My Thoughts: EPIC (2013)

Well, it’s been a while since I did a “My Thoughts” and just look at the movie that I chose to resume with!

As you may or may not know, “Epic” was probably my LEAST anticipated movie of the year! It was made by Blue Sky Studios, which is an animation company that I’m not fond of; it featured a plethora of celebrity voice actors, which is an animation technique that I’m not fond of; and it just seemed like such a familiar story!

So, I finally saw the film and what did I think? Well, let’s talk about the film first.

The film is based on a book by children’s author William Joyce and features a teenage girl named Mary Katherine, or M.K. for short, voiced by Amanda Seyfried.

Her mother has recently passed away due to…some kind of sickness, I’m guessing, so she goes to live with her father. Her parents have been separated/divorced for some time due to her father’s obsession with little leaf-sized people who live in the forest.

Oh, let me explain! Her father is a scientist who’s spent his life trying to prove his theory that leaf-sized people do indeed live in the forest!

And, believe it or not, he’s actually right!

The forest IS alive with tiny fairy-sized creatures ruled by Queen Tara, voiced by Beyoncé Knowles. 

But, of course, M.K. doesn’t believe this which causes her to have a failure to communicate with her father.She realizes that her father will never give up his search and decides to leave him and go live by herself. While on her way out, she goes into the forest. This is not a good move for M.K. Why, you ask?

Well, you see, it happens to be a special day in the forest, the day where Queen Tara chooses her successor to the throne and all the forest-folk are excited and anxious to be picked. The Queen even has her own army of bodyguards to protect her called the Leafmen. They’re led by Ronin, voiced by Colin Farrell, who may or may not have or have had a relationship with the Queen.

Anyway, what exactly are these Leafmen protecting the Queen from? Why, the Boggans, of course! The Boggans are another group of tiny forest people, but they’re the bad guys. They want everything to rot and decay, whilst Queen Tara’s reign promotes growth and beauty. So, the Boggans, led by their leader, Mandrake, voiced by Christoph Waltz,

attack the Queen and her motorcade…umm…fairy-cade of Leafmen bodyguards.

The attack is quite successful resulting in Queen Tara’s death! But before she dies, she comes across M.K. (who’s now in the forest, like I said) and shrinks her down to fairy-size and gives her a special…pod with her….soul/magic/special thingy in it. M.K., who is not as surprised about all these strange happenings as she should be, has to now deliver this pod to a special person in the forest in order to make it grow. Once it grows, Queen Tara’s soul can come out and pick the rightful successor to the kingdom. She embarks on this quest with the help of Ronin and a young Leafman named Nod, voiced by Josh Hutcherson.

Ok, so as you can see, the film is not that creative in terms of story and bears many similarities with other animated films such as “Arthur and the Invisibles”, “FernGully: The Last Rainforest”, and even “The Ant Bully”.

So with that said, did I like this movie? Well,

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Ok, yes I did like this movie, much to my surprise!

Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t LOVE this movie, nor do I think it’s necessarily a good movie, but my expectations for this film were so low, that it was easy for this film to impress me.

First off, the animation is gorgeous and detailed. It’s probably the best that we’ve seen from Blue Sky Studios. Well, the characters’ faces are a bit weird, but everything else is amazing!

Secondly, this is the first Blue Sky Studios that isn’t meant to be a comedy. Yes, there are a few characters solely for comic relief, 

but besides that, it’s more of an epic drama meant to be taken seriously. And I strongly commend the film for it!

And finally, let’s talk about the voice actors. I have to admit that most of them didn’t do bad jobs. Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, and even Steven Tyler were not really bad.

Other characters, especially those voiced by Beyoncé Knowles and Pitbull, appear very briefly in the film, so it’s not much to worry about.

And the other voice actors, such as Christoph Waltz and Jason Sudeikis, were more of an “I-don’t-like-their-voices” scenario more than an “I-don’t-like-their-voice-acting” scenario.

In the end, I’d have to say to you all to give this movie at least one look. If you don’t want more than one, I totally understand, but at least give it one look. I did just that and the film surpassed my expectations (or lack thereof)! I’m really glad that I watched it!