School girl’s winning design is brought to life in Retford for generations to enjoy

Eight-year-old Lottie Brown designed her dream treehouse as part of a competition to celebrate the release of the new epic adventure film in association with Co-op Insurance and Neighbourhood Watch. 

Young people in Retford, Nottinghamshire, now have a brand-new community treehouse, situated in Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s Idle Valley Nature Reserve – all thanks to a schoolgirl from York and new film The Croods 2: A New Age.

Judges crowned Lottie as the overall winner because of her imaginative and inclusive design, which features a hotel for bugs, ‘kindness rocks,’ and interactive games for children to enjoy. The treehouse has now been brought to life in Retford for youngsters all over the region to enjoy for many years to come.

The Croods 2: A New Age has community at its core, telling the story of two families uniting and realising that life is better when people support each other, embrace their differences, and forge a future together. In their first meeting, the Croods are astounded, not only by the fact they are not the only family in existence, but by the incredible treehouse in which the Betterman’s live.

This month, Lottie saw her design come to life at the nature reserve, when she was invited to cut the ribbon and be the first person to play on the treehouse with her best friend, Millie.

On the day, Lottie was led down a red carpet and received a personal congratulatory message from the film’s director, Joel Crawford.

“I loved the first Croods movie, so I was really excited to get to draw my own treehouse. I’m even more excited now as my treehouse is actually real for other children to play on. It’s amazing! I’ve asked my teachers if we can go on a school trip to Idle Valley so that all my friends can play on it.”

Lottie

The treehouse is located close to the visitor carpark, and further development work on the play area is planned in the coming months for visiting families to enjoy.

We are so impressed with Lottie’s well thought out treehouse, and we look forward to seeing it bring people together and strengthen community spirit.

As a charity, Neighbourhood Watch is all about being neighbourly and community-focused and we hope this initiative opens more opportunities to involve children in coming up with inclusive ways to unite communities.”

John Hayward-Cripps, CEO of Neighbourhood Watch

DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods 2: A New Age is in UK cinemas on 16th July 2021.

ENDS

For more information, please contact: Vikki McCrindle Vikki.mccrindle@coop.co.uk / 07773096848

About Co-op Insurance: Co-op Insurance is part of the Co-op, one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives with interests across food, funerals, insurance, legal services and health. It has a clear purpose of championing a better way of doing business for you and your communities.

Owned by millions of UK consumers, the Co-op operates 2,600 food stores, over 1,000 funeral homes and it provides products to over 5,100 other stores, including those run by independent co-operative societies and through its wholesale business, Nisa Retail Limited. It has more than 63,000 colleagues and an annual revenue of over £10 billion.

About Neighbourhood Watch: Neighbourhood Watch is the largest voluntary movement focused on crime prevention in England and Wales. Over 2.3 million people belong to local schemes which are supported by voluntary Associations.

Neighbourhood Watch Network is an independent charity (registered in England and Wales 1173349) which acts as the national umbrella organisation for the movement. Membership of Neighbourhood Watch schemes is open to all and is free. Neighbourhood Watch’s website address is www.ourwatch.org.uk.

About The Croods 2: A New Age

The Croods have survived their fair share of dangers and disasters, from fanged prehistoric beasts to surviving the end of the world, but now they will face their biggest challenge of all: another family

The Croods need a new place to live. So, the first prehistoric family sets off into the world in search of a safer place to call home. When they discover an idyllic walled-in paradise that meets all their needs, they think their problems are solved … except for one thing. Another family already lives there: the Bettermans.

The Bettermans (emphasis on the “better”)—with their elaborate tree house, amazing inventions and irrigated acres of fresh produce—are a couple of steps above the Croods on the evolutionary ladder. When they take the Croods in as the world’s first houseguests, it isn’t long before tensions escalate between the cave family and the modern family.

Just when all seems lost, a new threat will propel both families on an epic adventure outside the safety of the wall, one that will force them to embrace their differences, draw strength from each other and forge a future together.

The Croods: A New Age features the voice talent of returning stars Nicolas Cage as Grug Crood, Catherine Keener as Ugga Crood, Emma Stone as their daughter, Eep; Ryan Reynolds as Eep’s boyfriend, Guy; Clark Duke (Hot Tub Time Machine) as Thunk and Cloris Leachman as Gran. They’re joined by new stars Peter Dinklage (HBO’s Game of Thrones) as Phil Betterman, Leslie Mann (Blockers) as Hope Betterman, and Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars: Episode VIII-The Last Jedi) as their daughter, Dawn.

The film is directed by Joel Crawford, who has worked on multiple DreamWorks Animation films, including Trolls and the Kung Fu Panda franchise, and is produced by Mark Swift (Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted).

About DreamWorks Animation

DreamWorks Animation (DWA), a division of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, within NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, is a global family entertainment company with feature film and television brands. The company’s deep portfolio of intellectual property is supported by a robust, worldwide consumer products practice, which includes licensing, and location-based entertainment venues around the world.  DWA’s feature film heritage includes many of the world’s most beloved characters and franchises, including Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Trolls and The Boss Baby, and have amassed more than $15 billion in global box office receipts.  DreamWorks Animation’s television business has quickly become 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 25 Emmy awards since inception in 2013.

About Idle Valley Nature Reserve: Idle Valley Nature Reserve is the largest site cared for by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. With vast open skies and abundant wildlife, it is a magnificent destination to surround yourself with the natural world.  A registered charity, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust is part of a nation-wide network of local Trusts - The Wildlife Trusts – a grassroots movement of people from a wide range of backgrounds working to make positive difference to wildlife, climate and future generations.

We are on a mission to restore a third of the UK's land and seas for nature by 2030 and believe everyone, everywhere, should have access to nature and the joy and health benefits it brings. No matter where you are in the UK, there is a Wildlife Trust inspiring people about nature and standing up for wildlife and wild places. Together we have more than 850,000 members, over 42,500 volunteers, 2,000 staff and 600 trustees. For more information, visit www.nottinghamshirewildlife.org