The Croods: A New Age

The Croods: A New Age (also known as The Croods 2) is a 2020 American computer-animated comedy adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. It stars the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, Cloris Leachman, Leslie Mann, Kat Dennings and Peter Dinklage. Written by Dan and Kevin Hageman, directed by Joel Crawford, and produced by Mark Swift, the film is a sequel to 2013 film The Croods. It was released on November 25, 2020.

Premise
Years ago, Guy's parents become trapped in tar. As they sink into it, they tell him to find somewhere called 'tomorrow'. He goes on a long journey and meets a young Belt before eventually coming across Eep, leading to the events of the first film.

The Croods, along with Guy and their pets Chunky and Douglas, are still searching for a place to settle down, all the while Grug acts annoyed at Eep and Guy's blossoming romance. One night, Grug comes across a giant wall and leads the whole pack to it. They are soon caught in a net and are released by the owners of the land, a couple named Phil and Hope Betterman and they are soon revealed to be friends of Guy’s late parents and therefore, know Guy. 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 being better evolved. Simultaneously, the Bettermans are revealed to have prejudice towards cave people and believe that Guy is better off with them because of his greater evolution, so they hatch a scheme to get Guy to hook up with Dawn and to leave the Croods. Phil eventually takes Grug to his secret man-cave, a sauna-like place behind the waterfalls, where he manipulates him into believing Guy should leave their pack, and Hope gets on Ugga’s bad side by demeaning her family’s nature as cave people. During this, Guy immediately becomes accustomed to life with the Bettermans, adjusting to their ways but unintentionally drifting from Eep in the process.

Meanwhile, Eep discovers that Dawn has never been outside the wall, and, connecting this to the solitude she faced in her cave, uses Chunky to escape the land with Dawn 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, and Guy and Eep have a huge falling out, which results in Guy’s decision to stay with the Bettermans. Grug reveals that he and Ugga have eaten an entire supply of bananas hoarded around the Bettermans land that Phil had forbidden him from consuming. This causes the land to be attacked by 'Punch-Monkeys', monkeys with human-like strength, whom Phil had sent the bananas to every day so that they would leave his family alone. Upset over the lack of bananas, the Punch-Monkeys kidnap Grug, Phil, and Guy and take them to their homeland.

As the men are taken, the women, Thunk, and Chunky attempt to rescue them. During their time together, Hope vents out her frustrations with the Croods but grows to accept the Croods after she gets marooned on an island full of Wolf-Spiders, and the family makes peace with them. They eventually form a team called the Thundersisters, which was an old girl-group Gran was in when she was younger, to mount a rescue. 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 themselves, but to offer to a tyranical Spiny Mandrilla in hopes of appeasing its appetite. The 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 realize and regret the effects his words had on Eep.

Soon, the 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 Thundersisters 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 pulls off Eep's "peanut toe", which she used as a prosthetic limb, allowing the families to escape. Afterwards, Eep and Guy share their first kiss.

With their differences finally settled, the Bettermans allow the Croods to live in their land as neighbors along with the monkeys grateful to the humans for killing the Mandrilla, and tear down the wall surrounding their land. Guy declares that Eep is his 'tomorrow' and he and Eep soon move into one of the Bettermans’ bedrooms together, with Grug finally accepting that his daughter wants to be closer to Guy. The families continues to grow closer to each other, agreeing to Grug’s earlier motto to keep the ‘pack’ together.

Cast

 * Ryan Reynolds as Guy, a cave boy who lives with the Croods and is Eep's boyfriend.
 * Gabriel Jack voices a younger Guy.
 * Emma Stone as Eep Crood, a cave girl, Grug's oldest daughter and is Guy’s girlfriend.
 * Kelly Marie Tran as Dawn Betterman, Phil and Hope's daughter and only child who befriends Eep and is Guy’s old friend.
 * Nicolas Cage as Grug Crood, a caveman and the patriarch of the Croods.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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
 * Ryan Naylor as Creepo Monkey
 * Artemis Pebdani as Additional voices

ADR Group

 * Joel Crawford
 * Richard Gould
 * Januel P. Mercado
 * Ryan Naylor
 * James Ryan
 * Randy Thom

Development
By April 2013, DreamWorks Animation had started developing a sequel to the film, with Sanders and DeMicco returning to direct it. According to DeMicco, the sequel would focus on Ugga and motherhood, making it "the first chapter of society," expanding on the first film, which 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. Two months later, it was pushed back from its original release date of November 3, 2017 to December 22, 2017. On August 9, 2016, nearing NBCUniversal/Comcast's impending acquisition of DreamWorks Animation, 20th Century Fox removed the film from its planned December 22, 2017 release schedule. The film would be instead released by Universal Pictures sometime in 2018. Two weeks later, it was reported that The Lego Movie and Hotel Transylvania co-writers Kevin and Dan Hageman had been 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 Pictures' acquisition of DreamWorks, and it was DreamWorks' decision to cancel the film. However, in September 2017, DreamWorks and Universal revealed that the movie was back in production with a release date scheduled for September 18, 2020. It was also confirmed that the original actors would reprise their roles. However, DeMicco, the co-director of the first film, won't be returning as he is directing Vivo for Sony Pictures Animation. In October 2017, it was reported that Joel Crawford would serve as director and Mark Swift was set to produce.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, production of the film shifted to people working at home.

Casting
In September 2013, it had been confirmed that Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, and Ryan Reynolds would reprise their roles in the sequel. By 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.[14] 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 composer Mark Mothersbaugh would compose music for the sequel, marking his first feature-length project for DreamWorks Animation, as he previously scored multiple Universal Animation films.

Release
The Croods: A New Age is scheduled to be released on November 25, 2020 by Universal Pictures. It was previously scheduled to be released on November 3, 2017, December 22, 2017, September 18, 2020, and December 23, 2020.