Early Man (2018)
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Early Man Movie Review
Early Man is a 2018 stop-motion animated sports comedy film directed by Nick Park and having the voices of Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston. It’s Aardman’s weakest effort so far.
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“I have been massaged by a pig!“
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The film follows a group Stone Age people who must defend their land from invading Bronze Age rivals in a football match. Now I loved the setting and time period which were both so well established and Bronze versus Stone Age was quite interesting and amusing. I also liked the emphasis on the sports of football which we haven’t really seen before in the animation world.
However, the film ended up focusing on the sport a bit too much and because the match itself wasn’t as exciting, it ended up feeling drawn out and not as entertaining. I still liked some moments, but not enough. The overall conflict was pretty good though and I particularly liked the beginning and the ending with the middle section being the weakest one.
Let’s talk about the characters. Well, they are also flawed as the characterization in this film is not bad, but also not the strongest unfortunately. Dug is likable and so well voiced by Eddie Redmayne and I never even heard him which was great as he blended in the role so well.
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The same goes for Tom Hiddleston’s truly inspired comedic take on Lord Nooth who stole the show for me here as by far the finest and most interesting character. I’ve seen this type of cartoon character before, but I didn’t mind seeing it again as it works. His goofy actions and spoiled persona along with a very memorable look made him a winner in my book.
Goona as this tomboyish girl who plays football was a great choice to include as girls usually aren’t interested in this particular sport, but she ended up being uninteresting and not well utilized at all. Chief Bobnar can be pretty funny and all the others are more or less forgettable with the exception of Hognob the boar who is so endearing and of course that hilarious sounding, cute looking rabbit.
Early Man is beautifully animated as is the standard for Aardman Animations. The designs of the characters are crude and primitive which suits this Stone/Bronze Age world perfectly and the animals are particularly cute. I loved the backgrounds too as they were frequently quite lovely as is the smooth, appealing color palette.
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The major problem with this film is the pacing. It is just so incredibly rushed as it felt like a rush job throughout. Couple that with its ridiculously short runtime for today’s day and age and you’ve got a too brisk, too slight film. Nick Park directed it solidly, but it’s far from his best works. Some of the action and humor worked, but some of it didn’t. The dialogue is solid, but not great. Everything in this film is solid, but nothing is great which is a problem as I’d come to expect so much more from this particular studio.
Early Man is expectedly wonderfully animated and designed with some solid humor and characters, but the overall storyline is uninspired and the film is a rush job both in pacing and in runtime. It has its moments and it’s perfectly solid, but not what you’d come to expect from the likes of Aardman leading to what is inarguably their weakest effort so far.
