The worst thing about this film is its uninspiring title. This is unfortunate, because if you can actually get past that, you get some of the most beautiful animation we’ve seen in a while.
Epic is the story of a hidden world in our forests, a continuing battle between growth and decay, good and evil. Once every hundred years, a new queen of the forest is crowned, and endowed with the powers to keep the forest green and full of life. It is the duty of the Leafmen to protect the Queen and the forest. And on that date, the evil Boggans decide to attack, and an unsuspecting human girl named MK is shrunk down to their size and drawn into the battle between the Boggans and the Leafmen. But before you go “Been there, done that, saw Fern Gully, saw Avatar,” you should take a second look. This film lacks the pretense and cheese factor of both of those.
The first thing to discuss here is how beautiful this animation is. Given the plot and theme of growth vs decay, we get some excellent work in light vs dark, greens and blues vs browns and grays. There are also some fun animated characters, like a three-legged, one-eyed pug who is the most adorable onscreen dog in a long time.
The next thing of note are the talents of the voice cast. Christoph Waltz, as always, does an amazing job as a villain. Jason Sedeikis brings a lot of heart to the character of MK’s absent-minded-professor of a father who is obsessed with finding evidence of the hidden world of the forest. And Colin Ferrell does his best to channel a strange mix of roguish Han Solo charm and Obi-Wan Kenobi dutifulness and mentorship into the character of Ronin, the Leafmen general. But it is Aziz Ansari who tries to steal the movie as, of all things, a slug. He and Chris O’Dowd, who plays a snail, provide excellent comic relief and some real heart into this movie that, frankly, could use a little bit more.
While the vast majority of the voice cast is a delight, there are a few very notable exceptions. Pitbull. Beyonce. Steven Tyler. Stick to your music careers, please. While Pitbull and Beyonce are utterly overlookable, Steven Tyler is not. He single-handedly brings the movie to a grinding halt with both an uninspired performance and a lame, out of place musical number.
And despite all of the themes of green vs decay, there is no overarching ecological message or anything like that. So, again, please, can the Fern Gully references.
So, all told, this is a fine movie, title excluded. This is something I don’t understand, as it was based on the book The Leafmen and the Brave Good Bugs. That would’ve been far more descriptive than Epic. Or, as shown in this Spanish language poster for the film, they named it “The Secret World”:
Now, while I may have some complaints, I also took my kids to go see the movie, and my daughter’s BFF. They went insane over this movie. They loved, loved, loved it. It may be that to 7 and 8 yr old girls, having strong female leads is important. But their favorite part was also the banter between the slug and snail, too. My 5 yr old son also liked the movie, though not as much as his sister, and there were parts in it which were a little too scary for him.
So, this is a good movie, not a great one, but it might be something your kids would enjoy. I’m still waiting for Monsters University to come out, but until then, Epic is not a terrible stopgap.
2 1/2 stars