Aardman’s new animated adventure, ‘Early Man’, is the story of a plucky caveman from a time when woolly mammoths roamed the earth, who unites his tribe against the mighty Bronze Age for a game of football. It only takes a cursory glance at this synopsis to get the impression that historical accuracy is of rather less concern to the film-makers than some good jokes, which fortunately are present and correct - the ‘Beaker people’ are a kitchenware store; the Real Bronzio goalkeeper is named Hügelgraber.

The Stone Age, or an imaginary version thereof, has long been a favoured setting for comedy, with prehistoric slapstick featuring such famous silent era performers as Chaplin (‘His Prehistoric Past’), Keaton (‘Three Ages’) and Laurel & Hardy (‘Flying Elephants’). However, even though none of these could be considered classics it’s still been downhill ever since. ‘Caveman’ (1981), starring Ringo Starr of all people (perhaps a Rolling Stone would have been more appropriate?), prompted the critic Roger Ebert to reflect that ‘There has never been a really successful movie set in prehistoric times, although God knows they've tried…’, while ‘The Flintstones Movie’ (1994) won a Golden Raspberry for worst screenplay. Universally these comedies mix (pre)historically inaccurate caveman figures and equally primitive humour.

Unfortunately serious films about human prehistory usually offer the same inaccuracies without the excuse of (intentional) humour. It’s impossible to decide whether Raquel Welch battling dinosaurs in a fur bikini in ‘One Million Years BC’ (1966) is more ludicrous than Roland Emmerich’s bonkers epic ’10,000 BC’ (2008) in which mammoths are roped in to help build the pyramids. Special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen, who animated the dinosaur sequences in ‘One Million Years BC’ to which ‘Early Man’ pays tribute, once stated that he did not make the film for ‘professors... who probably don't go to see these kinds of movies anyway’ (spoiler alert: these days they probably do).

So perhaps it is fortunate that serious movies set in prehistory remain few and far between, but why have prehistoric people not attracted the attention of film-makers? The contrast with the filmography of the Roman Empire is striking; prehistory still lacks its ‘Ben-Hur’ or ‘Gladiator’. Perhaps it is simply a failure of imagination, in the absence of the ready-made narratives of historical periods. The best efforts have attempted to visualise the lives of early human ancestors, as in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968) - setting aside the monolith - and ‘Quest for Fire’ (1981). Later prehistoric societies have generally got very short shrift, and although Iron Age people often turn up in the background of Roman films, with the menacing Seal People in ‘The Eagle’ (2011) among the most interesting, serious portrayals are somewhat eclipsed by the doubly anachronistic cavemen Hengist and Horsa in ‘Carry on Cleo’ (1964).

So although we might blame Hollywood for the longevity of caveman stereotypes and the perception that humans existed alongside dinosaurs, we can enjoy 'Early Man' for what its battling dinosaurs and Stone vs Bronze storyline show it to be - a spoof of the eminently spoofable prehistoric movie genre (and of the almost as ridiculous ‘Escape to Victory’). As for serious movies about prehistoric times, although we can keep our fingers crossed for ‘Alpha’ later this year, the best is probably a documentary: Werner Herzog’s extraordinary record of the Chauvet cave art in ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams’ (2010). There are also films which are not set in prehistory but feature prehistoric sites, real or imagined; these vary from the wartime drama of ‘The English Patient' (1996), with its reproduction of the Cave of Swimmers in the Sahara, to the pagan rituals and fake stone circle of classic horror ’The Wicker Man’ (1973). However, even this sub-genre is overshadowed by the humorous: the most famous movie reference to Stonehenge occurs, of course, not in Polanski’s ‘Tess' (1979) but in Rob Reiner’s ’This is Spinal Tap’ (1984). In the end, you just have to laugh…

For another Early Man-related take on films set in prehistory see: http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-films-set-prehistoric-era