The Croods: A New Age

The Croods: A New Age (also known as The Croods 2) is a 2020 American computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The sequel to The Croods (2013), the film is directed by Joel Crawford (in his feature directorial debut) with a screenplay penned by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Paul Fisher, and Bob Logan from a story by the original directors Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders. Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, and Cloris Leachman reprise their roles from the first film alongside new additions to the cast including Peter Dinklage, Leslie Mann, and Kelly Marie Tran.

A sequel to The Croods was first announced in 2013, with directors DiMicco and Sanders returning to helm the film. Its development continued through 2014 and 2015 until it was cancelled in November 2016 due to doubts in response to Universal's acquisition of DreamWorks. However, the project was revived in 2017 with Crawford replacing Sanders and DiMicco as director. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, much of the final animations had to be done from the crew's homes.

The Croods: A New Age was theatrically released in the United States on November 25, 2020 after facing several delays from an original November 2017 release date, and was made available via premium video on demand on December 18. It has grossed $154 million worldwide against its $65 million budget, with critics calling it "a decent-enough follow-up" and praising the voice cast, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. This is the last animated film that Cloris Leachman starred in before her death two months after the film’s release.

Plot
A flashback shows the death of Guy's parents when he was a kid. As they drown in tar, they tell him to find somewhere called 'tomorrow'. He goes on a long journey and meets a young Belt before taking him along for the ride.

The Croods, along with Guy and their pets Chunky and Douglas, are still searching for a place to settle down, all the while surviving many dangerous creatures along the way. Grug is repeatedly annoyed at Eep and Guy's blossoming romance. As Grug walks off in anger, he soon comes across a giant wall and leads the whole pack to them. They are soon caught in a net and are released by the owners of the land, a couple called the Bettermans, Phil and Hope. The Bettermans welcome the Croods to their giant tree-home as house guests, where they meet their daughter and Guy's old friend, Dawn, who immediately befriends Eep. Life with the Bettermans becomes degrading for Grug due to the Bettermans soon reveal themselves to be better and evolved, believing that Guy is better off with them and hatch a scheme to get Guy to leave the Croods. Phil eventually takes Grug to his secret man-cave, a sauna-like place behind some waterfalls, where he manipulates him into believing Guy should leave their pack.

Eep and Dawn soon use Chunky to escape the land and jump their wall for a joyride that ends with a bee stinging Dawn and having her hand swell up. When Eep takes her back home, Guy, upon finding out, chides her for her recklessness, ending with him insensitively calling her a 'cave-girl'. At dinner, tensions rise between the parents, Guy and Eep, especially when Dawn's swelling is revealed. Having enough, the Croods decide to leave in the morning, but Guy decides to stay after he and Eep have a falling out. Soon, the land is attacked by "Punch Monkeys", monkeys with human-like strength on account of Grug and Ugga eating a bunch of bananas the Bettermans hoard around their land and have forbidden Grug from eating. Phil reveals he sends the Punch Monkeys the bananas every day so that they leave the Bettermans alone and since Grug and Ugga ate them, the Punch Monkeys get upset and kidnap Grug, Phil, and Guy and take them to their homeland.

As the men are taken, The Croods and the Bettermans rescue the men, but eventually get marooned on an island full of Wolf-Spiders. During their time together, Hope soon grows to accept the Croods and eventually form a team called the Thunder Sisters, which was an old girl-group Gran was in when she was younger, to mount a rescue and in the process, Gran revealed that her hair was just an opossom/flying squirrel called a Wigasus. At the Punch Monkey home, Grug, Guy and Phil soon discover that Phil unintentionally deprived the Punch Monkeys of their water resource and that the Punch Monkeys need the bananas not only to eat, but to offer to a giant Spiny Mandrilla in hopes of appeasing it. The Punch Monkeys make Grug and Phil fight gladiator-style to see who will be the sacrifice and when they wear each other out, they exchange their bitter feelings with each other, making Guy regret what he said during his and Eep's fallout.

