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Early Man (film)

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Early Man
British theatrical release poster
Directed byNick Park
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Mark Burton
  • Nick Park
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDave Alex Riddett
Edited bySim Evan-Jones
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byStudioCanal
Release dates
  • 20 January 2018 (2018-01-20) (BFI Southbank)
  • 26 January 2018 (2018-01-26) (United Kingdom)

  • 16 February 2018 (2018-02-16) (United States)
Running time
89 minutes[2]
CountriesUnited Kingdom
France
LanguageEnglish
Budget$50 million[3][4]
Box office$22.9 million[4]

Early Man is a 2018 British-French stop-motion adventure-comedy film directed by Nick Park, written by Mark Burton and James Higginson. It stars the voices of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, and Timothy Spall, and follows a tribe of primitive Stone Age valley-dwellers have to defend their land from bronze-using invaders in an association football match. The film was produced by Aardman Animations and BFI and was released on 26 January 2018 in the United Kingdom, and in the United States on 16 February 2018. It has received positive reviews from critics, and grossed $23 million worldwide.[5]

Plot

In the Stone Age when prehistoric creatures and cavemen roamed the Earth, Chief Bobnar (Timothy Spall) is the leader of a small tribe living in a valley where they hunt rabbits.

One night, Chief Bobnar's tribe is driven out of their valley home by a Bronze Age army led by Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) who claims that the Age of Bronze has begun. They are forced to live in the volcanic badlands outside it. A young caveman named Dug (Eddie Redmayne) tries to attack but falls into a basket.

The army unknowingly transports Dug to the Bronze Age city. He tries to escape the city, but is forced to hide from Lord Nooth's guards. He is then mistaken for a player in a public game of football and led out onto the pitch. 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 wins, they will get their valley back. If they lose, they will have to work in the mines forever. Nooth, at first dismissive, accepts his deal knowing he'll make money off of it.

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 his pet wild boar Hognob (Nick Park) sneak into the Bronze Age city to steal some more balls. They succeed with the help from a local resident named Goona (Maisie Williams), who 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 have minuscule teamwork. As the game approaches, Dug's team make great improvements. Lord Nooth is visited by a Message Bird (Rob Brydon) from the queen Oofeefa, who warns him to take Dug's team seriously. He tries to discourage Dug by revealing that the tribe's ancestors were actually bad at football and gave up. Lord Nooth then 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 his team forfeits and only he will work in the mines while the rest of his tribe will be spared. 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 scores the winning goal in the closing minutes of the game and win 4–3.

As a reward, the tribe are allowed to return to their valley, having won the respect of Queen Oofeefa, the opposing team, and the crowd. Lord Nooth tries to escape in the mascot's outfit but is stopped and revealed to be stealing money.

In the final scene, Goona has joined Dug and his tribe as they go out hunting.

Cast

Marketing

On 21 September 2017, a competition was launched on the CBBC television programme Blue Peter to design a prehistoric character inspired by Early Man and the winner will see their character brought to life by Aardman and the winner and the two runners-up will receive tickets to the premiere. It closed on 12 October 2017, and the winner was announced in January 2018.[11]

Release

Early Man was released in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2018, by StudioCanal. StudioCanal will also distribute the film in France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.[5] In the United States, it was released on 16 February 2018, by Lionsgate, through its Summit Entertainment label.[5] The teaser trailer was released on 16 March 2017, and the first trailer was released on 7 September.[12]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 82% based on 120 reviews, and an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Early Man isn't quite as evolved as Aardman's best work, but still retains the unique visuals and sweet humor that have made the studio a favorite among animation enthusiasts."[13] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[14] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[15]

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack, titled Early Man: (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), was released under Lionsgate on 26 January 2018, On the same day the official release of the film on 26 January 2018.

Early Man: (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)[17]
No.TitleProducer(s)Length
1."Good Day" (New Hope Club) 1:46
2."Hope" (The Vamps)(Album Only)3:15
3."Tiger Feet" (New Hope Club) 3:41
4."I Predict A Riot" (Kaiser Chiefs) 3:51
5."Dug's Theme" (Tom Howe and Harry Gregson-Williams) 2:40
6."Prehistoric Prologue" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 3:42
7."In The Valley" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 1:27
8."Meet Dug" (Gregson-Williams) 0:41
9."Meet The Tribe" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 2:12
10."Rabbit Ambush" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 1:02
11."Bronze Attack" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 2:17
12."City Of Bronze" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 1:04
13."Dug In Bronze Land" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 0:51
14."Stadium Chase" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 0:39
15."The Ancestral Call" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 1:04
16."The Message Bird" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 1:57
17."Giant Badlands Duck" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 3:10
18."Stealing Footballs" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 1:04
19."She Shoots, She Scores" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 0:45
20."Challenge The Champions" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 1:45
21."Harp Escape" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 1:59
22."They’re Not A Team" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 0:46
23."Message From The Queen" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 1:05
24."Foul Play" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 1:18
25."Revelations In The Mine" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 5:04
26."Royal Game Day" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 1:40
27."Forfeiture And Humiliation" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 2:10
28."Do It For The Valley" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 2:08
29."The Final Game" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 4:40
30."Chief Is Down" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 0:54
31."Hognob In Goal" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 3:34
32."Mousing Around" (Howe and Gregson-Williams) 1:07
33."Trophy Presentation" (Gregson-Williams and Howe) 1:34
Total length:60:57

Charts

It reached Number 2 in the box office charts in the United Kingdom on 9 February 2018.[18]

References

  1. ^ "Harry Gregson-Williams Scoring 'Early Man'". Film Music Reporter. 13 November 2017. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  2. ^ "Early Man". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  3. ^ Jaafar, Ali (6 May 2015). "Studiocanal Doubles Down On Family Fare: Reteams With Nick Park And Gilles De Maistre For New Pics – Cannes". Deadline. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Early Man (2018)". The Numbers. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  5. ^ a b c McNary, Dave (25 May 2017). "Eddie Redmayne's 'Early Man' to Be Released by Lionsgate in North America". Variety. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  6. ^ Ritman, Alex; Szalai, Georg (9 May 2016). "Cannes: Eddie Redmayne Joins Aardman's 'Early Man' Team". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Early Man: Cast & Crew". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  8. ^ "Tom Hiddleston joins the cast of Early Man, voicing villainous Lord Nooth". Aardman.com. 19 October 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  9. ^ "Maisie Williams joins the cast of Nick Park's 'Early Man'". Aardman.com. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  10. ^ Rose, Steve (14 January 2018). "Early Man review – Aardman claymation comedy brings Brexit to the bronze age". the Guardian.
  11. ^ "BBC - Blue Peter to launch Awesome Animation competition - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk.
  12. ^ "Aardman announce 2018 release dates for 'Early Man'". Aardman. 7 January 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  13. ^ "Early Man (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  14. ^ "Early Man reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  15. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (16 February 2018). "'Black Panther' Arrives: Thursday Previews Come In At $25.2M – Friday Update". Deadline.com. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  16. ^ "New Hope Club - Good Day New Single from Early Man". Vevo. 22 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018. {{cite web}}: Check |archiveurl= value (help)
  17. ^ "Early Man: (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Various Artists on Amazon". Amazon. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  18. ^ http://www.britinfo.net/cinema/ukbox.htm
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