Early Man is a fun prehistoric romp for the family from creators of Wallace and Gromit [Review]

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Aardman Animations, the studio behind the popular animated characters, takes football to the stone age

Susan Ramsay |
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Dug the caveman finds out that the rest of the world has progressed to the Bronze Age.

Aardman Animations, the company behind the hugely popular Wallace and Gromit movie A Grand Day Out have scored with Early Man. Technically it might seem a bit old because it doesn’t rely on slick CGI but the audience can appreciate the hand-made props lovingly made out of clay.

The film also carries a great script, chock-full of silly fun. You have to be pretty good at English to catch all the gags, but there are more than enough to go around.

Dug, voiced by Eddie Redmayne, is a caveman who dreams big. He doesn’t want to just hunt rabbits, he wants to go after a mammoth. But his chief, voiced by Timothy Spall, does not share his ambitions. What they don’t seem to realise is that their village lies in an idyllic crater, and beyond that crater the world has moved on to the bronze age. Dug and his village is rudely forced to realise what lies beyong their own borders when people from the bronze age want to mine their village.

Dug is determined to get his home back and travels to the great city for hilarious encounters with the bronze-agers who are crazy about football. Needless to say, the villagers will eventually have to face off against the bronze agers, with their happy little valley as the prize, in the most important football game in pre-history.

Anyone who has ever watched a movie involving a ragtag band of underdogs will be able to guess at the ending, but that’s not the point. The point is the humour that appeals to all. Your younger sibling will be howling with laughter at the clumsy caveman, while your parents will be smirking at the clever way movie makers reference modern life. Even Twitter gets a reference. It may also be exciting for older audiences to know that some huge names, such as Game of Throne's Maisie Williams, voice the fantastic characters of this animation.

There are sure to be bigger, louder, more slick movies out there, from which Early Man offers a welcome bit of peace, wit and eloquence.

Edited by Jamie Lam

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