The Stone Age hasn’t exactly fared well on the big screen so far — aside from Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Quest for Fire” (which isn’t even that great), most cinematic depictions of Neanderthals have tended to be closer to “10000BC” or “Encino Man” in quality, especially if you include Jason Statham films under the definition of “Neanderthal movies.” Nevertheless, Dreamworks Animation are taking another stab with the long-gestating CGI animated “The Croods.”
Originally announced as an Aardman Animations production in 2005, then entitled “Crood Awakening” (with a script co-written by John Cleese), the project reverted to Dreamworks when the studio split from the British animators. Nicolas Cage will voice Crug, a conservative family man who has to lead his family through dangerous territory after an earthquake destroys their home. Along the way, they meet a wanderer, to be voiced by Ryan Reynolds, who starts to win over Crug’s family with his modern ways of thinking. The film will, of course, be released in 3-D, in March 2012.
Aardman’s output and “Kung Fu Panda” aside, Dreamworks’ animated efforts have tended to be pretty awful, although the buzz around director Chris Sanders’ “How To Train Your Dragon” is actually pretty good, despite its decidedly mediocre trailers. Sanders is helming this one too, which does bring a certain amount of hope — “Lilo & Stitch” is something of a minor classic — although this is balanced by the fact that he’s paired with the guy behind “Space Chimps,” Kirk DeMicco. But then, DeMicco was developing the project at Aardman with Cleese, so maybe he’ll come through on this one.
