Aardman Animations latest stop-motion adventure comedy, Early Man, hit U.S. theaters last week. Directed by 4-time Academy Award and 5-time BAFTA award winner Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, Early Man follows a tribe of primitive Stone Age valley-dwellers who have to defend their land from bronze-using invaders in an association football match.

The voice cast reads as a virtual Who’s Who of British acting brilliance with the voices of Tom Hiddleston (Thor, The Avengers, I Saw the Light and The Night Manager), Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything, My Week with Marilyn), Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones, Doctor Who), Timothy Spall (Harry Potter, The King’s Speech), Richard Ayoade (IT Crowd), Johnny Vegas (Still Open All Hours) and Mark Williams (Harry Potter, The Fast Show, Father Brown) taking centerstage.

Lest you think the stop-motion process looks easy, the film took six months to shoot using 33 animators and 37 sets. One shot took eight weeks to shoot and it lasted only 40 seconds on screen. But judging from the brief clip of one of the voiceover sessions, the fun definitely translates to the screen.

Early Man opened in U.S. theaters on February 16.

In: Comedy