Review: Early Man

Early Man (PG)

UK/France 2018  89 mins  Dir: Nick Park  Cast (voices): Eddie Redmayne, Maisie Williams, Tom Hiddleston, Richard Ayoade, Timothy Spall, Mark Williams, Rob Brydon

It’s been claimed, somewhat fancifully, that Aardman’s Early Man is a Brexit movie, pitting lovable if insular backwoods Stone Age underdogs with a variety of regional accents against arrogant and rapacious European interlopers. But if, to adapt somebody else’s reactionary political slogan, it was Nick Park’s intention to Make Prehistoric Britain Great Again, he’s certainly succeeded with this lovingly hand-crafted romp, which shamelessly unearths gags so old they require carbon dating. Early Man is not as witty or sophisticated as The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! – still the studio’s greatest feature – but boasts more universal appeal and should do much better at the box office. At the Bristol premiere, the fart, poop and bottom gags were especially appreciated by younger members of the audience. To quote the BBFC’s reliably dry, factual guidance for parents, so often a source of unintended hilarity: “There is very mild innuendo, and comic rear nudity. There is very mild rude humour: a character is hit by a huge bird dropping.”

That said, the opening scenes should bring tears of joy to the eyes of cineastes as these include a nod to stop-motion pioneer Willis O’Brien’s work on the original 1925 The Lost World. Down in a Stone Age valley, we meet a tribe of primitive knuckle-dragging misfits, led by cautious Chief Bobnar (Spall). Perky caveman Dug (Redmayne), who’s blessed with a classic Aardman overbite and a mop of unruly hair, thinks they should be hunting mammoths rather than rabbits, which, he reasons, don’t offer much of a meal. But the tribe’s idyllic if rather simple existence is interrupted by the arrival of the Bronze Age in the arrogant, self-regarding form of Lord Nooth (Hiddleston – doing the most OTT French accent since the taunting knights in Monty Python and the Holy Grail), who sports a bronze tooth, prominent moobs and a nose so alarmingly phallic that one can only imagine the fun Aardman’s animators had in seeing how far they could they could push it without attracting the attention of the censor. In order to save their valley, our heroes find they must win a football match against Real Bronzio, with a little help from tomboyish Goona (Williams) – who’s a better player than all of them put together. Hopeless, useless and shambling, the Stone Agers find themselves facing a team of preening, well-drilled professionals in the Bronze Age city’s giant stadium. “They’re going to win,” remarked a precocious child sitting next to me at the premiere, clearly already familiar with the conventions of the underdog sports movie.

Yes, the story charts a very predictable path, but that’s hardly the point when most of the funny business goes on in the margins. There’s no shortage of typically Aardman-esque awful puns (Jurassic Pork, Wart Removals), not to mention a zebra crossing made from a real zebra and perambulating primordial soup (filled with eyeballs) served as a main course. Children of the 1970s accompanying their own children and grandchildren will also enjoy the revival of Mud’s Tiger Feet, complete with original dance moves, which makes a pleasant change from the generic autotuned pop on most animation soundtracks and should also provide the septuagenarian Chinnichap duo with a welcome pension boost.

As so often, it’s the animals that provide the most imaginative moments. Dug’s trusty porcine sidekick Hognob (director Park himself, apparently channelling Scooby-Doo) gets a brilliant scene in which he finds he has to massage Lord Nooth and play the harp (you have to see it). There’s also a great running gag involving a new-fangled ‘message bird’, voiced by Rob Brydon. Most of all, however, it’s the sheer craft that continues to impress. Up on the big screen, every rustle of fabric and visible fingerprint in the plasticine serves as testament to the years of work involved in bringing these gags to a grateful world. It’s as noble a calling as one could wish for.

For more on Early Man, see our interview with Nick Park and Maisie Williams.