Review: Early Man is a clever claymation chuckle-fest from the makers of Shaun the Sheep

THE brains behind Wallace and Gromit have another catchy claymation comedy, and kids will adore a movie which jams cleverness and silliness into every frame.

NEXT to Pixar, the most reliably creative brand in kids’ movie entertainment is Aardman, the British studio specialising in stop-motion claymation.

This is the first release from the creators of Wallace and Gromit since 2015’s wonderful Shaun the Sheep Movie, and it will not disappoint its target audience in any way.

Kids will absolutely adore Early Ma n, which jams both cleverness and silliness into every frame.

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Lord Nooth, (Tom Hiddleston), Hognob, Dug, (Eddie Redmayne) and Goona, (Maisie Williams). Aardman Animations, the team behind Wallace and Grommit have a new film "Early Man".

An unashamedly madcap (but crucially, never too manic) story tracks the heroic exploits of Dug (voiced by Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne), a primitive hunter-gatherer who will need to become mankind’s first soccer star if he is to save his village from destruction.

The villain of the piece is Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston), a mercenary mining tycoon already plundering the valleys adjacent to Dug’s digs for precious metals.

Nooth also happens to own the best pro soccer team in the civilised world (named Real Bronzio, in case you were wondering).

A grudge match is destined to be the flashpoint of the film, where a ragtag team of rank amateurs spearheaded by Dug must take on Nooth’s all-star squad for the right to keep living exactly where they always have.

Dug and the Brutes for the win in Early Man.

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With the unyielding support of his trusty sidekick Hognob the wild boar, Dug moulds his Brutes team around Goona (Maisie Williams), a star player who was booted off the Real Bronzio books for being a girl.

Historically, Early Man is all over the shop, mixing and matching its Stone Ages, Bronze Ages and significant prehistoric milestones (including the invention of, err, sliced bread) to suit itself.

Hysterically, the whole thing makes perfectly imperfect sense.

EARLY MAN (PG)

Rating: three and a half stars (out of 5)

Director: Nick Park (The Curse of the Were-Rabbit)

Starring: the voices of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Miriam Margolyes, Timothy Spall, Rob Brydon, Richard Ayoade.

Keeping everything primitive and proper

Originally published as Review: Early Man is a clever claymation chuckle-fest from the makers of Shaun the Sheep