Soon, the Punch Monkeys dress all three men as bananas to sacrifice to the giant Spiny Mandrilla. Grug and Phil apologize for their poor behavior and for putting pressure on Guy, but just as they are about to be eaten, the Thunder Sisters show up to rescue them. A long and perilous battle soon ends with Guy and Eep on a giant skull-chandelier where they reconcile and soon use it to defeat the Spiny Mandrilla by using fire to cut the ropes and send it falling into the abyss below when it catches Eep's "peanut toe", which she uses as a prosthetic limb, and pulls it off, allowing the families to escape.

With their differences finally settled, the Bettermans allow the Croods to live in their land as neighbors, with Guy realizing that Eep is his 'tomorrow' and he and Eep soon move into one of the Betterman's bedrooms together which Grug approves of. The Punch Monkeys become their next door neighbors.

Cast

 * Nicolas Cage as Grug Crood, a caveman and the patriarch of the Croods.
 * Emma Stone as Eep Crood, a cave girl, Grug's oldest daughter and Guy's girlfriend.
 * Ryan Reynolds as Guy, a cave boy who lives with the Croods and is Eep's boyfriend.
 * Gabriel Jack voices a younger Guy.
 * Peter Dinklage as Phil Betterman, the patriarch of the Bettermans who had a history with Guy's parents.
 * Leslie Mann as Hope Betterman, the matriarch of the Bettermans and Phil's wife.
 * Kelly Marie Tran as Dawn Betterman, Phil and Hope's daughter and only child who befriends Eep and is Guy's old friend.
 * Catherine Keener as Ugga Crood, a cavewoman and Grug's wife.
 * Clark Duke as Thunk Crood, a cave boy and Grug's son.
 * Cloris Leachman as Gran, an old cavewoman who is Ugga's mother and Eep, Thunk, and Sandy's grandmother.
 * Kailey Crawford as Sandy Crood, a cave girl and Grug's 5-year-old daughter. Her vocal effects were previously performed by Randy Thom in the last movie.
 * Chris Sanders as Belt, Guy's pet sloth.
 * James Ryan as Sash, Dawn's pet sloth.
 * Melissa Disney as Guy's Mom, the unnamed mother of Guy who died in the tar pit.
 * Joel Crawford as Guy's Dad, the unnamed father of Guy who died in the tar pit.
 * Januel Mercado as Shaman Monkey, the head of the Punch Monkeys.
 * Ryan Naylor as Creepo Monkey, a creepy-eyed member of the Punch Monkeys.
 * Artemis Pebdani as Additional voices

Development
In April 2013, DreamWorks Animation announced a sequel to the film The Croods, with Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco set to return as directors and writers. According to DeMicco, the sequel would focus on Ugga and motherhood, making it "the first chapter of society," expanding on the first film, which he said is about "the last chapter of the caveman."

On June 12, 2014, it was announced that the sequel would be released on November 3, 2017. On August 21, 2014, the film was pushed back to December 22, 2017. On August 9, 2016, nearing Comcast's impending acquisition of DreamWorks Animation, 20th Century Fox removed the film from the release schedule. The film would be instead released by Universal Pictures sometime in 2018. On August 23, 2016, it was reported that Kevin and Dan Hageman were hired to rewrite the script.

