Early Man (film)

Early Man is a 2018 stop motion animated sports comedy film directed by Nick Park, and written by Park, Mark Burton and James Higginson. It was produced by Aardman Animations, and stars the voices of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, and Timothy Spall. The film follows a tribe of primitive Stone Age valley dwellers who have to defend their land from bronze-equipped invaders in a football match.

Early Man premiered on 20 January 2018 at the BFI Southbank cinema, and was released theatrically on 26 January 2018. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the visuals and humor, although it was considered inferior to previous Aardman works. The film was also less successful financially compared to previous Aardman offerings, grossing just $54 million against a budget of $50 million. The film was also the last Aardman film to be released theatrically in the United States, until Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom on September 18, 2026, as Netflix acquired streaming rights to further Aardman films in late 2019.

Plot

In 2 million BC, during the Neo-Pleistocene era, an asteroid collides with Earth "near Manchester", causing the extinction of the planet's dinosaurs, but sparing a tribe of cavemen living near the impact site. Finding a roughly spherical chunk of the asteroid, the cavemen begin to kick it around because it is too hot to hold and accidentally invent the game of football. "Several eras" later during the Stone Age, the impact site has become a lush valley, inhabited by a tribe of cavemen, including Dug and his pet wild boar Hognob.