From the creators of Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit comes the “true”
story of the origin of the world’s most popular sport-football (or soccer
as we call it in the U.S.). A charming film that takes us back to the dawn
of man, The Stone Age, where a motley band of cavemen and women live an
archaic lifestyle foraging and hunting for their food.
Their way of life
is shattered as the Bronze age approaches, and mining for metal becoming
superior, along with the love of football (soccer) playing second. The
leader of the Bronze Age conquerors Lord Nooth strips the cavemen from
their land to mine for more metal and for smelting. Eager to keep their
way of life and get their home back, the Cavemen challenge Lord Nooth to a
game of football.
Who doesn’t love a good underdog story? As you can guess, it’s hysterical
slapstick humor and sheer silliness of epic proportion. In true Wallace
and Gromit fashion, Aardman animation create a movie with an underlying
sweetness that makes the audience fall in love with such delightful
characters.
Featuring an all-star British voice cast featuring Tom
Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Tom Redmayne, and Timothy Spall, Early Man may
not be your typical run of the mill bright, boisterous, tug at the
heartstrings type of movie, but it definitely provides enough physical
comedy to keep the audience laughing and a great message about teamwork and
learning to coexist.
4 out of 5 stars
By Jennifer Fiduccia
Aardman Animations and British Film Institute are releasing a new film “Early Man”.
Early Man is produced by Nickk Park, Carla Shelly, Pete Lord, and David Sproxton, and is rated PG.
Early Man is a stop motion Claymation animated film, featuring a voice-cast of Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne, Maisie Williams, and Timothy Spall. Early Man is set at the dawn of time and tells the story of Dug and his trusty sidekick Hognob, and their attempt to see their valley from the invading Bronze Age intruders.
I wish I could say that I loved this film, but I really didn’t. even my 9 year old son was pretty unimpressed. He said “there were a couple funny parts I guess, but it was pretty slow and boring.” I must say that I agree. I liked the movies Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep, and found those to be funny, but Early Man just did not tickle my funny-bone at all.
It follows the main character Dug and his sidekick Hognob in their attempt to save their valley from the invading Bronze Age invaders who are mining for Bronze.
Among the cave paintings in the valley are depictions of Dugs ancestors playing football (soccer, for those of us in America) and when he discovers that the Bronze Age invaders and their leader Lord Nooth hold the competition in the highest esteem, he concocts a plan to try and save his beloved tribes home.
In challenging the elite Bronze champion team, Dug and his family fce nearly insurmountable odds, as they don’t even know how to play soccer to begin with. They are helped along the way by Goona, who isn’t allowed to play on the Bronze team because she is a girl. She advises that the champion team really isn’t a team at all, because each of those players seems himself as the star rather than as a piece of a cohesive unit working together.
Goona teaches Dug and his team to work together in order to defeat the Bronze team.
Early Man seems like it “could have” been a good movie. It has good messages: teamwork, family, working together, that you can’t let anything stop you “just because you are a girl”, and never giving up, but I just didn’t find it to be that funny, and it felt really slow-moving as well.
One of the funniest parts was the messenger bird that brings messages back and forth between the Queen and Lord Nooth.
I would give this movie 1.5 out of 5 stars
