Featuring the voices of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Timothy Spall

Directed by Nick Park

StudioCanal, out on digital now, and Blu-ray and DVD May 28

They thought it was all over…

Many years ago I had the pleasure of co-writing the book on the making of Aardman Animations’ Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, during the preparation of which I visited the studios and watched the incredibly intricate and time-consuming work that the animators undertook for each movement – let alone each gag – in the film. It left me with a profound sense of awe at the painstaking work, and I’ve enjoyed subsequent Aardman productions even more.

Early Man – beautifully described on Wikipedia as a stop-motion animated historical sports comedy (as if there’s possibly more than one of these around!) – takes a subject that I don’t have a particular interest in (football) and creates a thoroughly entertaining hour and a half. You don’t need to know the ins and outs of the Premier League to get the vast majority of the jokes (although no doubt those who do enjoy the sport will find more being skewered than I noticed), and as always with Aardman films, there’s so much going on in the background that you only pick up on a second viewing.

When this was released at the start of the year, I did wonder about the timing; it seemed too early to try to capitalise on the World Cup, there being minor distractions like a Royal Wedding to attract publicity in the intervening months, but its home entertainment release is perfect for the period while the Cup continues and your favourite team has departed… or to try to understand what all the fuss is about.

The extras include a commentary from Nick Park and the film’s editor Sim Evan-Jones, as well as a wealth of material on the creation of the movie.

Verdict: A fun family movie. 8/10

Paul Simpson