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Interviews

Interview: ‘Croods’ Directors Kirk DeMicco & Chris Sanders Talk The Differences Between DreamWorks And Pixar, Working With Roger Deakins & More

By Drew Taylor
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March 25, 2013 11:59 AM
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Interviews

This weekend, DreamWorks Animation’s new feature “The Croods” was unleashed in theaters nationwide. A zippy, prehistoric-set riff on the family-road-trip comedy, it features a clan of cavemen (and, it should be noted, cavewomen) who are forced to evolve after cataclysmic events threaten their way of life. It’s easily one of the most visually inventive and genuinely heartfelt movies to come out of DreamWorks Animation, and we were lucky enough to speak to Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders, co-directors of “The Croods,” about the development of the movie, the differences between DreamWorks Animation and Pixar, who their favorite cinematic cavemen are, how Guillermo del Toro and Roger Deakins helped, and why they utilized Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” in the score.

By Jessica Kiang
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February 15, 2013 2:00 PM
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Festivals

We suspect our reaction may be out of step with the general consensus of press at our Berlin Film Festival screening of the "The Croods" today, if the guffaws and applause were anything to go by, but really that had us kind of baffled. The DreamWorks film, from writer/directors Chris Sanders ("How to Train Your Dragon," "Lilo & Stitch") and Kirk Di Micco ("Space Chimps"), features a starry voice cast in Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke, and an appropriately high concept: the Croods are a family of cavemen who have to evolve suddenly when faced with cataclysmic natural disasters and the arrival of a young Homo Sapiens with the ability to make fire.