At this point, it’s surprising when DreamWorks Animation doesn’t make a sequel out of one of its properties.  While the studio was decidedly more nervous than usual for the release of last month’s prehistoric pic The Croods following the commercial disappointment of Rise of the Guardians, audiences flocked to the cavepeople-centric animated film.  The Croods’ worldwide box office total now stands at over $385 million, and THR reports that DreamWorks Animation has officially greenlit a sequel.

Writers/directors Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders will return for The Croods 2, and the studio is currently in negotiations with certain key voice actors to return as well.  The first pic boasts a voice cast that includes Emma Stone, Nicolas Cage, and Ryan Reynolds, and we can reasonably expect a fair amount of the actors to come back.  Next on the DWA release docket is the snail racing pic Turbo this July, which also features the voice of Reynolds.

The nationwide expansion of Harmony Korine‘s Spring Breakers meant that I had the opportunity to catch the film last night at my local theater. We’ll talk a more specifically about our coverage of the film after the jump. For now, I’d like to make a futile attempt at encapsulating my feelings on the pic in the next few sentences. There’s a lot to like about Breakers whether it be the performances (James Franco‘s especially), the music, the slick editing and use of foreshadowing, etc. Nevertheless, for me this isn’t a movie that I “liked” as much as it’s one I respect. It’s beautiful, surreal, challenging, abhorrent, and vapid all at the same time. In other words, it’s art.

I could go on for days about the pic but that’s not why we’re here. In this week’s Top 5 we’ll take a look at our Breakers coverage, some Transformers 4 plot details, Olympus Has Fallen interviews with Gerard Butler and Antoine Fuqua just to name a few, a new trailer and poster for Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Croods interviews with Nicolas Cage and more. As is standard, a brief recap and link to each awaits after the jump.

Now playing is DreamWorks Animations’ The Croods. Directed by Kirk De Micco (Space Chimps) and Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon), The Croods centers on a prehistoric family embarking on the world’s first  road trip through an uncharted, fantastical and dangerous world.  The film features the voice talents of Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Nicolas Cage, Clark Duke, Catherine Keener and Cloris Leachman.  For more on The Croods, you can watch 8 clips here.

At the New York City press junket, I was able to speak with De Micco and Sanders.  We talked about how they started working together, how the film changed during the development process, how The Croods was originally set up at Aardman as a stop-motion animated movie, casting, technical challenges, whether Guillermo del Toro had any involvement with the film, their working relationship with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the film’s use of 3D, and updates on Hong Kong Phooey and How to Train Your Dragon 2.  Hit the jump to watch.

“Crude” is a half-appropriate description of DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods.  The word couldn’t apply less to the gorgeous animation, which not only paints a broad, beautiful canvas for the setting, but also revels in meticulous detail.  But the film’s sense of humor and thinly-drawn characters are rarely worthy of their magnificent surroundings.  Although the film doesn’t resort to fart humor (which DreamWorks Animation has never been hesitant to employ), it’s mostly slapstick that renders the characters’ need to survive less than compelling when they can be tossed 80 feet in the air and land with nary a scratch.  The story may preach about looking to tomorrow, but the tired story and themes are rooted firmly in the past.

We’ve got eight clips from DreamWorks Animations’ The Croods to share with you today. Directed by Kirk De Micco (Space Chimps) and Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon), The Croods centers on the titular prehistoric family embarking on the world’s first  road trip through an uncharted, fantastical and dangerous world.  Featuring the voice talents of Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Nicolas Cage, Clark Duke, Catherine Keener and Cloris Leachman, The Croods opens March 22nd.  Hit the jump to watch all eight clips.

Today, DreamWorks Animation presented a sneak peek at the three films set for release in 2013: The Croods, Turbo and Mr. Peabody & Sherman. While the films are in varying stages of completeness, clips from each movie were screened to give the audience a sense of tone, story and aesthetics. Not familiar with the movies in question? Here’s a look at the relevant directors and voice casts:

• The Croods – Directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, and featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke, The Croods opens March 22, 2013 in 3D.
• Turbo – Directed by David Soren and featuring a voice cast including Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Peña, Luis Guzman, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Kurtwood Smith, Snoop Dogg and Samuel L. Jackson, Turbo opens July 19, 2013 in 3D.
• Mr. Peabody & Sherman – Directed by Rob Minkoff and featuring the voices of Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Allison Janney, Stephen Colbert, Stephen Tobolowsky, Mel Brooks, Leslie Mann and Stanley Tucci, Mr. Peabody & Sherman opens November 1, 2013 in 3D.

Hit the jump for a recap of the sneak peeks.

