Early Man is a 2018 animated sports comedy film directed by Nick Park, the creator of Wallace & 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.

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.

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 wild boar Hognob.

Later that night, Dug and Hognob sneak into the Bronze Age city to steal more balls, but are found out by a female vendor named Goona, who goes to the empty stadium to practise in secret.

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.

When the cavemen manage to tie 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.

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 United States and Canada, Early Man was released alongside Black Panther and was projected to gross $5–$7 million on its opening weekend at 2,494 areas.

This placed it seventh, and with the fourth-worst opening for an animated movie playing in over 2,000 theatres at the time, below Delgo, All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 and Teacher's Pet.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Early Man isn't quite as evolved as Aardman's best work, but still retains the unique visuals and sweet humor that have made the studio a favorite among animation enthusiasts.