A new trailer for the upcoming Aardman Animations stop-motion film Early Man has hit the internet.
The Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run creators are back with their claymation aesthetic again, as Early Man tells of a caveman — Dug (voiced by Eddie Redmayne) — living amongst a group of peaceful rabbit hunters.
These neanderthals are thrown for a loop, however, when a mighty tribe lead by Lord Nooth (voiced by Tom Hiddleston) invades their homeland from a new era — the Bronze Age. Dug and his group of pals must fight for their way of life, or risk becoming completely obliterated.
Along with Redmayne and Hiddleston, the film also features vocal talent from Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), Timothy Spall (Harry Potter), Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd) and Mark Williams (Harry Potter).
Nick Park, the director, has won four Academy Awards for his work with Aardman and stop-motion — three for best short, and one for best animated feature film of the year, which was The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2005.
“I’ve always been attracted to the idea of cavemen, and I think the medium of clay seems to suit the subject,” Park said to People Magazine. “And then I started thinking about the idea of classic cavemen with their clubs and how that sort of lends itself to sport.”
He went on. “I saw a sketch for this the other day that was dated 2011. We spent a long time talking about it and writing. We’ve been filming for 18 months, as most animated movies take to make. And then writing and storyboarding takes ages. You’re trying to edit the movie before you’ve made it, because we don’t have that freedom you have in live action where you can shoot loads of stuff and edit after. We can’t afford to not use shots.”
Early Man makes its way into theaters on Feb. 16, 2018. Watch the trailer here and let us know if you’re going to be checking it out in theaters in the comments below.