Cavemen and soccer mix in fun claymation romp
It’s almost impossible not to be charmed by the claymation creations of British animation studio Aardman Animations — the creators of “Wallace and Gromit,” “Chicken Run” and “Shaun the Sheep.” While traditional computer-generated animation keeps pushing the technology closer to photorealism, the stop-motion technique of Aardman isn’t going for realism, but expressiveness.
Their latest film, “Early Man,” directed by “Gromit” and “Chicken Run” director Nick Park, is an age-old tale: It starts in the Neo-pleistocene era, “somewhere near Manchester.” While dinosaurs and cavemen battle over lunch, an asteroid hits Earth, leaving a lava hot sphere that the cavemen kick around, and soon, the beautiful game, football — or soccer, if you will — is born, and immortalized on cave walls.
A few generations later, caveman Dug (Eddie Redmayne) is living happily with his tribe in the valley, yearning for adventure while he and his pals hunt rabbits. He gets it when the new era rolls into town — the Bronze Age. Say goodbye to the Stone Age, because the might of metal is here, and soon the snooty, Frenchaccented Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) is banishing the cavemen to the Badlands.
When Dug sneaks into the city, he discovers football and challenges Nooth to a match for his valley back. Nooth accepts, dreaming of the piles of “shnookers” he’ll rake in from fans clamoring to see the match. That’s when Early Man goes from “Clan of the Cave Bear” to “Bad News Bears” as Dug tries to whip his team into football fighting shape, with the help of city-dweller Goona (Maisie Williams).
The style is all Aardman, their characters sporting pliable foreheads and adorable overbites. The story is light, and it doesn’t go too deep, but it’s effective and rousing, relying on beloved sports movie tropes. It’s the funny little details that make the film as delightful as it is.
Dug’s wild boar buddy Hognob, voiced by director Park, steals the show with his little grunts of surprise and plaintive howls.
It’s those little moments of the surreal that make Aardman films so unique. One of the film’s best gags is a message bird who delivers word for word, gesture for gesture messages between Nooth and the Queen that get increasingly hostile.
“Early Man” is a blend of evolutionary humor and a tribute to football all wrapped up in a story that argues for inclusion of all people and an equal distribution of wealth, all in 89 tightly paced and efficient minutes. Truly, what more could you ask for? Don’t run late for the fun that “Early Man” has to offer.