The Croods: A New Age (also known as The Croods 2) is a 2020 American computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The sequel to The Croods (2013) as well as the second film in The Croods franchise, it’s directed by Joel Crawford (in his feature directorial debut) with a screenplay by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Paul Fisher, and Bob Logan from a story by the original directors Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders. The film features the returning voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, and Cloris Leachman alongside new additions to the cast including Peter Dinklage, Leslie Mann, and Kelly Marie Tran.
A sequel to The Croods was first announced in 2013, with directors DiMicco and Sanders returning to helm the film. Its development continued through 2014 and 2015 until its cancellation in November 2016 due to the doubts in response to Universal's acquisition of DreamWorks. However, the project was revived in 2017 with Crawford replacing Sanders and DiMicco as director. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, much of the final animations were done from the crew's homes.
The Croods: A New Age was theatrically released in the United States on November 25, 2020. It grossed over $215 million worldwide against its $65 million budget and received generally positive reviews, with critics calling it "a decent-enough follow-up" and praising the cast. The film was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
Plot[]
A flashback shows the death of Guy's parents when he was a child. As they drown in tar, they tell him to find somewhere called "tomorrow". He goes on a long journey and meets a young Belt before taking him along for the ride. This eventually leads up to events of meeting Eep and her family.
The Croods, along with Guy and their pets Chunky and Douglas, are still searching for a place to settle down, all the while surviving many dangerous creatures along the way. Grug is repeatedly annoyed at Eep and Guy's blossoming romance, fearing they may separate from the rest of the pack. This fear intensifies after Guy proposes to Eep that they find their own "tomorrow" without the rest of the Croods. As Grug walks off in anger, he soon comes across a giant wall and leads the whole pack to it. On the other side lays an idyllic paradise-like land rich in agriculture that the Croods quickly become enamored with. However, they are soon caught in a net and are released by the owners of the land, a couple called Phil and Hope Betterman, who were best friends with Guy's parents before their deaths and Guy's disappearance. 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 as the Bettermans soon reveal themselves to be technologically advanced, better-mannered, and visibly condescending toward the Croods. Believing that Guy is better off with them they hatch a scheme to get Guy to leave the Croods. Phil eventually takes Grug to his secret man-cave, a sauna-like place behind some waterfalls, where he manipulates him into believing Guy should leave their pack in exchange for Eep staying with her family. Meanwhile, Hope angers Ugga by insulting her family's lifestyle and attempts to manipulate her like Phil, but fails, thus leading to Ugga and Grug's decision to leave.
Sometime after this, Eep discovers that Dawn has never left the inside of the wall. Relating this to the solitude she faced in her cave, Eep convinces Dawn to use Chunky to escape the land 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 as well as Guy and Eep, especially when Dawn's swelling is revealed, culminating in Grug accidentally revealing his and Phil's deal. Having had enough, the Croods decide to leave in the morning, but Guy decides to stay after he and Eep have a falling out. Soon, the land is attacked by "Punch Monkeys" (monkey-sized but with human-like strength) on account of Grug and Ugga eating a bunch of bananas the Bettermans hoard around their land and have forbidden Grug from eating. Phil reveals he sends the Punch Monkeys the bananas every day so that they leave the Bettermans alone and since Grug and Ugga ate them, the Punch Monkeys become upset and kidnap Grug, Phil, and Guy and take them to their homeland.
As the men are taken, the remaining Croods and Bettermans leave to rescue the men, but eventually get marooned on an island full of Wolf-Spiders, wolves with the characteristics of arachnids. During their time together, Hope finally snaps, lashing out on the Croods and running off. However, during an encounter with the Wolf-Spiders, she learns the error of her ways and accepts the Croods. When they learn the location of the men, they name themselves "The Thunder Sisters", after a female-exclusive clan Gran was in when she was younger. At the Punch Monkey home, Grug, Guy and Phil soon discover that Phil's diversion of a river to irrigate his farm unknowingly deprived the Punch Monkeys of their water supply and that the Punch Monkeys need the bananas not only to eat, but to offer to a large primate monster called the Spiny Mandrilla in hopes of appeasing it. The Punch 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 regret what he said during his and Eep's fallout.
Soon, the Punch 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 Thunder Sisters show up to rescue them. A long and perilous battle ends with Guy and Eep on a giant skull-chandelier where they reconcile and use it to defeat the Spiny Mandrilla by using fire to sever the ropes and send the skull falling into the abyss below. The Spiny Mandrilla climbs back out of the depths and grabs Eep by her "peanut toe", which she uses as a prosthetic phalange, and pulls it off, sending the monster plummeting to its demise and allowing the families to escape.
With their differences finally settled, the Bettermans allow the Croods to live in their land as neighbors, with Guy realizing that Eep is his "tomorrow". Guy and Eep soon move into one of the Bettermans’ bedrooms together, which Grug approves of, and the Punch Monkeys become their next door neighbors.