Early Man 2018

     The setting of this film is prehistoric times during the stone-age.  There are different types of dinosaurs and woolly mammoths roam the earth.  Dug and his sidekick Hognob unite the tribe cave men against their bronze-age enemy Lord Nooth.  Lord Nooth wants to take over the valley where Dug and the other cavemen live.  They want to mine the area for bronze.  There is a football (soccer) game to settle the dispute over the valley.

     I thought there were many very funny moments in this film.  There are a LOT of British references that we may not fully understand in America?  The animation is stop motion and the characters are developed over time.  The voice actors determine the way the characters look, move and speak.  Then there are 35 animators working on individualizing each character.   3 ½* (I liked this movie) 

    

99 min, Animation directed by Nick Park with the voices of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Timothy Spall, Miriam Margolyes, Rob Brydon, Kayvan Novak, Richard Ayoade, Selina Griffiths, Johnny V egas, Mark Williams, Gina Yashere, Richard Webber, Simon Greenall, Nick Park.

Note:  Imdb 6.1 of 10, 81% critic 51% audience Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 3.8* with 126 reviews, Commonsense Media 2* educational, 4* positive messages, 4* role models, 3* violence, 1* sexy, 2* language, no consumerism or drinking, drugs, smoking, Metacritic 68/100 with 39 critics 6.4/10 with 62 reviews.

Special Note:  The characters Wallace and Gromit are in one of the crowd shots.  Director Nick Park didn’t know this happened until post-production.  Included in the end credits are cave paintings on the wall are the characters Where-Rabbit, Grommit and the Beady Eyed Penguin from other Nick Park movies.  Other films by Aarmand Productions are Chicken Run 2000, Wallace & Gromit 2005, Flushed Away 2006, Arthur Christmas 2011, The Pirates! 2012, Shaun the Sheep Movie 2015, Farmageddon, 2019 and Chicken Run 2 (TBA).  (I really liked Shaun the Sheep!!)