Early Man is a 2018 animated sports comedy film directed by Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, and Shaun the Sheep, written by Mark Burton and James Higginson, and starring 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. The film premiered on 20 January 2018 at the BFI Southbank cinema.

Released theatrically on 26 January 2018 (in the UK), the film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the visuals and humor, although it was considered inferior to previous Aardman works.^[4] However, it was a box-office bomb, grossing just $54 million against a budget of $50 million, making it the lowest-grossing Aardman film since Flushed Away. It was also the final Aardman film to be released theatrically in the United States, as Netflix acquired streaming rights to further Aardman films in late 2019.

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 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 boar Hognob. One day, Dug suggests to Chief Bobnar that they should try hunting mammoths instead of rabbits as they always do, but Bobnar brushes him off, insisting the uncoordinated tribe would be unable to catch mammoths. An army led by Lord Nooth, a Bronze Age governor, drives the tribe out of the valley and into the surrounding volcanic badlands. Dug tries to attack them, but falls into a cart and is unknowingly taken to the Bronze Age city. There, he is mistaken for a football player. To escape, he challenges Nooth's elite local team to a match with the valley at stake and promises that the tribe will work in Nooth's mines forever if they lose. Nooth accepts, knowing that he can profit from the match.

Dug discovers that although his ancestors played football, the other members of his tribe are too dim to understand it. They get chased by a giant duck that destroys their only ball. Later that night, Dug and Hognob sneak into the Bronze Age city to steal more balls, but are found out by a woman named Goona, who goes to the empty stadium to practise in secret. Resentful over the team's exclusion of women, she helps them steal some balls and agrees to coach the cavemen. Goona points out that the players on Nooth's team are talented but too egotistical to work together effectively. The cavemen improve in skill and teamwork under her coaching. Queen Oofeefa sends a message bird informing Nooth of the consequences should the cave team wins.

To demoralise Dug, Nooth has him brought to the mines and shows him cave paintings made by his tribe's ancestors who, although they had invented the game and taught other tribes to play it, they never won a single match to other tribes and eventually gave up football.

On the day of the match with Oofeefa in attendance, Dug announces his forfeiture as part of the deal which spares the rest of the tribe and agrees to take their place in the mines alone. However, his reinvigorated teammates arrive on the now tamed giant duck to play the match. Nooth incapacitates the referee and takes his place, making biased calls in favour of the local team that leads to Bobnar (who was serving as the goalie), being knocked out.

Hognob takes his place and blocks a penalty kick. Dug scores using a bicycle kick to win the match for the cavemen, and they win their valley back with the respect of Oofeefa, the local team, and the crowd. Nooth tries to escape and steal the crowd's admission money, but is arrested for his crimes while everyone gets their money back. Goona and Nooth's elite team join Dug's tribe for a hunt, but they are frightened off by a rabbit pretending to be a woolly mammoth.

• Eddie Redmayne as Dug, a young Stone Age caveman.^[5][6]
• Tom Hiddleston as Lord Nooth, an evil governor of the Bronze Age City.^[7]
• Maisie Williams as Goona, a tomboyish vendor and football enthusiast in the Bronze City whom Dug befriends.^[8]
• Timothy Spall as Chief Bobnar, the chieftain of Dug's tribe.^[6]
• Miriam Margolyes as Queen Oofeefa, the queen of the Bronze Age City who Nooth works for.^[6]
• Kayvan Novak as:
  • Dino, Lord Nooth's second in command and referee.^[6]
  • Jurgend, the team captain of the Bronze City's football team.
• Rob Brydon as:
  • Brian and Bryan, two football commentators in the Bronze Age City that work for Queen Oofeefa.^[6]
  • Message Bird, a pigeon who carries messages.
  • Gonad The Gaul, a member of the Bronze City's football team.^[9]
• Richard Ayoade as Treebor, a large and cowardly member of Dug's tribe who is constantly embarrassed by his mother.^[6]
• Selina Griffiths as Magma, a member of Dug's tribe who is the overbearing mother of Treebor.^[6]
• Johnny Vegas as Asbo, a fidgety member of Dug's tribe who often says "Champion".^[6]
• Mark Williams as Barry, a member of Dug's tribe who isn't bright and has a rock friend named Mr. Rock.^[6]
• Gina Yashere as Gravelle, an injury-prone member of Dug's tribe.^[6]
• Richard Webber as Grubup, a hungry member of Dug's tribe who will eat anything.
• Simon Greenall as:
  • Eemak, a warm and funny member of Dug's tribe who the other tribe has trouble understanding.^[6]
  • Thongo, a strong and silent member of Dug's tribe who mostly responds with a grunt.
• Nick Park as Hognob, Dug's pet wild boar.^[10]

In addition to a rabbit that Dug's tribe constantly hunts every day, a Ceratosaurus and a Triceratops, similar to the ones animated by Ray Harryhausen from One Million Years B.C., are seen fighting each other at the opening of the film prior to the asteroid striking Earth. In the end credits, they go by the name Ray (Ceratosaurus) and Harry (Triceratops).

In June 2007, two films were announced by Aardman, one of them being appropriately joked as an "untitled Nick Park film, which is not another Wallace & Gromit feature film."^[11] In May 2015, it was announced that the title of the film would be Early Man, and it would be financed by the British Film Institute for $50 million.^{[citation needed]}

As with previous stop motion films created by Aardman, the characters in Early Man were developed over time with the voice actors to determine the way the characters look, move, and speak. The results were turned over to the film's 35 animators at the studio to work on individualising the characters.^[12] A crowd of people took part in an audio recording at the Memorial Stadium Home of Bristol Rovers.^[13]

The studio began principal photography on the film in May 2016 and wrapped on 5 October 2017.^[14]

On 21 September 2017, a competition was launched on the CBBC television programme Blue Peter to design a prehistoric character inspired by Early Man, with the winner receiving the opportunity to see their character brought to life by Aardman, as well as receiving tickets to the premiere alongside the runners up. It closed on 12 October 2017, and the winner was announced in January 2018.^[15]

Early Man was released in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2018 by StudioCanal. StudioCanal also distributed the film in France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.^[16] In the United States, it was released on 16 February 2018, by Lionsgate, through its Summit Entertainment label. In Canada, It was released by eOne Films on the same day.^[16] It later premiered on Cartoon Network in November 2022.

The soundtrack, titled Early Man: (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), was released under Lionsgate on 26 January 2018, the day of the film's release.

• List of association football films
• Chicken Run
• Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
• Wallace and Gromit
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
• Creature Comforts
• Flushed Away
• The Croods
• The Croods: A New Age
• Bend It Like Beckham
• Believe (2013 film)