Video review: "Early Man"

For those of us who care about the viability of feature films as a platform for stop-motion animation, the failure of “Early Man” was disturbing. It was a product of Aardman Animations, which is basically the Pixar of this particular niche of moviemaking (“Wallace & Gromit,” “Chicken Run,” etc.). It was a critical and box office flop.

If these guys can’t get it right, it makes it harder to for other stop-motion films to get produced.

The setup is that a group of Stone Age folks have their happy little valley invaded by Bronze Age types, and are thrown out so the natural resources can be exploited. Dug (Eddie Redmayne), the puckish young member of the tribe who’s always pressing them to try new ideas, travels to their adversary’s city and finds out the entire populace is nuts for football. (What we Yanks call soccer.)

He challenges the imperious Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) to a match against his top team, Real Bronzio, made up entirely of giant Nordic types. If they win, they get their homeland back. If not, they must abandon it forever. Thus commences a few days of intensive training, helped by Goona (Maisie Williams), a city woman who herself dreams of playing in the all-male game.

It’s a colorful film, and the soccer action gets the juices flowing in the second half. There are also a few solid throwaway jokes. My favorite involves the aged chief of Dug’s tribe (voice of Timothy Spall), fighting off decrepitude at the age of 32.

But overall, it just doesn’t have the smarts and zing of other Aardman efforts.

Let me offer this caveat: although I was somewhat bored by the film when I first reviewed it, I caught it a second time in the company of my boys, ages 4 and 7, who positively adored it. And I will say I actually enjoyed it more upon second viewing.

Here’s hoping more, and better, stop-motion animated movies are just around the corner.

Video extras are merely adequate, and are the same for Blu-ray and DVD editions. They consist of four making-of featurettes: “Before the Beginning of Time: Creating Early Man,” “Nick Park: Massaging the Funny,” “The Valley Meets the Bronze” and “Hanging at Aardman Studios: A Workshop Exploration.”

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Review: "Early Man"

I’ve always admired stop-motion animation in general and the British Aardman Animations films in particular -- “Chicken Run,” “Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit” and “Shaun the Sheep Movie” most recently in 2015. So it gives me little pleasure to report that the latest, “Early Man,” is a rather lackluster affair.

The story of cave men who discovered what we Yanks call soccer, it quite literally drops the rock… er, ball.

It seems our hirsute ancestors were inspired when a meteor landed somewhere around modern Manchester, snuffing out the dinosaurs to boot. The cave men began kicking the hot rock around, created a game around it, and even made drawings about their exploits.

Fast-forward a few thousand years, and a tribe of Stone Age types are still dwelling in the bucolic valley where the game of football (the everywhere-but-America kind) got started. Eddie Redmayne provides the voices of Dug, an excitable young man who urges the tribe to aim higher than just hunting rabbits -- perhaps even mammoths?

(Trigger warning for vegetarians.)

The Chief (Timothy Spall), a wise elderly man at the ripe old age of 32, cautions against high hopes. But when they’re suddenly invaded by some well-armed Bronze Age types and thrown out of their valley, it’s up to Dug to journey to the Roman-style city of their enemy and figure out a solution.

Curiously, the cavemen lost the tradition of football somewhere along the way, so Dug is amazed to discover the city’s entire culture is centered around games held in a giant arena. The home team, Real Bronzio, made up of tall Nordic types, is always the winner, playing at the whim of the nefarious Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston). He’s also the guy who booted Dug’s tribe out of their home so he could dig for ore there, and is amassing a fortune by charging admission to the mandatory games.

One of the movie’s better running jokes is that bronze is used for almost everything, from weapons to currency to housewares. “Have you got change for a dinner plate?” one old lady inquires at the arena gate.

Dug challenges Nooth’s team to a match, with the fate of the valley in the balance. If the cavemen lose, they’ll be forced to work in Nooth’s mines. (Which seems like something he could’ve enforced with or without the game.)

They start training under the tutelage of Goona (Maisie Williams), a city woman who takes a liking to the plight of the prehistoric folks. Plus, she’s always dreamed of booting in a goal of her own, since Real (pronounced REE-yal) Bronzio doesn’t allow women.

It’s a decently fun flick, at least intermittently, directed by Aardman veteran Nick Park from a script by Mark Burton and James Higginson. The cavemen don’t have much in the way of distinct personalities -- there’s the burly woman, the dumb one who puts everything in his mouth, etc.

The scene-stealer is Hognob (voiced by Park), an animal companion of Dug’s who appears to be a mix of boar, dog and sheep. I guess he forms the critter triumvirate with Gromit and Shaun.

If you’re thinking it’d be wacky for Hognob to get into the game, you won’t come away disappointed. Which is more than I can say for me.

Review: "Shaun the Sheep"

The appealing thing about Aardman Animations, the gang behind "Wallace & Gromit" and other stop-motion gems, is that their films operate on a simultaneous high/low level. For the kids, there are a lot of cute animals, spirited but not violent hi jinks, and a fair amount of gastrointestinal emissions and other similar stuff aimed to delight wee ones.

(And, truthfully, adults who didn't grow up into mortal stiffs.)

But the Aardman movies also have a decent sprinkling of hip jokes and pop culture references if you're open to recognizing them -- even some gentle social commentary.

For instance, in "Shaun the Sheep," we follow a flock (gaggle? murder?) of sheep who adventure from the quiet English countryside into the big city in search of their farmer, who ended up there through a convoluted series of events initiated by sheepish folly. What they don't know is the farmer got conked on the noggin, lost his memory and escaped from the hospital, wandering around town in a gown stained with food drippings.

He stumbles into a frou-frou hair salon and is confronted by one of the snotty stylists, who's wearing an artsy shirt decorated with little random globs of color. The amnesiac agrarian is immediately taken to be one of their own.

When the farmer headlocks a celebrity client and roughly shears him down the same way he did his sheep, leaving only a poufy pillow of hair on top, he's anointed the next highfalutin master of barberism.

Children will laugh at the energy and antics, while their parents can chuckle at the wry note about our celebrity culture.

Shaun the Sheep (voice by Justin Fletcher) was a minor character in the Wallace & Gromit shows who was given his own gig. He's got a good life at Mossybottom Farm, but he's bored with the unchanging routine: wake up, get rousted by the bossy farm dog, Bitzer (John Sparkes), spend the day in the field, getting watered, fed and occasionally sheared by the farmer (also Sparkes).

So he and his fellows dream up a plan for a "day off." One thing leads to another, the farmer gets lost, and Shaun and his crew team up with Bitzer to bring him back. They're able to pass as human by dressing up in heavy surplus clothing, posing as foreign tourists.

The heavy is A. Trumper (Omid Djalili), head of the Animal Containment Unit. He carries around a nasty clamp/weapon thingy and a seriously bad attitude. He enjoys scooping up wayward critters -- his HQ is an unlikely menagerie of species -- but discourages adoption.

As with other Aardman features, it's a delight just to look at all the eye candy and realize virtually every bit of it was sculpted and moved, by hand, an infinitesimal amount for each frame of film. The people and animals have a slightly textured look to them, and the surrounding world is a delightful mix of cartoon-y and realistic.

Writer/directors Mark Burton and Richard Starzak are both Aardman veterans who grasp the ethos and impish humor of the studio instinctively. My 4-year-old howled with delight. "Shaun the Sheep" isn't the best that Aardman has to offer, but it's enjoyable and wittier than first glance.