The first trailer for DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods has been released.  Written and directed by Kirk De Micco (Space Chimps) and Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon), the film takes us back to “a previously undiscovered era in the history of our planet” and centers on the culture clash between a family of cavemen and a more evolved young man named Guy (Ryan Reynolds).  We don’t see much of the plot in this trailer, but the visuals look absolutely gorgeous.  We learn that the family The Croods live by the rule of “never try anything new,” so naturally the film will focus on their journey of leaving the cave for the first time.  It’s interesting to see DreamWorks playing up the more dramatic and awe-inspiring aspects of this and Rise of the Guardians compared the comedy-heavy trailers for their previous films.  I’m sure The Croods will still have plenty of jokes, but I’m encouraged by what we see in this teaser.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also features the voices of Emma Stone, Nicolas Cage, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke.  The Croods opens in 3D on March 22nd, 2013.

We’re about six months out from the release of DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods, the studio’s tale about a prehistoric family unit trying to adapt to a changing world.  We brought you coverage on The Croods earlier this year from Comic-Con 2012 where DreamWorks Animation chief creative officer Bill Damashke and supervising animator James Baxter talked about the backstory and progress of the film.  Now we have some new polished images of the family members as well as more meat to fill out each character.

The Croods, written and directed by Kirk De Micco (Space Chimps) and Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch) and featuring the voices of Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Nicolas Cage, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke, opens March 22nd, 2013.  Hit the jump to check out the new images and character descriptions. 

Jay Baruchel, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, and Kristen Wiig will reprise their roles in DreamWorks Animation’s sequel to How to Train Your Dragon.  Also returning is Toothless and other non-speaking-but-adorable dragons from the first film.  Co-writer and co-director Dean DeBlois will fly solo on this one with Chris Sanders (who is busy on DWA’s 2012 caveman comedy The Croods) executive producing.  Since How to Train Your Dragon was conceive as a “prequel-of-sorts” to Cressida Cowell’s book series, DeBlois plans to expand the world presented in the first film.  Producer Bonnie Arnold explains, “There are nine books, and I feel like there are all sorts of elements that we could pull from.”

How to Train Your Dragon has been a box office smash for the studio ($489.6 million worldwide) and it’s one of my favorite films of the year.  DreamWorks Animation has the 3D sequel on track for a 2013 release.  Hit the jump for the press release.

How to Train Your Dragon is by far the best DreamWorks Animation film to date.  I don’t know if it will be their highest grossing (probably not because it doesn’t have “Shrek” in the title) or if it will sell the most toys (the main dragon is pretty darn cute), but it’s easily the best movie I’ve seen from the company.  I find too often that their films rely on getting the most famous celebrities as the voices and having most the jokes be puns or pop-culture references.  How to Train Your Dragon tells the simple boy-and-his-dragon story and then carries you away with likable characters and exhilarating action.

DreamWorks Animation has released a third trailer for director Chris Sanders How to Train Your Dragon. The movie features the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, and T.J. Miller.

How to Train Your Dragon is about a teenage Viking named Hiccup who doesn’t fit in with the rest of his tribe.  Instead of wanting to kill dragons, he gets along with the creatures and wants to teach his tribe that killing isn’t the answer.  Of course, he needs to overcome a number of obstacles before his tribe will listen to him, and you know where the story is going to end.  Saying that, I really enjoyed the film and think it’s going to be a big hit for DreamWorks.

Hit the jump to watch the newest trailer.  And keep your ears open for some music from True Romance.

DreamWorks Animation is going back to basic with their new movie, The Croods. Croods will be a prehistoric comedy set in the early days of mankind. Variety is reporting that Croods will feature Nicholas Cage as a tribal leader who must lead his people to a new home in the aftermath of a disastrous earthquake. Ryan Reynolds will voice a wanderer full of modern (read: dangerous) ideas. Kirk DeMicco (Space Chimps) will share the writing and directing with Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch). Hit the jump for my thoughts on DWA’s latest project.

I approach each DreamWorks Animation movie with extreme caution because while there are a few I highly enjoy (“Over the Hedge”, “Bee Movie”), their films have a tendency of trying too hard to be hip and cool rather than just tell a good story and include clever jokes.

But the first trailer for their upcoming movie “How to Train Your Dragon” (in 3D, of course), is quite charming.  And while the trailer may say “From the Creators of ‘Shrek’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda’”, the writer-directors of the film are Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders.  They made the “Lilo & Stitch” and now I understand why “How to Train Your Dragon” looks good.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  “How to Train Your Dragon” hits theaters on March 26^th, 2010.