A Little Presumptuous: A Review of Epic

In the decade or so that it's been around, Blue Sky studios has produced films that have been heavy on humor and interesting visuals but light on plot and character development. Its films, such as the Ice Age series, Robots and Rio fall well short of the standard of excellence set by Pixar animated studios and even some of the works of rival Dreamworks' animation, even though many of them often make for some reasonably good viewing fun. Their latest film is called Epic.

Epic is the story of the a race of tiny creatures living in an unnamed forest, presumably somewhere deep in America, led by a beautiful queen named Tara (Beyonce Knowles) and guarded by an army of what I can only describe as miniature samurai known as the Leaf Men, led by the stoical Ronin (Colin Farrell). This civilization, and, as is usually the case with movies like this one, the whole world, is threatened by a race of similarly tiny, goblin-like creatures known as Boggans, led by the evil Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) who live solely to cause decay and rot.  Their story intersects with that of Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried) a full-sized human who goes to live with her scientist father Professor Bomba (Jason Sudeikis) after her mother dies. It so happens that Bomba lives in a house on the edge of the forest inhabited by the tiny creatures, and he has grown obsessed with finding them, arguably at the expense of everything else in his life, a fact of which Mary Katherine (or "M.K.") is keen to remind him. Through a whirlwind series of events, M.K. finds herself shrunken down to the size of the Leaf Men and  immediately charged with an important task, the success or failure of which could have significant consequences for the entire ecosystem. Fortunately, Ronin is ready to help, along with a former Leaf Man, the rebellious Nod (Josh Hutcherson). Still, time is not on their side and the task ahead is a daunting one.

I am loath to walk the path most likely trodden by many who have reviewed this film before I did, but the truth about Epic is that it simply...isn't. (It's not the most grammatically sound sentence, but it just feels apt, really). The title is not only a misnomer but one I found a little annoying as it came across to me as the handiwork of someone in Blue Sky's marketing department rather than that of the filmmakers themselves.

The story is the kind that, to my mind, would probably not survive a second viewing without my having spotted several plot holes, and in fact, I made it a point not to look for plot holes so that I could at least enjoy it. I took some solace from knowing there weren't any gaffes which were so gaping that I found myself dwelling on them before the movie was even finished. That happened to me with the recent film G.I. Joe: Retaliation, a film I did not even bother to review because of how thoroughly idiotic it was. Still, there were a lot of little tics that seemed out of place, like the somewhat abrupt musical number by the caterpillar played by Aerosmith frontman Steve Tyler, and even the names of some of the characters, like the Leaf Men "Ronin" and "Nod." For goodness' sake, is it so hard to think up decent names for characters?  Much of the character development and much of the dialogue would have felt more at home in a Cartoon Network T.V. movie than a feature film, and while I am not violently opposed to sitting down with my kids and enjoying the occasional T.V. movie, I actually expect more of a film that trumpets itself as a big deal, which is my understanding of what "epic" is supposed to mean.

All that said, the film does have a number of things going for it, the main thing being its astonishing visuals. I have always liked children's books that feature anthropomorphic flowers and plants, and the manner in which director Chris Wedge and his crew interpret the concept here really bowled me over. I even liked that the Leaf Men were modeled after samurai as it made much of their movement, especially during fight scenes, really fun to watch. My only quibble with the overall look of the film was with the design of Queen Tara and her royal garments, which looked a little plain and not quite in keeping with the overall aesthetic, though the animation of how her gown flowed behind her was topnotch. The voice acting was good all around, though highlights are the villainy of Christoph Waltz's Mandrake and the comic relief provided by Mub, a slug voiced by American comedian Aziz Ansari. I also liked Danny Elfman's score, which, while not one of his best, was appropriately lively.

Another aspect of the film that I really got into was its discussion and subsequent depiction of the differences in scale between the human world and the tiny world. The notion that tiny creatures like insects exist in a completely different dimension in terms of speed was actually pretty interesting to contemplate, and the manner in which it is shown is played for quite a few laughs along the way. This isn't a simple case of big people straining to hear little people talking with small voices; it really is a whole other world. Had the rest of the film been as intelligent as it was when exploring this concept, it could have been a lot more engaging than it actually was.

In fact, if the crew of Blue Sky had devoted as much effort to the story and characters of this movie as they had to its excellent visuals, then perhaps this movie would truly have been "Epic." As it was, it was "kind of okay," though I don't imagine that's the kind of title that gets people lining up to see movies.

3/5