Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Early Man Blu-ray Movie Review

Can you Dug it?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 14, 2018

It’s maybe a little ironic, or at least a little instructive, that Nick Park’s celebration of often befuddled underdogs includes a franchise where one of his few characters who seems to know what’s going on and knows how to get things done is a canine — the inimitable Gromit of Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection fame. While Park’s Aardman Animations group has been at least partially responsible for such enjoyable fare as Arthur Christmas and The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Park’s personal filmography is actually rather limited, no doubt due to the time constraints of stop motion production. Since 1989, when the short that gave birth to Creature Comforts debuted, Park’s output includes only nine other entries, including the several Wallace and Gromit shorts included in the collection linked to above. One more Wallace and Gromit feature length film, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were- Rabbit, along with Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep Movie and a Shaun the Sheep short, Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas, comprise the full spectrum of Park’s wonderfully whimsical oeuvre. Luckily, Park’s quality far outpaces his quantity, perhaps exactly due to the fact that he likes to take time on his projects. Park actually mentions that Early Man gestated for some five years overall, with several years spent developing ideas, storyboards, and rough pre-viz animations before even one model was crafted for the eventual stop motion enterprise. As with many other Park offerings (and in fact Aardman productions in general), Early Man deals with characters whom some may feel are “losers”, in this case a ragtag bunch of “cavemen” who find themselves engaged in a rather improbable football (i.e., soccer) match with “new, improved” Bronze Age types. It’s spectacularly weird, and therefore wonderful, at least for those who are already attuned to Park’s deliberately skewed sense of humor.

British humor is often described as being “wry” or “dry”, but it’s also undeniably hilarious and really rather outré at times, as evidenced by the very setup for this film. But there’s a certain specificity to some of the best English comedy, and one of the best jokes in Early Man comes at the very opening, with an extremely specific (and hilarious) set of subtitles labeling exactly when and where the “pre-history” montage is taking place. This kinda sorta “history lesson” unfolds quickly, documenting not just a calamitous asteroid collision that kills the poor dinosaurs, but the resultant invention of football by Ancient Man. The story then segues forward “a few Ages” to reveal a happy collection of Stone Age residents in the huge verdant valley that sprung up in the crater caused by the asteroid. This refuge of abundant life is surrounded by a barren wasteland of volcanic activity.

Young caveman (caveboy?) Dug (voiced by Eddie Redmayne) tools around the valley with his pet boar Hognob (voiced by Nick Park himself), hoping that tribe elder Bobnar (voiced by Timothy Spall) will finally relent to Dug’s importuning that the group finally try to hunt something larger than a rabbit, like, say, a woolly mammoth. Even hunting a rabbit seems to be a challenge for this motley crew, but their inability to do much other than stumble over each other is interrupted by the frightening arrival of real warriors in the form of Bronze Age interlopers led by the unctuous Lord Nooth (voiced by Tom Hiddleston), on the hunt for ore deposits, ostensibly left by the asteroid of yore. The arrival of this group evicts the Stone Age tribe, who retreat to the volcanic badlands. Except for Dug, that is, who finds himself unexpectedly transported to the Bronze Age capital due to his own stumbles.

That sets up the central, undeniably outlandish, premise of the film, when Dug, due to yet more stumbles, finds himself on a soccer field in the midst of a championship bout where he is mistaken for a goalie. Suffice it to say Dug’s soccer skills aren’t exactly professional grade, but just as his real identity is revealed, he challenges Lord Nooth and his acolytes to a match with Dug’s Stone Age compatriots, with Nooth agreeing (yeah, right) to leave the verdant valley alone should Dug’s team prevail.

Now, there’s absolutely no question where this is all leading, including but not limited to Nooth’s subterfuges, an unexpected Bronze Age ally showing up to coach the Stone Age folks, and/or who ends up taking home the trophy. With that understanding firmly in place, it’s just as undeniable how sweet and often laugh out loud funny Early Man is. A lot of the humor is silly physical stuff, elevated by the lovably wacky puppets that Aardman is so skilled in creating and animating, but there’s some fun (if equally ridiculous) verbal sparring that takes place as well. It all plays out in an appropriately cartoonish environment that at times perhaps tends to rely on The Flintstones-esque gags (i.e., a giant beetle acting as an “electric” razor), but which still delivers both heart and hilarity in about equal measure.

Early Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Early Man is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The IMDb lists the Canon EOS- 1D X as the camera of choice on this production, finished at a 4K DI. Aside from some intentional "distressing" in the opening vignette which can make things look fairly noisy (see screenshots 4 and 6), this is a fantastically sharp and well detailed looking presentation. Fine detail on the expertly crafted puppets and props pops off the screen at virtually every moment, with everything from Dug's almost rope like hair to the purple pill on Nooth's tunic looking precise and almost palpable. The palette is extremely varied, and some of the backgrounds are gorgeously suffused with vivid hues, especially in some of the volcanic badlands scenes. Fluidity of motion is top notch, as has come to be expected in Aardman features.

Early Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Early Man's Dolby Atmos track is a standout, too, with regular engagement of the "traditional" surround channels, but nice use of the Atmos channels in scenes like the asteroid tumbling toward Earth or the crowd sounds in the soccer arena. There's quite a bit of source music utilized which also fills the surround channels quite winningly. Dialogue and the frequent sound effects are all rendered with excellent fidelity, and typically with smart directionality, throughout the presentation.

Early Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Before the Beginning of Time: Crafting Early Man (1080p; 14:43) is a fun featurette with some brief but interesting interviews and some enjoyable footage of Park and his cohorts doing live action bits in preparation for animating certain sequences.


• Nick Park: Massaging the Funny (1080p; 8:47) actually offers other Aardman folks in addition to Park talking about making the comedy land.


• The Valley Meets the Bronze (1080p; 7:32) probably needlessly recounts some basic plot points before getting into some more interesting data on production design and model building.


• Hanging at Aardman Studios: A Workshop Exploration (1080p; 7:50) features some really fun "backstage" footage of puppet crafting, along with more fun glimpses of live action buffoonery and some probably unnecessary comments from some of the voice actors.

Early Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Early Man may not be whatever the soccer equivalent to a home run might be, but it's a solid effort that provides some good laughs and a lot of that patented Aardman heart. As is usual with Nick Park and his merry band, the characters are all wonderfully distinctive and beautifully animated. Lionsgate's technical presentation is top notch, and Early Man comes Recommended.