Nick Park’s latest animated film takes audiences back to the stone age – but what have critics said about it? Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews…
The Guardian: **** “Early Man does little to move things on, in evolutionary terms, but – for younger viewers especially – its straightforward storytelling and gentle humour still work a treat.”
Den of Geek: **** “a continued gratitude that Aardman not only exists, but continues to maintain its high standards. Early Man is a real treat.”
Variety: “On one hand, it’s strange to think that Park’s career was leading up to this, while on the other, it’s a treat to regress to the kind of inspired silliness “Early Man” unapologetically has to offer.”
Hollywood Reporter: “For fans of Park’s earlier work, there are plenty of tiny callbacks and micro-allusions. But most of all there’s the comforting reassurance of being once again in a world where the characters often have noses either like pig snouts or polyps and pipe-cleaner-straight arms, cloth, hair and fur ripples and twitches unexpectedly due to the effects of stop-motion, and birds of one species or another wreak havoc.”
The Telegraph: “The miracle of great stop-motion has always been that the films look loved. As you watch Early Man, you can feel it.”
Screen Daily: “Ultimately, the charming silliness of the picture and the near universal appeal of soccer should outweight the niche, culturally specific nature of some of the humour.”
The Independent: *** “Modernity may equal efficiency, but Early Man certainly substitutes its exhaustive animation techniques with laser-sharp focus elsewhere. There’s no single shot, movement, joke, or line of dialogue that seems wasted.”
Radio Times: **** “Early Man finds a place somewhere at the top of Aardman’s evolutionary tree with Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep.”
IGN.com: “While the story and script feel a little thin, the animation is consistently delightful. Aardman’s characters and sets still have a more tactile feel than any other stop-frame animation studio.”
The Wrap: “overall the movie collapses in a heap of familiarity and lackadaisicalness. Park is an animation legend, but even the greats occasionally whiff it.”
Early Man is released in cinemas on the 26th January.