The Art of the Croods

You’ve seen the movie, now own the amazing book.  We’re talking about “The Art of The Croods”, an official art book featuring over 400 pieces of concept art, character sketches, storyboards and digital paintings, along with interviews with key animation talent.

The Croods takes us back to the beginning – a previously undiscovered era known as the Croodaceous period – a time when Mother Nature was still experimenting and the animals, flora and fauna we know today had not yet evolved. Trying to find their evolutionary niche are The Croods, a family who must adapt to survive after their cave home is destroyed.

“The Art of The Croods” traces the evolution of the comedy adventure movie and we’ve got our review below, so click ahead to check it out and thanks to our good friends over at TITAN Books for letting us review this in advance!

The Art of the Croods

THE CROODS is a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the world’s first family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime, when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures — and their outlook is changed forever.

It seems like there are no shortage of behind the scenes / making of books for movies nowadays, and with all the hard work, creativity and ground-breaking effects of recent cinema productions (both Animated and Live-Action) this one is most certainly a welcome addition.  Noela Hueso’s “The Art of The Croods” is busting at the seams with everything you would expect, from gorgeous concept art, character sketches, storyboard layouts, illustrations, digital matte paintings and more, over 400 pieces of art, it’s quite amazing. What’s nice too is that this also gives you a behind the scenes background into the production of the film as various commentary is peppered in from everyone including the animation directors, the films producers, production designers and more. It’s refreshing to be able to learn from a book like this the secrets behind these grand animated future classics, because when you do revisit them on home-video or on cable, you feel like you have a better understanding and appreciation for them.

The Art of the Croods

That being said, it’s easy to get a deep appreciation of the time and effort put into this film by flipping thru page after page of this 176 page book. Now I admit, I have not seen this movie yet, but thumbing thru this book with my kids, the color and comedy of this film popped out thru the art and I immediately told my wife I wanted to take the family this weekend to go see it. So the art that inspired the film, also inspired us to now want to go see the film. Even though the film is CG, a book like this reminds you that what is created in the computer is inspired by what is drawn or painted first on paper (or canvas). That ideas for these characters, locations and creatures all originate as rough sketches from someone’s imagination.

Nicolas Cage who stars as Grug, the overprotective father in The Croods writes a nice foreword in the book, saying “It was a privilege to be part of the DreamWorks process – I know you will be equally inspired by the art in this book and you willbe transported on your own magic carpet into the world of The Croods”

“The Art of The Croods” is definitely one we will add to our “Making of” animated book collection…we think you’ll enjoy it in yours as well.

Order the “The Art of The Croods” directly from TITAN Books or at Amazon.com

The Art of the Croods

The Art of the Croods

The Art of the Croods

The Art of the Croods