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. the-croods-guyCheck out the new images and character descriptions for The Croods, courtesy of EW (via The Playlist) followed by the official synopsis.  Left to right, here are the family members:

  • Thunk (voiced Duke, Hot Tub Time Machine): DeMicco describes the middle-child as “6-foot-9, 320 pounds, and 9 years old. He’s so big and so wants to be like his sister and his dad. He has the best heart and the worst coordination." Sanders comments on his intellect, saying, "I don’t think Thunk will ever catch up. We love him.”
  • Gran (Leachman): The main antagonist for Cage's character, Grug, the father of the family. “She’s like this ferocious, almost crocodile-type woman,” DeMicco said. “We always say: ‘She’s older than dirt — some say she’s 45. She has lived a very long life in a short amount of time.”
  • Sandy the baby: Sanders refers to her as a “half Tasmanian devil and half child.”  Oscar-winning sound designer Randy Thom is building her growing voice from a compilation of creature noises. “She’s still ferocious, still bites, and it’s kind of the way that Grug wants his kids to be. She’s a survivor. She might be the one to make it better than any of them.”
  • Ugga (Keener): “She’s probably more open-minded than Grug when it comes to change, but she’s very much his partner in this thing,” Sanders says. “For a mom, she has the world’s hardest job. Keeping this family alive is not easy. Just getting lunch is a life and death situation. This is the universal thing — dads, moms all want to keep their family safe. ‘How much freedom do I let them have? … I wish I could keep them in sight all the time, because then everything will be okay.”
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    Eep
     (Stone): “Of all The Croods, she was the one who liked the cave they lived in the least,” Sanders says. “The Croods spent much of their time in the dark, and that was Grug’s way of keeping his family safe. When their cave falls down and they’re forced to go on this journey, everyone is a little freaked out — but not Eep. For The Croods, anything new is super scary. New is bad. On this journey, every single thing they come across is going to be new. For Grug, it’s a nightmare. For Eep, it’s the greatest thing that ever happened to her.”
  • Grug (Cage): The filmmakers refer to Grug as a well-meaning but fumbling sitcom dad. “Everyone deals with change in their family, and who deals with change more than a father with kids growing up?” says DeMicco. “Nic Cage has done a great job of making him likeable, while at the same time overprotective, which is not an easy thing to do.”

And finally, here's our dashing protagonist, Guy (Reynolds):

“Guy is human being 2.0; he’s not as a strong as the Croods but he’s more about using his brain,” Sanders says. “When they discover he can make fire, they kidnap him, stick him in a hollow log, and keep him.”

“Like a human lighter,” DeMicco adds.

Guy and Eep form a romantic pairing which, as Sanders says, “ is really Grug’s nightmare. Guy is full of ideas. Croods don’t really have ideas.” Guy apparently wins Eep over by introducing her to life outside of a dark cave and that evolutionary weak point of women: shoes.

Here's the official synopsis for The Croods:

The Croods is being written and directed by two-time Academy Award® nominee Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch) and Kirk DeMicco (Space Chimps) and produced by Kristine Belson (How to Train Your Dragon) and Jane Hartwell (Shrek). It stars Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman.  The Croods is a comedy adventure that takes us back to a previously undiscovered era in the history of our planet known as the Croodaceous, when nature was still a work-in-progress… full of never-before- seen creatures and landscapes.  Audiences will relate to the hilarious family antics as an imaginative and resourceful newcomer helps the Croods navigate their way through the fantastic world beyond their cave.

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