Epic Reviews

Discover a world beyond your imagination.

Great animated movie! There's a lot to love about the film, including its production design, visual artistry, and the 3D, which are as dazzling, grand, spectacular, and innovative as, say, Avatar. Danny Elfman did a very good job with the music score as he captured the spirit, excitement, essence, and heart of the film. Epic goes to prove to people that animated films can also really handle the action-adventure genre as much as live-action films do, just like how Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Akira, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Incredibles, and Kung Fu Panda trilogy did. With this film, Blue Sky Studios wanted to prove everyone that they can do so much more than pop culture references, cheap jokes, and unimaginative storytelling. They've not only exceeded that, they surpassed it and beyond. With this film, this is a promising launch of the new Blue Sky Studios, which has declared war on DreamWorks, Disney Animation, and Pixar. You will be laughing, astonished, amazed, blown away, and inspired, because Epic truly stands out as one of the most surprising film experiences of the year.

Young Mary Katherine (M.K.) returns to her eccentric scientist father's home, but his all-consuming quest to discover a tiny civilization in the neighboring forest drives them apart. However, M.K. soon finds herself shrunken down by Queen Tara of that forest who was mortally wounded by the putrefying Boggans, and charged to deliver a pod bearing the new Queen to safety. Together with a veteran Leafman warrior, two goofy mollusks and a young maverick, M.K. agrees to help. As the villainous Boggan leader, Mandrake closes in, M.K. and her new friends must draw on the best of themselves together and discover what they have to save their world.

entertaining, but not nearly as epic as the title suggests. the film was actually quite simple, and not much more than a rehash of a dozen other kids films out there with the exact same story. despite that, it was a great watch for kids and the animation and characters were interesting.

Cute

From the Studio that gave us the 'Ice Age' franchise comes this bug sized eco friendly kids flick. Based on yet another children's story book and with the strong hint of more to come in a franchise builder...oh geez!.

The plot is pretty unoriginal really and we've similar stories in other films. A young girl is shrunken down to the size of a bug and is accidentally throw into a bug sized war between human-like warriors and orc-like creatures. All of this takes place within a regular forest in the regular world near the young girls house. So basically its a bug war kicking off in your backgarden right under your nose.

Not quite sure why the film is called 'Epic' when the book isn't but there you go, I guess because of the scale of the war going on?. Anywho I'm gonna come right out say I really liked this film, I dug it, its totally cliched and completely formulaic but it works well. Pretty much all the characters are likeable and well rounded, again most of them we've seen before in other animated films, nothing too special about talking snails, slugs, flies etc...its been done, but it looks good and is nicely amusing at times.

This is the main focal point of the film, the visuals. Like many animated films these days it looks tremendous I kid you not, both worlds we see, human and bug, are awesome in spectacle. When we are introduced to the bug sized world its one of those moments when you say to yourself 'I could live there, I want to live there, it looks fun'. Everything looks so lush and green, so vibrant and colourful, its really gorgeous and such an eye opener. On the flip side the baddie bug sized world is also awesome in its murky, rotten, dark, fungi, dead tree filled way, not exactly ground breaking stuff though.

These visuals also extend to the characters, the good guys are a green armour clad humanoid warrior race called 'Leaf Men'. Now this guys look so flipping cool, their armour is a lovely leaf plated design with intricate pattern etched into the plates, they carry swords, wear gladiator style helmets and ride on the back of green/blue hummingbirds, their steeds of choice. They basically look like eco warrior samurai and their leader voiced nicely by Colin Farrell is called 'Ronin', which of course you all know is another word for samurai (without a master). The Irish samurai.

There are also you're standard sidekick type creatures as with any animated kids flick. Here they are nothing original in the form of a snail and a slug but I gotta give kudos to the voice actors because these two guys are very amusing, and kinda adorable looking. They have an awesome amount of detail on them though, really look good.

The bad guys are kinda like orcs I guess although their heads look a bit like a sharks head, they are called 'Boggans'. They are you're typical baddies, they don't talk they just grunt n roar, they are drab coloured and all look the same. But there are various types of bad guys, basically any creature or bug that you would deem scary or has a bad reputation is classed as a bad guy. Bullfrogs, mosquitoes, spiders, crows, bats etc...all baddies. On the flip side you have various creatures that are classed as goodies like snails, slugs, glowworms, hummingbirds etc...There are also various plant/flower creatures in the form of Daisy's, Thistles, Dandelions etc...most of these makeup background characters.

One thing, all the characters in this are errr...white people, accept for the Queen, who is black, why?. Just seemed rather odd to me to have just one character stand out from the rest like that. Unfortunately the Queen is voiced badly by Beyoncé Knowles which doesn't help either, just doesn't sound right or match her character at all.

In all honesty the film is all about the visuals as the plot is highly generic. You know what's gonna happen as we've seen this type of thing a gazillion times over. The main female character is cute looking and does everything as you would expect, although she takes to this new world pretty quickly, I'm sure most would be freaked out for ages. Much like the main villain who also does everything you would expect and gets his comeuppance predictably. Its all very light vs dark, all the goodies are colourful and bright, all the baddies are dark, gloomy and shadowy.

So yeah its all very obvious but its still a fun time with some stunning visuals. The finale is quite epic in scale and does lock you in for sure, does seem to be copying 'Star Wars' a wee bit but hey its cool. The film does slyly use other film influences throughout no doubt. Steve Tyler's glowworm character does seem to have been plucked from 'Alice in Wonderland' if you ask me, Tyler's vocals also sound like they have been plucked from said Disney film spookily, good voice work actually, surprising.

