Evolution Man (aka Why I Did (Not) Eat My Father) Trailer Review

   Masquerading under the title ‘Animal Kingdom: Lets Go Ape!’ here in the UK, Why I Did (Not) Eat My Father is an animated movie made by Jamel Debbouze. Based on the novel ‘Evolution Man’ by Roy Lewis.

   Follows the main character Édouard leading his tribe into the dawn of human civilization.

First Thoughts –

   This animated movie seems to be in competition with Pixar's movie 'The Good Dinosaur' by jumping the gun and releasing some kind of freakish cross-breed between the cutting room floor horrors of Ice Age and The Croods.

   From the clips you see in the trailer, the main character, who goes around with his hand habitually in his loincloth like some kind of perverted Napoleon, doesn't just look much like a prehistoric homoerectus / simian as the secondary characters do, but just looks like a man with a poor sense of personal hygiene and shaving routines. 

   The main female characters, a strange baboon like shaman-witch woman and the main feral love interest, seem to be some kind of Planet-of-the-apes themed furry fantasy by a post-pubescent basement dweller.

   The main English dub actors haven't been disclosed yet, only showing the main French cast, but if my vastly incorrect knowledge of accents goes the main character seems to be a strongly accented Liverpudlian or Brummie (*awaits ensuing accent war*). The lips aren't synced very well and the script doesn't really represent how people naturally speak.

Extended Research –

   After doing some research, I found that while the film has been previously released in places back in 2014, the information on the 2015 English version is very sparse.

   Admittedly, I feel guilty about my comments about the loincloth hand, due to discovering that Jamel Debbouze lost the use of his right arm in a train accident when he was 25, and now habitually hides it in his pocket. 

   Considering that he was the motion capture actor for the film’s main character Édouard, his hiding his hand was a necessity for his own decency.

   However, this doesn't let the trailer off completely. It seems that the movie is confused as to what audience they're trying to attract. the art and comedy seemingly uninteresting to young children, but too childish for adults.

   When I first saw this trailer in the cinema I was cringing at the script (the dubbing not very smoothly translated and dialogue still pretty unrealistic even for a dubbed foreign language film)

   It does seem promicing as Debbouze's debut as director of a film and has had previous success in movies such as 'Ameile', so I hope him all the best for his future projects.