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The Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

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The Croods: Family Tree from DreamWorks Animation arrives on Hulu and Peacock September 23rd.

The Croods and the Bettermans are back in a brand new animated series. DreamWorks Animation announced today The Croods: Family Tree series, inspired by the hit film The Croods: A New Age, premieres on Peacock and Hulu September 23.

Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

The Croods: Family Tree continues the ever-evolving story of the Croods and the Bettermans as they learn to live together on the most idyllic farm in prehistory. The journey from sparring rivals to unlikely friends is fraught with hilarious misadventures as the two families slowly overcome their differences to turn a tree house divided into a tree home united.

Kelly Marie Tran returns as the voice of “Dawn” alongside new addition Amy Landecker as “Ugga.” Mark Banker (Go, Dog. Go!) and Todd Grimes (The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants) serve as executive producers. 

Synopsis

The Croods: Family Tree continues the ever-evolving story of The Croods and the Bettermans as they learn to live together on the most idyllic farm in prehistory. The journey from sparring rivals to unlikely friends is fraught with hilarious misadventures as the two families slowly overcome their differences to turn a tree house divided into a tree home united.

Voice Actors

  • Kelly Marie Tran (Raya and the Last Dragon) as Dawn
  • Amy Landecker (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts) as Ugga
  • Kiff VandenHeuvel (This Is Us) as Grug
  • Ally Dixon (The Interview) as Eep
  • AJ Locascio (Voltron Legendary Defender) as Thunk
  • Dee Bradley Baker (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts) as Sandy
  • Artemis Pebdani (Big City Greens) as Gran
  • Darin Brooks (The Bold and the Beautiful) as Guy
  • Matthew Waterson (Tales of Arcadia) as Phil
  • Amy Rosoff (ScandalCriminal Minds) as Hope
Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

About The Croods

In 2013, the modern day was introduced to the first family of the prehistoric one with The Croods. Starring Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke, the Academy Award®-nominated comedy about a clan dealing with their changing world swept up global audiences, reminding us of the timeless importance of family…and just how little we’ve evolved. Since then, The Croods has become a global franchise, earning more than $785 million worldwide.  In 2020, DreamWorks Animation invited audiences on an all-new adventure back in time with The Croods: A New Age. Having survived their fair share of dangers and disasters, from fanged prehistoric beasts to the end of the world, The Croods faced their biggest challenge of all: another family. And their adventures are just beginning. 

Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

Exclusive Interview with Executive Producers Mark Banker and Todd Grimes and Voice Talent Amy Landecker 

I was given the exclusive opportunity to sit down with both Executive Producers Mark Banker (Go, Dog. Go!; The Epic Tales of Captain Underpantsand Todd Grimes (The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants; Star Wars: Detours) as well as voice talent Amy Landecker (“Ugga”) to chat about The Croods: Family Tree.

After screening a few of the episodes, I was SUPER excited to chat with all of them. The interview was an absolute blast, I hope you’ll check it out:

What’s your favorite character or the one you relate to the most?

Amy – Ugga of course!!

Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

Todd – Now you put Mark and I on the spot, Ugga of course. No, I’m just kidding, my answer is the same for both questions, it’d be Grug for me. I not only relate to him the most, but he’s funny and caring. He just seems like someone I’d aspire to be…. maybe smarter.

Todd Grimes - Executive Producer
rTodd Grime- Executive Producer

Mark – I mean there is something I relate to in each of the characters. I do love Phil’s desire to reinvent the world, I relate to Grug’s desire to keep his family safe, I relate to Guy’s kind of function in between as a diplomat, I’m a middle child so I see a little bit of that in there, Dawn’s innocence and Eep’s spirit, Gran who can say anything and do anything she wants, Ugga because she’s so cool even in the face of danger, and then Hope who is everything to be wonderful all the time!

Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

Amy – That was a REALLY good answer Mark! I want to say Thunk is my favorite. He’s one of the greatest characters I’ve ever seen. The level of absurdity and fun makes me really happy. Also for some reason I relate to Hope. My Mom is a yoga teacher so maybe that’s why I see an eternal optimist but I just think she is funny! Amy that plays her is so funny, I laugh a lot and all of the things that she says as buzz words.

Mark – I forgot Thunk! He works harder at being lazy than anyone in the world!

Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

What message do you want the viewers to get out of the series?

Todd – That’s a good one! I always think of it as optimism. We created the show in the past year, almost entirely in the pandemic world from home. There’s a lot of weird things that have been going on in the world that have been somewhat divisive. Our show is an allegory of what’s happening now with different points of view. These people who have different points of view can still find common ground and work together. That to me is like optimistic for the future.

Amy – I think its about community and compromise and acceptance. It’s about how to stay close as we do move into the future. You can’t always be in the sleep pile. I love that pile but we all have our own bedrooms now. However, having that sense of community to stay connected, open and accepting of different types of people in your community. I just think its a really sweet show that makes you feel good which we all really need.

Amy Landecker - Voice Actor "Ugga"
Amy Landecker  – Voice Actor “Ugga”

Mark – I’ll just add that there is an idea that anything is possible for either of these families. The funny thing about the show is because of the period they are in, everything they have, they’ve sort of made for themselves. This treehouse, Bill built and they’ve invented farming in this world. The story is always about a problem that comes up and they’re the first people to ever deal with this problem, so they have to invent a solution. They do, they find ways around it, and I think the best message to get across is that truly anything is possible.

Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

What is the most challenging part of your jobs?

Mark – I’ll start. Meetings…. so many meetings. Todd and I are always in meetings! The thing with meetings when you’re in person, is that you get to move around a bit in different rooms. People get up and get coffee, and all. I’m sure this is true for everyone that is currently working from home in this environment. It is VERY easy to just sit for hours in one spot and not move around. It means that a lot of your day is spent working with others on the show on meetings! There’s also only about 2 hours of the day where Todd or I are not working. I take the night shift and go late into the night. Todd gets up really early in the morning. Between the two of us, we’re almost covered 24 hours.

Mark Banker - Executive Producer
Mark Banker – Executive Producer

Todd – Yea, there will be some emails from Mark at like 1am and then from me at like 4:30am! There’s only a small window where someone isn’t steering the ship. It is definitely a time management thing! There are so many elements that you have to oversee. In our position, just about everything gets run by us. Even if it’s minor, you still have to look at it and sign off on it or make a note. Hopefully more often sign off on it. I’m always eating my lunch at my desk but its part of the fun.

Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

Mark – And its the greatest! We get to make a TV show. Someone will be like, I’m tired, I need to go to another meeting and I’ll be like we’re making a TV show, its the greatest thing!

Todd – If you love what you do, you never “work” a day in your life.

Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

Amy – I have to drive from Santa Monica to Burbank! If you live in LA, you know that’s way worse than what these guys are talking about! In all seriousness, you know, in the beginning we did, we recorded the first few episodes at home in our own closet, on our own mic, and I’ve never appreciated a sound engineer more than I do now. I’ll never take them for granted again! They run the sessions so I can just be creative and not worry about my levels and did I save it and it was fun but definitely a challenge!

About DreamWorks Animation

DreamWorks Animation is one of the world’s leading producers of high-quality, animated family programming, reaching consumers in more than 190 countries. Creating a diverse array of original content in a variety of formats and delivering deep, fully immersive worlds served up with compelling characters, the prolific studio has garnered 27 Emmy® Awards since inception in 2013 and is home to such beloved series as Spirit Riding Free, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Archibald’s Next Big Thing, Kipo & the Age of Wonderbeasts, The Boss Baby: Back in Business, Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny, The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, Dragons: Race to the Edge, All Hail King Julien, and the recently released Gabby’s Dollhouse and Go, Dog. Go!  DreamWorks is a division of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group within NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

The Croods: Family Tree from DreamWorks Animation arrives on Hulu and Peacock September 23rd.

Croods: Family Tree Now Available + Exclusive Interview

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