Featuring Eddie Redmayne. Rated G

While not quite up to Wallace and Gromit levels of stop-motion sophistication, Aardman Animations’ Early Man assays a delightfully handcrafted, peculiarly British trip back in time, and one that will tickle the wee ones without Disney levels of Sturm und Drang.

The brief tale (just under 90 minutes) begins with a big bang, however, and prehistoric critters, including proto-humans, wiped out by a giant meteor. There are a few survivors, near Manchester as it happens, and they encounter a multiplaned splinter of that space orb, perfect for kicking around a primitive pitch! “Many ages later”, a surprisingly diverse tribe is forced to rediscover football when their lush valley is invaded by more “advanced” humans.

This “plucky band of knuckle-grazers” (as someone later describes them) is led by grizzled, gray-haired Bobnar, voiced by the instantly recognizable Timothy Spall. “I’m old,” he admits. “Almost 32. Now drink your primordial soup!”

Lately, he’s been increasingly challenged by Dug (Eddie Redmayne), a young upstart who thinks they can do better than rabbits for big game. From the looks of their hunting parties, it’s hard to imagine them pulling it off. The most competent tribesman seems to be Dug’s pet-boar sidekick, Hognob, grunt-voiced by director and Aardman founder Nick Park, who wrote this with James Higginson and Shaun the Sheep Movie’s Mark Burton.

What finally gets Manchester united, however, is the opportunity to relearn their ancient folk game well enough to tackle their Bronze Age betters.

These elite city dwellers deploy a riot of continental accents, and are led by the venal Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston, going all Monty Python on us), who for some reason agrees to wager that green and pleasant land on a soccer match. Presumably, this is because his team, Real Bronzio, is deemed unbeatable. Fortunately, Dug’s band gets schooled by sympathetic urbanite Goona (Maisie Williams), eager to break the game’s male dominance, leading to the big stadium showdown of a thousand sports movies.

Although the banter here isn’t as consistently amusing as that of Chicken Run and the company’s other genre-spoofing ventures, the screen is filled with spectacular modelling details, and things certainly pick up for that final match, narrated by two colour commentators, both voiced by the improvisatory Rob Brydon. One even praises the other, “That’s comedy bronze, Bryan!”