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Early Man (film)

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Early Man
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNick Park
Screenplay byMark Burton
James Higginson
Story byMark Burton
Nick Park
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDave Alex Riddett
Edited bySim Evan-Jones
Music byHarry Gregson-Williams[1]
Tom Howe
Production
companies
Distributed byStudioCanal
Release date
  • 26 January 2018 (2018-01-26)
Running time
89 minutes[2]
Country
  • United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$50 million[3]
Box office$2.8 million

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 ,the film is Produced by Aardman and StudioCanal, and was released on 26 January 2018 in the United Kingdom.[4]

Plot

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)[5] 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.

As a reward, the tribe are allowed to return to their valley, having won the respect of Queen Oofeefa and the crowd. Lord Nooth is revealed to be stealing money and is stopped by Dug's team as he tries to escape and is arrested by the guards.

The final scene shows the tribe and Goona out hunting.

Cast

Production

On 18 June 2007, Aardman Animations announced one of the additional films, as appropriately joked as the untitled Nick Park project, which is not a second Wallace and Gromit theatrical film.[10] On 6 May 2015, it was announced that StudioCanal would finance the $50 million budgeted stop motion animated film Early Man, and would handle its sales.[11] It would re team StudioCanal with Aardman Animations and Nick Park.[11]

On 9 May 2016, while the film was in production, the studio released its first image, and revealed that Eddie Redmayne would provide the lead voice for character Dug.[5][12] The British Film Institute is also a partner on the film, supporting the film with National Lottery funding.[7] On 19 October 2016, the studio announced Tom Hiddleston had joined the cast as the villain, Lord Nooth.[7]

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 will be announced in January 2018.[13]

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.[4] In the United States, it will be released on 16 February 2018, by Lionsgate through its Summit Entertainment label.[4] The teaser trailer was released on 16 March 2017 and the first trailer was released on 7 September.[14]

Reception

Box office

As of 28 of January 2018, Early Man had grossed $2.9 million takings in the UK making it the highest grossing animated film of 2018 and the 22nd highest grossing stop motion animated film ever.

Critical response

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes records 83% positive reviews based on 42 critics and an average rating of 6.8/10[15]. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[16].

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)[18]
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

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 c McNary, Dave (25 May 2017). "Eddie Redmayne's 'Early Man' to Be Released by Lionsgate in North America". Variety. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  5. ^ a b Ritman, Alex; Szalai, Georg (9 May 2016). "Cannes: Eddie Redmayne Joins Aardman's 'Early Man' Team". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Early Man: Cast & Crew". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  7. ^ a b c "Tom Hiddleston joins the cast of Early Man, voicing villainous Lord Nooth". Aardman.com. 19 October 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  8. ^ "Maisie Williams joins the cast of Nick Park's 'Early Man'". Aardman.com. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  9. ^ Rose, Steve (14 January 2018). "Early Man review – Aardman claymation comedy brings Brexit to the bronze age". the Guardian.
  10. ^ "Aardman Reveals New Slate". Aardman. 18 June 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  11. ^ a b 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 10 May 2016.
  12. ^ Semlyen, Phil de (9 May 2016). "First look at Eddie Redmayne's Early Man in the new Aardman adventure". Empire. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  13. ^ "BBC - Blue Peter to launch Awesome Animation competition - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk.
  14. ^ "Aardman announce 2018 release dates for 'Early Man'". Aardman. 7 January 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  15. ^ "Early Man". Rotten Tomatoes. 26 January 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  16. ^ "Early Man". Metacritic. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  17. ^ "New Hope Club - Good Day New Single from Early Man". Vevo. 22 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018. {{cite web}}: Check |archiveurl= value (help)
  18. ^ "Early Man: (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Various Artists on Amazon". Amazon. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
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