Over the course of the past five decades, one animation company has provided audiences with a wide array of delightful content capable of appealing to all ages; I’m, of course, referring to the legendary stop-motion animation studio known as Aardman Animations. Aardman was founded by animators Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1972 and was named after a superhero-type character that the duo created for the British children’s TV series Vision On. In the years since, they’ve been behind several critically-acclaimed projects such as Arthur Christmas, the Shaun the Sheep series and its subsequent film adaptation, Creature Comforts, and of course, Wallace and Gromit. They also notably worked on the animation for the iconic music video for Peter Gabriel’s song ‘Sledgehammer’ along with fellow stop-motion pioneers the Brothers Quay (disclaimer: apologies to the Brothers Quay for not mentioning them in my last post). And one of the animators who worked on that video was Nick Park, who has gone on to become one of Aardman’s most famous filmmakers. Not only is he the creator of Wallace and Gromit and Creature Comforts, but he also co-directed Aardman’s first feature-length film, Chicken Run. And now, he’s back on the big-screen with his first feature film in more than a decade since the 2005 Wallace and Gromit feature film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, with Early Man. Like any Aardman production, Early Man bases itself around a delightfully creative premise by being about a bunch of cavemen who learn how to play football (or, as it’s known here in the United States, soccer). And while the film does tend to rely on the usual tropes that come out of its genre, it’s still just as endearing as the numerous Aardman classics that came before it.
In a quaint little forest village during the time of the Stone Age, a happy-go-lucky caveman named Dug (Eddie Redmayne) lives a peaceful lifestyle with the fellow members of his tribe, including his pet boar Hognob (vocals provided by director Nick Park) and Bobnar (Timothy Spall), the tribe’s chieftain. However, their daily routine of hunting rabbits is soon upended by the unexpected arrival of the Bronze Age. More specifically, an army of Bronze Age men led by the devious Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) arrives on the scene to mine for valuable minerals, forcing Dug and the rest of his tribe to flee into the dangerous and volcanic-laden badlands that surround their village. Not willing to give up their home that easily, however, Dug ends up sneaking into the Bronze Age’s city where he discovers their greatest passion, the sport of football. After learning that his tribe’s ancestors were the ones responsible for creating the sport, Dug publicly challenges the local champions, Real Bronzio, to a game. As part of an agreement with Nooth, Dug and his tribe will be allowed to have their valley back if they win but will be forced into a life of working for the Bronze Age in their mines if they lose. And if that wasn’t enough, Dug soon realizes that his fellow tribe members aren’t very good at football given the fact that they legitimately didn’t know about its role in their history until recently. Thus, with the help of an enthusiastic football hopeful from the Bronze Age city named Goona (Maisie Williams), Dug begins to work his tribe into proper shape before the big game so that they can stand a chance against Real Bronzio and, therefore, save their home.
Now because Early Man is, technically speaking, a ‘sports film’, its plot does end up going down a lot of the genre’s typical narrative routes. To put it simply, Early Man is about a bunch of underdogs who find themselves having to take on an imposing group of superior opponents; in other words, it’s not that hard to figure out what’s going to end up happening in this story. Still, despite the rather predictable nature of the plot, Early Man does feature the most definitive aspect of any classic Aardman production, charm. As I pointed out in my recent retrospective on their films, Aardman has been well-known for their sharp writing when it comes to humor. Sure enough, this film is so full of great visual gags and humorous dialogue that a second viewing is arguably required so that one can catch them all. And, of course, being an Aardman production, Early Man boasts some excellent stop-motion animation; as old-fashioned as the process may be, the vividness of the images that Park and his team manage to produce here is quite impressive. As for the film’s eclectic cast of characters, while they too are admittedly your basic collection of sports film archetypes (along with some, like the members of the rival soccer team Real Bronzio, not getting as much screen-time as they should), they do have the benefit of being portrayed by a solid voice cast. Eddie Redmayne, Maisie Williams, and Timothy Spall are all quite likable as main protagonists Dug, Goona, and Bobnar, respectively, while Tom Hiddleston is delightfully hammy as the main antagonist Lord Nooth.
In conclusion, despite some of the criticisms that I’ve addressed here, I do want to make it clear that I did enjoy Early Man. This is Aardman that we’re talking about, after all; even their lesser works still manage to have that British charm that has been a staple of their work since the very beginning. Oh sure, there are quite a few instances in this film where you can tell what’s going to happen in the plot from a mile away. This also ends up affecting the film’s cast of characters, many of whom are the usual characters that you’d see in a sports film. Still, despite all that, Aardman’s charm is still apparent throughout. It may not be their most sharply-written film to date, but it still boasts plenty of instances of their trademark style of humor that is backed by the studio’s always-terrific stop-motion animation. And really, at the end of the day, the film is just a genuinely feel-good animated comedy. Yes, it’s a simple plot with a straightforward cast of characters, but when said characters prove to be a very likable group portrayed by a terrific voice cast, it’s hard not to be charmed by all the hi-jinx that they get into, whether it’s being chased by a ferocious giant duck or hopping across a pool of lava as part of their training regimen. As a result, Early Man is by no means Aardman’s best film, but for fans of their work, it is still very much worth checking out. Sadly, like a lot of recent Aardman films, this one hasn’t made much of an impact at the U.S. box-office. Case in point, when I went to go see this during the second weekend of its release, I was the only person in the theater… that, folks, is a first for me.
Rating: 4/5
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