Prime Time: Early Man (2018)

It was only a matter of time until Aardman delivered a movie that left me even slightly disappointed. The fact that it took this long, and that Early Man is still an enjoyable enough bit of fun, if not one I will rush to rewatch, is testament to the quality of their work. From Chicken Run to the Wallace & Gromit movie, and then the wonderful The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! I even really like Flushed Away, and enjoyed the slightly lower-tier movie outing for Shaun The Sheep. And I couldn't even begin to narrow the gags down to a Top 10 if we were to discuss the many wonderful short films they have made (although Gromit laying down enough track ahead of himself as he speeds along on a model train will always be my favourite of the lot).

Early Man is the story of a group of cave-dwelling people who end up being displaced from their valley by some giant machines, all controlled by men who are living it up in the Bronze Age. When one man (Dug, voiced by Eddie Redmayne) goes to find out more, he ends up challenging the more advanced people to a game of football. Winning will get them their valley back, but losing will see them used as miners.

Director Nick Park, who also developed the story idea with Mark Burton (and Burton wrote the screenplay with James Higginson), doesn't seem to be too sure of what he wants here. There are the usual wonderful visual gags, although not as many of them as we've had in his previous films, but the combination of the prehistoric setting and football match challenge makes for a strange combination that doesn't quite work. Some people will be wanting more dino-centric gags, others may want some more time with the football, and neither group will be wholly satisfied with the end result.

There's another problem though, and that is the voice cast. It's just not very . . . good. Eddie Redmayne is perfectly acceptable in the main role, but that's all he is. Never the most charismatic or warm performers, his voice work is at least better than most of the roles that utilise his entire physical presence. Tom Hiddleston and Maisie Williams both do okay, the former as an enemy and the latter as an ally, but they're hidden behind some pointless and silly accents (unless my old ears have started to deceive me). Timothy Spall is a welcome presence, Rob Brydon does well, Miriam Margolyes is an amusingly stern Queen, and there are a number of familiar British celebrities making up the rest of the main troupe.

Despite those story and cast issues, Early Man still does enough to make for a fun 90 minutes (well, closer to 80 minutes before the end credits roll), and I am sure that younger viewers will appreciate it more than I did. It does, after all, have dinosaurs, cute rabbits, a helpful boar named Hognob, and a cast of obvious heroes to root for and villains to boo and hiss at.

6/10

Early Man can be bought here.
Americans can buy it here.