With his signature style constantly with us in Aardman Animation's roster, it's easy to forget that Nick Park himself hasn't directed a feature for more than a decade. The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! was Peter Lord's baby, while Shaun The Sheep was credited to Mark Burton and Richard Starzak, and the last full-length to bear Park's own name was The Curse Of The Were Rabbit back in 2005. Anticipation is high for his caveman adventure Early Man then, to the extent that this, by our reckoning, is the fourth trailer. It isn't hugely different to the third one, but the eagle-eyed will pick up on a few new gags.
The story finds caveman Dug (Eddie Redmayne) leaving a happy, if routine life with his Stone Age tribe (including Richard Ayoade's Treebor, Timothy Spall's Chief Bobnar and Mark Williams' Barry). But then their world – which Dug has been trying to expand – is thrown into chaos by the arrival of some newcomers.
Led by Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston), these Bronze Age interlopers are more developed than our heroes, and are looking to take over their valley. Things look grim for the Stone Age types until a wager is hammered out over, of all things, football. Can Dug save his tribe?
Maisie Williams and Johnny Vegas are also in the voice cast. UK audiences will get to see it on 26 January.
First Look At Eddie Redmayne's Early Man In The New Aardman Adventure