Tag: early man

EARLY MAN, the latest stop-motion feature from Aardman Animations, is a colorful and frequently funny comedy with a witty script, strong messages and fine comic performances from a talented vocal cast. Its storytelling isn’t as sharp as some of the better recent animated flicks (not in the same league as COCO or PADDINGTON 2), and I wasn’t expecting yet another underdog sports story, but the wondrous critters and elaborate slapstick EARLY MAN delivers should please children, adults, and fans of the studio.

EARLY MAN tells the story of Dug (voiced by Eddie Redmayne), a member of a tribe of cavemen (from the Neo-Pleistocene era) that survives by hunting rabbits. Despite some incompetence, they work well together as a team, so Dug floats the idea to hunt bigger game, such as wooly mammoths, since one cooked bunny doesn’t go far. The clan’s Chief Bobnar (Timothy Spall – introduced using a beetle as an electric shaver) vetoes the idea as too ambitious (someone suggests hunting hares instead). Soon a mammoth marches into their valley being ridden by Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston), an officer from a less-primitive neighboring kingdom that has begun bronze mining and production. Dug and his group find themselves evicted from their village by Lord Nooth’s mining interests and discover the only way to get their home back is to challenge Nooth’s undefeated soccer team to a match. Initially, the Neanderthals are hopeless soccer players, but Goona (Maisie Williams), a cavegirl with dreams of being the first female footballer, whips the team into shape. Dug discovers that his tribe’s ancestors, according to unearthed cave paintings, not only invented football but were also terrible at the sport. Will the knuckle-dragging underdogs win the big game despite the greedy Lord Nooth’s cheating ways?

EARLY MAN might not be up to snuff with the absolute best that Aardman has released over the years. It’s not as inspired as Wallace and Gromit, nor does it match CHICKEN RUN for genre satire or character development. Yet what it lacks in originality, it makes up for in freewheeling creativity and attention to detail. There’s much to love here; the travelling ‘Warts Removal’ wagon, the Gromit-style boar Hognob, the enraged messenger pigeon who speaks for the queen, the sidesplitting stick puppet instant replay during the big game, and a script that provides quite a few howlers (when describing soccer to his bewildered tribe, Dug explains: “if you kick the ball in the goal, other men hug and kiss you”). Aside from a quick nod to Ray Harryhausen during the film’s opening shot, there are fewer filmic references in EARLY MAN than past Aardman films and the sheer volume of gags hurled here leads to a slightly lower hitting percentage. The tactile Claymation style revitalized by the studio remains front and center, and while the models may lack the fluidity of a Pixar creation, they maintain the distinctive, unpolished style we associate with Claymation, each character given the trademark bugged-out eyes, buck teeth, and knobby knees. EARLY MAN is a fine Aardman Animations feature, from a studio that’s proved itself capable of even better.

3 1/2 of 5 Stars