Trivia / The Croods: A New Age

• B-Team Sequel: The sequel was directed, produced, written, and scored by a different crew from that of the first film.
• Died During Production: Ángeles Bravo, the Latin American Spanish voice for Gran, passed away on December 18, 2018. As such, she was replaced by Magda Giner.
• Late Export for You: Was released in the UK on July 16th, 2021, just under eight months after it's US release on November 25th, 2020.
• The Other Darrin: In the Latin dub, Eiza González, Gabriela Gómez, Arturo Castañeda, Ángeles Bravo (see Died During Production above) and Victoria Ramírez did not reprise their roles of Eep, Ugga, Thunk, Gran and Sandy. They were replaced by Regina Blandón, Maribel Guardia, Paco Rueda, Magda Giner and Ananda García.
  • Some of the reasons behind the changes have to do with Eiza currently residing in the United States and Victoria having hit puberty since the first film's release.
• Referenced by...: In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Vivian praises Nicolas Cage's performance in Croods 2 when they first meet, claiming to have recently seen it with her nephew. Martin later admits that he hasn't seen Croods 2, since he feels too old for it at 44.
• Sequel Gap: Released seven years after the first movie.
• Sleeper Hit: By the standards of a movie released in theaters amidst a global pandemic, anyway. While the first film was a blockbuster, many were expecting a significant decline in popularity - or even a Box Office Bomb - given the prolonged gap between the two films (even Dawn of the Croods had concluded several years prior). However, while it's difficult to make a head-to-head comparison given the circumstances, A New Age did score the biggest opening of the pandemic up to that point (nearly $10 million) and, as of February 2021, has earned $52 million domestically - on par with Tenet and above Wonder Woman 1984 - and $156 million worldwide, while also consistently charting strongly on VOD platforms following its December release.^note It even returned to the top of the box office for two weeks in February, nearly three months after opening. It also did so with a budget estimated to be far lower than the first film ($65 million vs. ~$135-175 million).
• What Could Have Been:
  • The entire film overall. It was originally set to be released on November 3, 2017, but it was cancelled in 2016 following Universal's acquisition of DreamWorks Animation, as there had been some doubts about proceeding with the film before the acquisition, leading to its cancellation. However, it was Un-Canceled in September 2017 and set for a November 25, 2020 release date.
  • Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, the directors of the original film, were initially intended to direct the sequel as well, but they were replaced by Joel Crawford. However, they are still credited for the story, and Sanders reprised his role as Belt.
  • Before the film was temporarily cancelled, the film's plot was going to be centered on Ugga and the theme of motherhood. Taking into account the project's temporary cancellation and Ugga's short screentime in the first trailer, the idea was dropped long ago.
  • Alan Silvestri was originally set to return as composer before being replaced by Mark Mothersbaugh.
  • Kat Dennings was originally cast to voice Dawn Betterman, but she left the project in late 2019 and was replaced by Kelly Marie Tran.
  • As shown in this demo reel from a former animator, the Bettermans had completely different designs prior to the film's initial cancellation. Hope and Phil were both blonde, Phil had a larger, more strapping build similar to Grug, and Dawn had more of a Perky Goth appearance with a strong resemblance to Kat Dennings.

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