2018 / 89m - UK
Comedy, Sport - Animation
2.5*/5.0*
Early Man poster

Watches

March 02, 2021

2.5*/5.0*

I'm quite partial to stop-motion animation, so I generally keep an eye out for the Aardman films. They rarely live up to the hype though. While the craft is definitely there, the comedy is usually not up to scratch. Such is the case with Early Man too, their latest full-length endeavor.

The main problem I had with the comedy is that it felt as if I'd seen every single joke a hundred times before. There's hardly any original joke, quip or funny situation here. Is there really anyone out there who is still amused by a character standing on an edge, getting excited and falling backwards? Early Man is basically just that stretched to 90 minutes.

It's a shame, because the stop-motion animation looks great and the premise could've made for a superbly entertaining animated take on Shaolin Soccer. You'd expect Brits to do more with a topic like football, alas it was not meant to be. What remains is a mildly entertaining film, which simply isn't enough.