ANI-MOVIES, *Early Man

After digging back into their Wallace And Grommit franchise with the Shaun The Sheep spinoff movie, Aardman Animation created an original idea for a stop-motion picture in Early Man. Unlike some of the previous Aardman movies, Early Man was specifically engineered for a British audience as it focuses on football, or as it is called in the Western Hemisphere, "soccer". The sports movie is mixed in with director Nick Park's brand of shenanigans and cartoon humor.

Set a few millions of years ago, a meteor crashes on a group of prehistoric primates in what would become England who use the burnt space rock to invent the game of soccer. Some ages later, the descendants of that tribe have their land taken over by a greedy empire to mine its precious metals. Hopeful caveman Dug challenges the empire's Lord Nooth to get their home back by winning a soccer game but Dug and his faithful boar don't really know how it is played. Luckily, local bronze dealer Goona is a naturally good player, but the empire turned her down because they only use male players, and she teaches Dug's tribe to work together as a team as they come to realize the talent they inherited from their ancestors.

Despite being as historically accurate as The Flintstones, Early Man is a fresh take on the vintage cartoon caveman concept. It bears a bouquet of cheeky humor but is still a family-friendly feature highlighting the virtues of family and friendship. Aside from its poor box office reception, the film is a gratifying watch with amazing voice acting, especially Tom Hiddleston hamming it up as the loathsome Lord Nooth.