On the plus side, the animation itself is fine and kids are going to find most of this fun to watch. If you don’t know how this is going to end, I recommend finishing primary school. Circumstances bring a human down to size in the form of Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried), whose father (Jason Sudeikis) has been searching for proof of the existence of a miniature society in the forest for decades. The balance of power is put in jeopardy when the good Queen of the forest (Beyoncé Knowles) is defeated by the leader of the evil forces, Mandrake (Christoph Waltz). snails, pretty birds, and tiny human-like characters … because humans are always the good guys Yes, that’s an example of me being snarky). There are those who want to introduce rot and decay to the land (creepy bugs and bats and whatnot) and then there are the good guys (i.e. In Epic, a race of tiny beings keep the natural order of the forest in check. However, if something like John Carter taught the world anything about adapting books into movies, it’s not about when your book hit the store shelves, it’s about when it hit the mainstream cultural zeitgeist. Some of that comparison is unfair as Joyce’s book was written in 1996, prior to two of those properties also seeing their source material get published. The script is a Frankensteinian assemblage of other better kids movies like The Neverending Story, Arthur and the Invisibles, Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, and the The Spiderwick Chronicles. The only way not to receive criticism from the adults who were bored by your movie is to make the plot … well … epic. But if you’re going to call your story “Epic”, and that word doesn’t actually tie into anything specific (no characters say “Epic”, none of them are named “Epic”, and “Epic” doesn’t appear on-screen anywhere other than the title), you’re simply asking for trouble. I understand changing it from what William Joyce’s book was called, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, that’s anything but an eye-catching moniker. Perhaps the writing was on the wall once the title of the movie was announced. Unfortunately, Epic doesn’t seem to understand that notion. The goal is to fascinate and wow the wee ones while still making the time enjoyable, or better yet, actually entertaining for the adults who will probably be forced to put the movie on a loop once it hits the home market. Grub (Chris O´Dowd), Mub (Aziz Ansari), Ronin (Colin Farrell) and Nod (Josh Hutcherson) in 'Epic' - Photo Credit: Blue Sky Studios - TM and © 2013 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.Īnimated kids movies these days understand that there are at least two distinct demographics that come to each showing: children and their parents.

Epic snail scene