The Croods - Sneak Peek Into the Making of #DWAnimation #TheCroods

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My family and I recently had the opportunity to attend a special sneak peek of The Croods, as well as a special meeting with The Croods writers and directors, Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco. Just in case you live in a cave (har har!), here is the trailer with the guys providing some commentary on the film.

While I can’t give my review of the movie quite yet, (but believe me, you won’t want to miss it) I wanted to share my thoughts from meeting with these 2 talented men! They were funny, creative, and clearly in their element when talking with real families about this movie project that they’ve been working on for longer than my children have been alive! 🙂During our Q&A session, they were so down to earth and frank with us answering any questions that were thrown out there. Neither is a newbie to amazing films. They are both veterans in the industry with a great vision and lively personality. They truly lit up when discussing things. There were several children at this presentation, and they had some fun questions!First of all, I loved that they described Grug’s motto of, “Never not be afraid!” as Kirk DeMicco’s’s own motto. He said, “Yeah, I live my life in fear.” How funny that he would interject his own quirkiness into this film. It is very fitting for this character and his family, as they have survived in fear all of these years…. that is until they meet Guy. “Guy possesses the world’s first imagination,” described Chris Sanders. Through his character, the Crood family learns to branch out and to be brave. The underlying message was to let people know that The Croods and Guy are dead ends without each other. Together, they possess the cobination needed to go on. The family bonded and had to begin using their imagination to continue on in their journey and to survive.

The Croods – Directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, and featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke.

In the movie, 39 different animals were built. They were silly combinations of animals like the Molar Bear, the Sharkodile, the Prihanakete, and the Mccawnivore. Of the 39 different animals, only 21 were actually used in the film. If you’re interested in seeing these creatures, as well as several more that were dreamnt up by the folks at Rovio (the guys that brought you Angry Birds!), check out The Croods game. It launches March 14th, and Kirk and Chris mentioned that it would be similar to a Farmville style game where the player can tame and capture animals and build the world around them. There will also be The Croods: Prehistoric Party! for Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii, and Wii U launching March 19, 2013.

Before I give too much away about the movie, let’s focus on some of the development of the film.What inspired the characters and designs? Chris said, “We wanted to design characters that were believable to survive in the environment.” They built their own cavemen from scratch and gave each character their own qualities that made them animal-like, but very much human as well.The movie was begun back in 2004 when Kirk DeMicco began writing and developing it. In 2007, Chris Sanders came on board and began to help develop it as well. The original idea began as one village versus another – Crood and Flash. Eventually, they began focusing more on the Crood side of things and turned the focus into one particular family and one single more modern character.Someone in the Q&A session asked how it was different directing an animated movie versus a live film. In an animated movie, there is much more repetition Everything is separated into different parts. Any time there is a revision or different though, different sets of people all have to be informed and everyone has to orchestrate together to put it together. Cinematographers, effects, lighters, etc all have to work together to fit it all together cohesively. They also filmed the actors as they voiced the characters in order to bring to life some of their characteristics as they voiced the lines. This was particularly true with the character of Eep, voiced by Emma Stone. Unique quirks the actors displayed while being their character did end up on the big screen!Another question asked was why they made the world so fantastic and imaginative They said they wanted to make the WORLD the fantasy part of the movie and make the characters more realistic and grounded. Dreamworks has NEVER made a family film using a real human family as the main characters! They wanted to make sure they did it right with this one! (I think they did a great job.)Finally, one of the kids int he session asked how the guys got started in their careers. Kirk said that he started out as a screenwriter and a writer, always staying true to his passions and interests. Chris told us that he began as a story artist, and he drew all the time!Will there be a part 2? Both men lit up with excitement and said that if people like The Croods, they’d be happy to do another one!

Don’t miss this awesome family film. It comes out March 22, 2013 in 3D! In the meantime, check out this fun The Croods maze game and this The Croods memory game to take you into the creative genius and colorful splendor of The Croods!

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