Friday, December 20, 2024

Epic

A fairy tale with a forest crawling with fighting armies, brave knights, a compassionate queen – everyone is just 2 centimeters high.

They’re joined with normal height eccentric professor Bomba (Jason Sudeikis), his disappointed teenage daughter Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried), and a scene-stealing three-legged dog, which means the 2013 3D digitally animated “Epic” is filled at the seams, much like the luxurious forest where it takes place.

While “Epic,” with its amazingly unreasonable secrecy, may not live up to its title in the story area, this film from Blue Sky Studios is so visually pleasing it almost doesn’t matter.

Stephen Schaefer said in his review, “With a grab bag of references that range from “The Wizard of Oz,” “Alice in Wonderland,” Harry Potter and “The Hobbit” and a starry cast voicing­ its creatures large and small, “Epic” offers a magical wonderland of a forest that is so rich and inviting it seems only natural that it’s populated by tiny beings.”

They live under compassionate queen Tara (Beyonce Knowles) and are protected by the heroic army of green-dressed Leafmen, led by the square-jawed Ronin (Colin Farrell).

Bomba the scientist lives near the woods and believes, despite he’s never seen them, in the little people who fight with ridiculous Mandrake, voiced by Christoph Waltz, and his ugly residents of rot and decay called Boggans.

As “Epic” starts, Bomba’s daughter returns – “It’s now MK, Dad,” she tells him – following her mom’s dead to fix things with her dad and his three-legged dog.

Somehow MK no only discovers the Leafmen but is shrunk and finds a possible love interest in the rebellious free-spirited Nod, voiced by Josh Hutcherson.

Schaefer joked, “Before MK can click her heels three times — Nope! That’s another movie —” well, before the finale with Beyonce on the soundtrack, there’s a lot of flying, fighting, and comic relief with a talking slug (Aziz Ansari), snail (Chris O’Dowd), and a six-handed caterpillar Nim Galuu (Steven Tyler).

“Epic” is a journey that is both unpredictable and wonderfully familiar.

This is a good movie for the whole family to sit down and watch. In the very best sense, this is a family friendly film that also has an environmental message in it. Check it out on Hulu and enjoy the whimsical world of this animated enjoyment.

Today will be a double feature because this morning, my brother and I saw the new Sonic movie, so that review to come later.

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