Taglines: Real Men Don’t Settle For Bronze.
In the Stone Age when prehistoric creatures and cavemen roamed the Earth, Chief Bobnar (Timothy Spall) is the leader of a small tribe that are driven out of their valley home by a Bronze Age army led by Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston). They are forced to live in the volcanic badlands outside it.
A young caveman named Dug (Eddie Redmayne) tries to attack and is unknowingly knocked into a basket bound to the Bronze Age city. He tries to hide from Lord Nooth’s guards and ends up being mistaken for the player in a public game of football. In front of Lord Nooth and the spectators in the stadium, he challenges the local team to a game and strikes a deal with Lord Nooth. If his team win, they will get their valley back. If they lose, they will have to work in the mines.
Dug realizes that his own ancestors invented and played football, but his tribe are mostly too dim to understand it. After some fruitless training, their pitch is wrecked and the ball is punctured. Dug and Hognob sneak into the Bronze Age city to steal some more balls. They succeed with the help from a local vendor named Goona (Maisie Williams).
She dreams of playing football herself, but the local teams exclude women. She instead joins Dug’s team and coaches them. She suggests that while the city team have talented players, they are weak at working together. As the game approaches, Dug’s team make great improvements. After being visited by a Message Bird (Rob Brydon) sent by his boss Queen Oofeefa, Lord Nooth tries to discourage Dug by revealing that the tribe’s ancestors were actually bad at football and gave up. He offers Dug an alternative deal.
The match day arrives and Queen Oofeefa (Miriam Margoyles) is in attendance. Dug appears and instead announces he will accept Lord Nooth’s alternative offer, that only he will work in the mines while the rest of his tribe remain exiled to the badlands. However, the rest of the tribe arrive and convince him that they should go ahead with the game. After scoring an early goal, they find themselves down 3-1 at half-time.
In the second half, they improve their game and equalize. Displeased, Lord Nooth knocks out the referee and takes over, making biased decisions such as awarding the city team an unnecessary penalty kick. Chief, the goalkeeper, is knocked out and Dug is forced to let Hognob play on the team. Hognob saves the penalty kick and the ball returns to play. Dug’s team to score a winning goal in the closing minutes of the game and win 4-3.
Early Man is a 2018 British stop-motion animated adventure comedy film directed by Nick Park, written by Mark Burton and James Higginson starring the voices of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, and Timothy Spall. Produced by Aardman Animations and BFI, and in association with Amazon Prime Instant Video, the film is co-financed by Aardman and StudioCanal, and was released on 26 January 2018 in the United Kingdom.
Early Man (2018)
Directed by: Nick Park
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Timothy Spall, Miriam Margolyes, Richard Ayoade, Mark Williams, Kayvan Novak, Johnny Vegas, Gina Yashere, Kevin Matadeen, Luke Walton
Screenplay by: Mark Burton, James Higginson
Cinematography by: Charles Copping, Dave Alex Riddett, Paul Smith, Peter Sorg
Film Editing by: Sim Evan-Jones
Art Direction by: Richard Edmunds, Matt Perry
Music by: Harry Gregson-Williams, Tom Howe
MPAA Rating: PG for rude humor and some action.
Distributed by: Summit Entertainment
Release Date: February 16, 2018
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