THE CROODS New Images

DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming film, The Croods, directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch) and Kirk DeMicco ((Space Chimps) is a stop-motion movie about a family of Neanderthals and the first photos from the spring release have emerged courtesy of EW.

Featuring the voices of Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Nicolas Cage, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke, the film about a prehistoric family group trying to adapt to the new world changing, opens March 22nd, 2013.

Here’s characters description:

• Thunk (voiced Duke): DeMicco describes the middle-sibling 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 says, ‘I don’t think Thunk will ever catch up. We love him.’

• Gran (Leachman): The main antagonist for Cage’s character. ‘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 calls her ‘half Tasmanian devil and half child.’ Oscar-winning sound designer Randy Thom is building her growing voice from a compiled 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.’

• 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 hopelessly outdated 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, there’s handsome 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.’ DeMicco adds ‘Like a human lighter.’

Guy and Eep form a pair bond 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.