Early Man is Fairly Punctual

Early Man (2018)

I just saw Early Man and I have no idea what the intended audience was. It was animated and benign, like a kids movie, but all of the dialogue is based on witty references to things that nobody under the age of 15 would really understand. It was chock full of prehistoric puns and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I felt like I was the only one in a theater with a few dozen people who got most of the jokes. I’m not saying that they were smart or clever jokes, but there are maybe 4 jokes that an elementary schooler would get. There were a lot of soccer puns too, which would slip past some people who aren’t familiar with the game. Those puns were much more accessible, though. Besides not understanding or even have a target audience, it was visually stunning, like all Aardman features. I could watch that style of animation all day. I find it fascinating, the patience and vision to create a movie like that. Overall, Early Man was entertaining enough, even though it wasn’t sure what it wanted to be. I give it 6 out of 11 players on the pitch (even though you need 7 to legally compete).