Nick Park was the genius that started the trend of Plasticine stop-motion movies for Aardman Studios, famously winning Oscars for Creature Comforts and Wallace & Gromit, so it was great so him returning to directing, this was his first solo feature-length project, and it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun. Basically set at the dawn of time, when cavemen and prehistoric creatures, including dinosaurs, roamed the Earth, a small tribe led by Chief Bobnar (Timothy Spall) survive in their valley, hunting for rabbits. But one day there is a disturbance, large unknown vehicles arrive and force the tribe to run away to the volcanic badlands, a Bronze Age army led by Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) have come to claim the land for themselves. Young caveman Dug (Eddie Redmayne) and his wild boar Hognob (Nick Park) are separated from the caveman tribe, unintentionally entering the Bronze Age City, entering a stadium, he is mistaken as a player in the game of football taking place. Dug is brought by the guards before Lord Nooth, in front of the stadium spectators, Dug challenges the local team to a game of football and strikes a deal: if his team wins, they get their valley back; if they lose, they will have to work in the mines. Dug reunites with his tribe and tells them everything, but most of the other cavemen are too dim to understand the concept and rules of football, but they realise, through cave drawings, that their ancestors invented "the great game". The cavemen attempt to practise, but training is fruitless, especially as they only have one ball, so Dug and Hognob sneak into the Bronze Age City to steal more balls, they succeed with the help of local vendor Goona (Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams). She dreams of becoming a footballer herself, and has the skills to play, but girls are excluded from the game, she joins Dug's tribe and coaches them, she also explains while the team players are talented, they are weak at teamwork. The game approaches, and the caveman tribe have made great improvements, meanwhile a Message Bird (Rob Brydon), sent by Queen Oofeefa (Miriam Margolyes), encourages Lord Nooth to discourage Dug, revealing that his ancestors were actually bad at football and gave it up, he offers an alternative deal. The match day arrives, with Queen Oofeefa attending, Dug appears and says he will accept the new offer, that only he will work in the mines while the other cavemen will remain in exile in the badlands. However the rest of the tribe arrive, they convince him that they should go ahead with the game, they score an early goal, but they find themselves down 3-1 in the first half. In the second half, they improve and equalise, a displeased Lord Nooth takes over as the referee, making biased decisions, giving an unnecessary penalty kick. The Chief is goalkeeper, when he is knocked, Dug is forced to allow Hognob to take over, he saves the ball and the game continues, it is in the last few minutes that Dug's team score the winning goal, the final score is 4-3. As a reward, the tribe are allowed to return to their valley, they have also won the respect of the Queen Oofeefa and the crowd, while Lord Nooth is revealed to be stealing money, he is stopped from trying to escape, Dug and the tribe return to hunting, with Goona joining them. Also starring Richard Ayoade as Treebor, Mark Williams as Barry, Kayvan Novak as Dino, Johnny Vegas as Asbo, Selina Griffiths as Magma, Simon Greenall as Eemak and Gina Yashere as Gravelle. The cast of British talent voicing the characters all get their moments, especially Hiddelstone with a hilariously daft French accent as the villain, it is a nice simple story about a game of football that sees Stone Age vs. Bronze Age; the visual, pun and innuendo jokes are well written, and the animation is of course impeccable and charming, it is such a fun family movie, a terrific animated comedy adventure. Very good!