Blue Sky’s latest effort works out much like it’s earlier animated output, technically great but thematically underwhelming. ‘Epic’ actually takes the whole technical benchmark a notch or two higher, pity the story could have done with it’s own tweaking that could have made it a far more satisfying watch.
Professor Bomba (Voice of Jason Sudeikis) lives out in the woods in an old house that one character describes as not a house but rather “termites holding hands”. He’s obsessed with proving his theory right, that there are small people living in the woods and there’s a whole ecosystem down there that other people aren’t aware of. His obsession has in the past cost him his marriage but he hopes to make it up for it with his teenage daughter, Mary Katherine (MK) (Voice of Amanda Seyfried) when she turns up for the weekend. Her arrival however coincides with an increased activity in the woods in the professor’s backyard. The good-guys, the leaf-men led by Ronin (voice of Colin Farrell) protect the power that keeps the forest alive and the Boggans, led by Mandrake (voice of Christoph Waltz) are the bad-guys are champions of decay and destruction and would want nothing more than to see the whole forest dead. When the queen of the forest, Tara (voice of Beyonce Knowles) is killed when she’s to choose a new pod which will wash away all the decay of the forest, Mary happens to be there and is shrunk to the size of the leaf-men and tasked with protecting the pod of life. Ronin along with others must protect the pod until the moon rises on a certain night and that forms the rest of the plot along with Mary Katherine trying to figure out a way of getting back to her size and world.
Like i said earlier, the movie’s strength lies in it’s visuals and boy are they amazing. The detail that has gone into every CGI creation is astounding and right from the first frame you’d be entranced by the technical wizardry. Though there have been movies which have had great animation, few have had it this beautiful like a painting in motion. The 3D too doesn’t disappoint but without it, the movie’s far brighter and for the better.
There are moments of genuine humor and most of them provided by Aziz Ansari voicing a slug named Mub. Rockstar Steve Tyler shows up as a wise sage caterpillar who oddly sounds like Mel Brooks. The rest of the voice cast is decent if not outstanding.
Kids will enjoy the movie and even adults will find things to appreciate but this isn’t a genre defining animation movie, just a visually stunning piece of work.
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