Early Man (2018)

Early Man is a 2018 British animated sports comedy film produced by Aardman Animations. The film was directed by Nick Park who co-wrote it with Mark Burton and James Higginson. It 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. It was a box-office bomb, 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 to date, as Netflix acquired streaming rights to further Aardman films in late 2019.