I think you can tell from what I've written here this is a character based flick, there are many other fun characters in here also. Fun characters, well crafted details and overall delicious visuals, shame about the by the numbers story line...but still fun!.

Epic is a good film, but one that should have been much better as well. Obviously the title of the film is misleading because there is no "epic" content here, but the idea is grand in terms of a storyline, but it should have been a bit more developed. The animation is gorgeous as usual and the voice cast is well chosen and the story is interesting and engaging, but could also have been much better too. There are things here that work well, but at times the comedic elements suffer and are so-so. Overall this is an enjoyable animated feature and is worth checking out. Despite its flaws, it's entertaining for what it is, and the animation here makes it quite enjoyable. The script should have been reworked slightly to make it a highly memorable film. As it stands, this is a fun movie; however it does fall short of its potential. Go into this one expecting an entertaining tale, but unlike the title suggests, you won't find anything "epic". I enjoyed the film for what it was, and it did have some terrific moments that made this worth seeing. By the film's end, you realize how this one should have been. But it's not that bad, but it leaves room for improvement. Don't go into Epic expecting something great, you'll be sadly disappointed. Expect something fun, and you're sure to enjoy this. In terms of animated feature films are concerned, Epic won't be a classic anytime soon. This is the type of film worth checking out if you have nothing else better to do.

Epic starts off beautifully, with a degree of elegance in it's visuals that's almost reminiscent of the high-end Anime coming out of Asia... but as the film tinkers on the whole ordeal becomes unimaginatively generic.

All manners of poise are lost as the film stumbles needlessly into another "action adventure" full of parodies and humor. Don't get me wrong, I love comedy! It's what made Disney's "Tangled" so refreshing from their previous Princess-movies. It wasn't bad humor either, in fact the jokes were quite well written.

But the story just isn't there with Epic and as the characters (loveable or hilarious that they are), progress through their journey viewers have very little to hang their hat on.

It's unfortunate, BlueSky created a wonderful foundation to build off of and I could see many possible themes of sophistication that just didn't bear fruit. In the end I left the theater ambivalent... on one hand I enjoyed the film but was clearly disappointed that it wasn't the "something more" I knew it could have been.

PS. Ansari's Mub was stellar.

I enjoyed the animation and story of this little movie. It reminded me of Fern Gully and Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

Its story is way too familiar, but that's not this film's biggest problem. Epic is ultimately neither funny nor charming, making for a dull experience.

Much like Dreamworks' "Monsters vs. Aliens," the character design hugs that awkward line between cartoony animation and realistic. It's distracting, but the least of the problems with this movie. "Epic" is boring, irritatedly unfunny, and wastefully under-uses how beautiful and huge a tiny civilization in the forest could look. Watching this in 3D, you feel less apart of this world and more like you're holding a magnifying glass in front of all the action. Most of the time the camera keeps it's distance from the Leafmen making these action sequences difficult to enjoy. Blue Sky Animation, once again, continues to underwhelm.

What kind of pretentious film calls itself "Epic"? This one. While visually impressive, the story is crap. No time or effort is given to developing the plot or the characters. And, the actors don't put much effort into their performances; some (like Beyonce) are out right terrible. A shallow and derivative film, Epic is anything but.

It has been over twenty years since I've seen FernGully, but this is basically the same idea, isn't it? Even so, it is an enjoyable adventure with a good script and fairly good visuals. I was not impressed with Colin Farrell's and Josh Hutcherson's characters or voice work. Amanda Seyfried as M.K. does a better job bringing the dialog to life, but her attractive fish-out-of-water character is likely more an achievement of the animators. Sudeikis as M.K.'s absent-minded scientist father has some interesting tracking technology and I thought these human characters were pretty identifiable. O'Dowd and Ansari as the snail and slug are great as C3PO/R2D2-type comedy relief. Beyonce, Steven Tyler, and Christoph Waltz provide acceptable, if not fresh, interpretations for their roles. I could not figure out what the villains are supposed to be under their armor of rodent and bug skins and exoskeletons. About as much fun as you can have with tiny bows-and-arrows, swords, and birds with saddles.

Spectacular and delightful animation! Rather formulaic in story telling but the message remains thoughtful and subtly delivered.

As generic as they come. I would give this movie one star, but the gorgeous animation gives it an extra half of a star and Christoph Waltz's voice gives it an extra whole star (so the proportions would be accurate).

The film was so so. The animation is very good. The visuals are amazing. I didn't get to see it in 3D, which might have enhanced the film more. The film in my opinion needed a rewrite. It felt like 2 stories were going on here that didn't connect well together. The story with the M.K. and her dad needed to be developed more. I found the whole battle of the forrest more fascinating than the father daughter storyline. I think the father should have been shrunk with the daughter, rather than the daughter shrinking.

The film reminded me of animated films like A Bug's Life, Ant Bully, Antz, and Ferngully. It also reminded me in a weird way of Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Avatar, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars. The actors are well casted in their voice roles.

Overall it is ok, but the film could have been so much better.

Pleasant is the first word that comes to mind when thinking about the animated film Epic, not the word epic. However, the film is mistitled, but frequently enjoyable and light family entertainment. With dazzling visuals, and some fun characters for the kiddies, Epic is fun, occasionally thrilling, and funny enough for parents to enjoy themselves. Epic is not another animated masterpiece but it provides some light escapist fun and fills the lack of animated films in the multiplex with dazzle. Overall Rating: 74

Nothing special although visually stunning

Epic was a very interesting movie, its a toss up as to if anyone will remember this movie even a year from now, but it still manages to go places that truly were unexpected.