The Croods

[James]

Yeah, I have some concerns about this one, but with Lilo and HTTYD under his belt Sanders gets the benefit of the doubt.

[James]

And that's why Sanders gets the benefit of the doubt. Review soon!

[EricJ]

And that's why Sanders gets the benefit of the doubt. Review soon!

Except let's be sure it's NOT "Sander's brilliant genius idea":
The project was originally developed as a Pirates-style Aardman "Alternate-world Britcom" stop-motion/CGI project from a storyline by John Cleese, back when Aardman was still working for The Midget.

(Croods.Blogspot.com)

Q.: John Cleese, ex-Monty Python, is credited as co-writer of The Croods. Would you please share his history with the film?
C.S.: John and my co-director, Kirk De Micco, had already written a first version of the film. I came on later. Kirk and I kept the main idea, that Grug's father -- played by Nicolas Cage -- has an exaggerated fear of all that is new. That new technologies terrorize. And this was John! John does not love technology. [...] His contribution is the DNA of the film.

Q: So let's start with the film's origin. Kirk, it's been widely reported that you and John Cleese and Aardman Animations started The Croods. But who came up with the initial idea?
KIrk: Kirk De Micco: John and I had written a script based on the Roald Dahl book, The Twits. We were doing that for Disney at the time. And as it goes, people read the script and liked it and thought it was funny, so they sent it around. Folks at DreamWorks read it and invited us to come in and talk about it. John knew Jeffrey [Katzenberg] very well by that point because of the Shrek films, and they had been friends. So I went in to DreamWorks and looked at a couple of things. I went back to John and told him about couple things that they had ideas for. They had a one page idea about a futuristic, intellectual inventor -- set in prehistoric times -- and a Luddite bruiser. It was sort of like Midnight Run, with Grodin and De Niro. It was a road movie about these two guys. It was really just a one page road movie, and Aardman was involved. So that's how we all started working together. The thing that really kicked it off was the inventions and the guy being afraid of inventions. John has this very big fear of technology, and there was this book, Technopoly, that he was reading at the time. It was all about what technology was doing to the world and how it was beginning to run it.

Q: Fueling the paranoia?
Kirk (laughing): Yeah, exactly. So that's the one thing that has carried over through out all of the incarnations -- the fear of change. It's that same thematic ground that we're walking on, it's just that we're dramatizing it in a completely different way. The real problem with the beginning version was that while it could be very funny and satirical, it was very intellectual about the fear. Until it became personal -- and the real personal fear of change is that which happens in your family, or a guy losing his daughter, that's what you connect to emotionally -- the fear of shoes or whatever new thing you came up with in prehistoric time was strictly intellectual. So I think that's the biggest change that happened over the course of the eight years.

Q: One of the blog's super-regulars (Richard Bensam!) wanted to know how you got hooked up with John Cleese to begin with?
Kirk: It was based on the Roald Dahl book, The Twits. I had adapted other things, and every once in a while, when you're doing these as a writer, there will be situations where directors or producers are involved, [...] someone like Tim Burton or whoever that act as 'The Keeper of The Tone.' John loved that book. He used to read it to his daughter. So we met. He was going to be a producer, an executive producer, but as we kept on working it just made sense that we start writing together.

Somehow, along the line, it turned into "Family", when they wanted an image that would take them off the Dahl/Cleese story, and then the Brave-esque "Forward-thinking teen daughter reaching for the sun", since DW always tries to play the feminist card after the Shrek sequels.
Oh, and then Sanders threw in the visual landscapes, the toothy critters, and the psycho Lilo-baby.

[Dacey]

[ShyViolet]

Sanders is respected because he's a brilliant artist and not just a hanger-on to DeBlois. And like we've often discussed here, many directors get handed projects that weren't originally theirs. That doesn't make the artist any less competent. And DreamWorks is past the whole ultra feminist Shrek phase.

Plus, what's so wrong with toothy characters and huge landscapes? After all these are CARTOONS.

[James]

AV review is up!

http://animatedviews.com/2013/the-croods-film/

[ShyViolet]

Saw it today...enjoyed it very much, although I wish there could have been a few more suspenseful moments. The animation and designs were beautiful, and the bright colors very "Sanders".
The audience I saw it with seemed to enjoy it a lot as well.

Also I--thank G-d--was able to see it 2d and yes, I DID feel a LOT more connected to the audience than when I saw WIR and ROTG.

My only other problem was that I thought Guy was a little bland and should have been better developed. There was also kind of an episodic feel to it as well, but fortunately the charm of the characters and beauty of the designs helped to alleviate this.
And yes, it was funny and action packed but in no way felt like recanned Shrek set in the stone age. Not just because of no pop culture references but the warmth and wonder of a strange new world, not a tired one we've seen many times before, as in the later Shrek and Madagascar sequels.

[Dacey]

You missed out on some really great 3-D then, Vi.

Seriously, though, I've found that DW uses the format MUCH better than Pixar does. And in the case of this film, I actually thought it helped enhance the more emotional moments, notably during the movie's last 15 minutes (including things like the fog or the emptyness of a cave when alone).

I really don't have any major complaints about this movie. Emma Stone was just so, so, so, so good, and her character animation was up to match. I liked how the character was somewhat masculine in appearance while still being attractive, and her relationship with Nicolas Cage's Grug was quite effective (again, especially during the film's last 15 minutes).

Honestly not sure why the reviews for this haven't been even better than they have been. This was a very solid adventure comedy all around, and while not an instant classic like Stitch or Dragon, it will probably end up being one of my favorite animated movies of the year (and yes, this was a Sanders picture through and through. To suggest otherwise is just being in denial). Heck, I actually cried during this film...a film that was called The Croods! That alone is a sign of how good it is as far as I'm concerned.

[bcrombar]

The Croods was pretty good and I found it entertaining. As I thought back to the movie the next day after watching it though, I remember rolling my eyes a few times when Grug "had an idea." That whole scene was dumbed down way too much. Are we really suppose to believe he is that dumb?

Anywho, besides that small detail the film kept you guessing what would be next and the vivid colors were beautiful. I could see this movie being an easy setup for more Croods to come.

[ShyViolet]

Interesting interview/video with JK:

http://www.9news.com/entertainment/3352 ... xceptional

[ShyViolet]

Article on DW and diversification:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dreamw ... 2013-07-08

(Funny they refer to Casper and He-Man as DW characters lol.)

[James]

It took awhile to get used to hearing Spider-man and the Hulk referenced as Disney characters too!

[ShyViolet]

True.

[Ben]

And...the Lone Ranger...!

[ohmahaaha]

I'm a little bummed that "Lone Ranger" isn't performing that well at the box office ... I was hoping it would generate enough interest to spawn a release of the 60s Format Films cartoon series! God I loved that show!