Early Man (2018)
Dug, along with his sidekick Hognob, unite a cavemen tribe to save their hidden valley from being spoiled and, all together as a team, to face the menace of a mysterious and mighty enemy, on the turf of an ancient and sacred sport.
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Aardman studio has had a good run, dating back to Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, and Chicken Run. That all comes to an abrupt thudding halt with Early Man.The main concept of Early Man seems like it should be ripe for concepts of plots. Set as one tribe of Stone Age cavemen are being replaced with new Bronze Age humans, there should be a story here that could be told humourously. Nick Park and Aardman Studios decide to tell this story through football (soccer). In and of itself, this wouldn't be a problem, except that whole 90 minute movie is dedicated to the soccer theme. Early Man is gifted football from the heavens, Bronze Age man plays football to line the coffers of the local emissary of the queen, Stone age man must learn how to play football, etc, etc. It's basically a sports movie, but without any of the uplifting themes of sports movies.The humour also falls flat most of the time. Some stuff early on gave some chuckles, but as the movie kept dragging along, small little jokes become eyerolling, instead of guffaws.The positives here is the animation. As ever, the Claymation look is excellent, and obviously done with love. In the end, however, Early Man is a rare miss from a studio that had done great work previously.
The illustration of animation was good and smooth. However, the story was rather basic and few characters were engaged in the movie.
Very enjoyable, it is a bit predictable at the end but it is still fun.
It's prehistoric Manchester. A meteor crashes into the ground. Early man finds the meteorite and invents the game of football. Some age later, a rabbit-hunting primitive tribe lives in the crater turned lush valley. They have forgotten the game. When they are driven out by a bronze age group, they have to rediscover their heritage to beat their invaders at their own game.I usually like Aardman a lot more but this one lacks anything special. The characters are fine but I like the Aardman animals more. It's a sports movie but it's soccer which is not the most appealing to me. It's all fine but not one of my favorite Aardman.