departure of Aardman due to the box-office underperformance of Flushed Away, the rights for the film reverted to DreamWorks. Aardman, however, continued experimenting with the idea of a Stone Age-themed story which became Early Man, and was released in 2018.
In March 2007, Chris Sanders, writer and director of Disney's Lilo & Stitch, joined DreamWorks to direct the film, with intentions to significantly rewrite the script. In September 2008, it was reported that Sanders took over How to Train Your Dragon putting Crood Awakening on hold, and thus postponing its original schedule for a year to a then planned March 2012. The film's final title, The Croods, was revealed in May 2009, along with new co-director, DeMicco. In March 2011, the film got another delay, being pushed back a year to March 1, 2013, and finally to March 22.
Release
Theatrical
The Croods had its world premiere in the out of competition section at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 15, 2013. It was released in the United States by 20th Century Fox on March 22, 2013. As part of the distribution deal, it marked the first DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Fox, since the end of their distribution deal with Paramount in 2012. The film was the first feature film to be shown in the 4DX format, featuring strobe lights, moving seats, blowing wind, fog and scent effects in Hungary, where it was shown at the Cinema City theater in Budapest, Hungary. It was also the first film in China to be distributed by Oriental DreamWorks, a film production and distribution company founded in 2012 by DreamWorks Animation and Chinese investment companies.Home media
The Croods was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 1, 2013, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The DVD and Blu-ray comes with a Belt plush toy. The DVD version also came with holiday specials Shrek the Halls, Merry Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda Holiday and Gift of the Night Fury. As of February 2015, 9 million home entertainment units were sold worldwide. The Croods was released on 4K Blu-Ray on November 17, 2020. It was also released in a 2-movie pack alongside its sequel The Croods: A New Age on DVD and Blu-Ray by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in 2021.Reception
Box office
The Croods grossed $187.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $400 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $587.2 million. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $106.5million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues. It is the eleventh highest grossing 2013 film, and the fourth highest grossing 2013 animated film. It became the second highest grossing original DreamWorks Animation film, behind Kung Fu Panda. As of September 2023, it is the 188th-highest-grossing film, and the 40th-highest-grossing animated film.In North America, the film earned $11.6 million on its opening day. On its opening weekend, the film topped the box office with $43.6 million from 4,046 locations, a vast improvement over the DreamWorks Animation's directly preceding release Rise of the Guardians, yet still below some of the studio's other original films, like Megamind and How to Train Your Dragon.
Outside North America, the film topped the box office during its first weekend with $62.4 million. It opened at number one in 54 countries, with the biggest openings achieved in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta, Russia and the CIS, China, and Mexico.
In total grosses, the film's biggest market was China with $63.3 million, becoming the highest grossing original animated film, surpassing DreamWorks Animation's film Kung Fu Panda. In addition, the film earned $43.1 million in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta, $28.6 million in Russia and the CIS, $27.7 million in Mexico, and $23.8 million in Australia. Earning a total of $400 million, it is the highest grossing 2013 film distributed by 20th Century Fox.