DreamWorks (via iTunes Trailers) has released a first trailer for their prehistoric animated adventure The Croods, the highly anticipated new animated film from directors Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco. It features the eclectic voice talents of Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman. It will be released in Australia on 28 March 2013 from Paramount.
The Croods is a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the world’s first family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures — and their outlook is changed forever.
At The Reel Bits, we don’t just post trailers now, we review them too. This is Trailer Talk. Check out our thoughts after viewing the trailer below.
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Trailer Talk:
Chris Sanders will forever remain an animation god thanks to his two features to date: Lilo & Stitch (2002) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010). So it’s interesting that the first look at his latest film, with co-director Kirk DeMicco (Space Chimps), has so many traditional elements to it. Indeed, it follows 2012’s trend of animated rebellious daughters (Brave, Hotel Transylvania) and in many ways posits itself as a “Ice Age with humans”. Of course, this is just a trailer, and far be it to us to judge a film based on 2 minutes of footage. Who do you think we are: paying audiences?
Let’s talk about what we can assess this trailer on, and that’s the animation. It is, in a word, gorgeous. The almost slate grey and brown look of the cave still allows for a great deal of character detail, the area where Sanders’s works have always excelled. As the colour world is literally revealed to us, like Dorothy stepping into Oz, we are given a jaw-dropping moment that is sure to be mind-melting on the big screen. We have enough faith in the talent that this will be more than a follower, especially given that both directors are also writing, so we are keen to see more.
Bits Rating: ★★★½
I’m excited to see more, too! One of the things I loved about the trailer is its emphasis on the family. ‘Lilo & Stitch’ and ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ showed Chris Sanders to be acutely adept at exploring the theme of fractured families. In fact, it was his silly and sensitive insights into the endless struggles of keeping a family together that made me fall in love with his work. The Croods appears to continue this exploration.
That’s a really good point, Ju-osh. Hasn’t thought about it in terms of “ohana” until you mentioned it, and that’s just fine by me. I’m a fan of all things Sanders, even have his sketchbooks and comic strip collections. All hail.