On November 11, 2016, DreamWorks announced that production for the sequel was cancelled. According to reports, there had been doubts about proceeding with the project before Universal's acquisition of DreamWorks, and it was DreamWorks' decision to cancel the film. However, in September 2017, DreamWorks and Universal revealed that the film was back in production with a release date scheduled for September 18, 2020. It was also revealed that both DeMicco and Sanders would not be returning. In October 2017, it was reported that Joel Crawford would replace both DeMicco and Sanders as director and Mark Swift would replace both the first film's producers Jane Hartwell and Kristine Belson as the producer of the film. Production of the film was shifted to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Casting
In September 2013, it had been confirmed that Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, and Ryan Reynolds would reprise their roles in the sequel as Grug, Eep, and Guy from the first film. On May 21, 2015, Leslie Mann and Kat Dennings had joined the voice cast. Mann would lend her voice to an upscale mother of a rival family named Hope Betterman, while Dennings was set to voice her daughter, Dawn. It was also reported that Catherine Keener and Clark Duke were reprising their roles as Ugga and Thunk. In September 2017, it was confirmed that the original actors would reprise their roles. In October 2018, Peter Dinklage was cast in the film to voice the character Phil Betterman. In October 2019, DreamWorks revealed that Kelly Marie Tran had replaced Dennings as Dawn.

Music
In September 2020, it was announced that Mark Mothersbaugh had composed music for the sequel. The original 2013 feature was scored by Alan Silvestri. Jack Black's band Tenacious D also performed the cover song "I Think I Love You". Jack Black and Haim also performed "We Are Here Together".

Theatrical
The Croods: A New Age was theatrically released in the United States on November 25, 2020 by Universal Pictures, which was then followed by a PVOD release on December 18. It was previously scheduled to be released on November 3, 2017, December 22, 2017, September 18, 2020, and December 23, 2020.

The studio spent about $26.5 million promoting the film.

Home media
The Croods: A New Age will be released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment on Digital HD and on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and 4K Ultra HD on February 23, 2021. All the releases include two new short films, the award-winning short To: Gerard, deleted scenes, an audio commentary and more.

Box office and VOD
, The Croods: A New Age has grossed $50.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $103.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $154 million.

In the United States, the film made $1.85 million from 2,211 theaters on its first day, $2.7 million on its second (a 47% increase, opposed to the normal 40% drop seen on Thanksgiving Day), then $4 million on its third. It went on to debut to $9.7 million in its opening weekend (a five-day total of $14.3 million), the biggest opening weekend since Tenet over two months prior. The film remained in first the following two weekends, grossing $4.4 million and $3 million, respectively. It was dethroned by Monster Hunter in its fourth weekend. That same weekend, the film was the most-rented on FandangoNow, Apple TV, and Google Play. In its fifth weekend the film grossed $1.7 million over the Christmas frame. It also remained number one on all digital rental platforms. IndieWire estimated the film had made about $20 million from PVOD sales up to that point (of which Universal would keep 80% of). The film continued to hold steady in subsequent weekends, and regained the top box office spot in its 12th week of release with $2.7 million.

The film earned $3 million on its opening day in China, which is the third biggest for a Hollywood film in 2020, behind Tenet and Mulan. It went on debut to $19.2 million in China, and a total of $21.6 million internationally. By its third weekend of release the film crossed $46 million (RMB 300 million) in China, becoming the second-biggest Hollywood title of the year in the country behind Tenet ($66.6 million). It made $3.2 million in its fourth weekend of international play, pushing its running total above $57 million.

Critical response
Critics praised The Croods: A New Age as "a decent-enough follow-up" and commended the cast. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of 129 critics gave the film a positive review, and an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Another agreeable outing for the titular prehistoric clan, The Croods: A New Age may be the missing link for parents between more elevated family-friendly fare." According to Metacritic, which calculated a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on 26 critics, the film received "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale (the same score as the first film), and PostTrak reported 83% of those gave the film a positive score, with 59% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a "C+" and said, "It's a little silly, very colorful, and entertaining enough to deliver some good-hearted ideas that aren't beholden to any period in time. Worth nearly a decade of push-pull to get here? Probably not, but on its own merits it's a charming throwback". Alonso Duralde of TheWrap gave the film a positive review and wrote, "You may never have thought you needed or even wanted a sequel to The Croods, but you may find it a pleasant surprise in a year where most of the surprises have been anything but."