Epic seems to fall short of the intended title. While it's by no means a bad movie, it certainly didn't feel epic in any way. I feel as if this movie had a different title, but it ended up as "Epic" due to the movies coming out that year and they wanted something that could stand out. At the time, Epic was surrounded by Star Trek:Into Darkness, Fast and the Furious 6, A Good Day To Die Hard, Monsters University, World War Z, Pacific Rim... the list goes on. Other notable animated movies coming out that year most likely also hurt it.
While watching, I couldn't help but notice that this could almost be a remake of Ferngully, it shares many of the same story points, though no fairies and no Tim Curry going on about Transe... Toxic Love. Actually, this movie is mostly devoid of any music, unlike Disney movies which this also seems to take ques from. It is populated with lots of silly, goofy side characters that do little more than distract you with their quirky antics and mostly modern sounding dialogue. Even the villain seems like a typical Disney bad guy with no real motive other than "being mean".
I also got a hint of "Strange Magic", that weird love story that did have fairies and lots and lots and lots of singing with every song being a modern hit song redone to fit the movie. The reason I see some similarities is that the story just doesn't feel great, it just feels kind of... meh. While it had its moments, I never had a sense of urgency or no real reason to connect with any of the characters. The same was true for Epic, it just didn't pull me in like it did with the main character (yes, pun intended). While I wouldn't say the story was predictable, there were some moments when I could just see nothing really bad happening and everything would be alright.
The thing that bothers me about movies like this is that it only takes place in a small place (no pun intended). It's just a small forest in some state in the US. There's really no reason to feel that if the Leafmen had lost that the entire world would end. Sure, the Boglins would spread their death and decay, but could it truly destroy the ENTIRE world? Or is there something "bigger" here? Is each forest protected from the forces of the same or similar evils or was it just this one? Are there boundaries that they don't cross? It's never truly explained how this relates to the rest of the world and is why I really feel this was less epic than intended. I am probably reading too much into it, but it's what happens when I don't have any reason to really care for a tiny forest in the middle of no where that could probably be regrown on its own from the rest of the forest that isn't dead or dying. Forests regrow from complete devastation all the time.
The one good thing is that we weren't treated to a full-on environmentalist movie. Some movies try to hide it while others are upfront about it (like the Lorax). While this isn't always a bad thing, it was refreshing to not be hounded about how "man is bad, trees are good" every ten minutes, it was its own story, so I give them credit for that.
The animation is decent, none of the characters really fall into the uncanny valley, though MK's dad really pushes the boundary at times. I think they wanted a more cartoony look, but it didn't quite work for some characters. Most of the character models aren't anything new and you have probably seen or will see them used again in similar designs.
Overall, if you're just looking for something to watch for two hours and you've never seen this before, you can't go wrong. It's worth the watch, but it definitely was one destined for DVD.
While watching, I couldn't help but notice that this could almost be a remake of Ferngully, it shares many of the same story points, though no fairies and no Tim Curry going on about Transe... Toxic Love. Actually, this movie is mostly devoid of any music, unlike Disney movies which this also seems to take ques from. It is populated with lots of silly, goofy side characters that do little more than distract you with their quirky antics and mostly modern sounding dialogue. Even the villain seems like a typical Disney bad guy with no real motive other than "being mean".
I also got a hint of "Strange Magic", that weird love story that did have fairies and lots and lots and lots of singing with every song being a modern hit song redone to fit the movie. The reason I see some similarities is that the story just doesn't feel great, it just feels kind of... meh. While it had its moments, I never had a sense of urgency or no real reason to connect with any of the characters. The same was true for Epic, it just didn't pull me in like it did with the main character (yes, pun intended). While I wouldn't say the story was predictable, there were some moments when I could just see nothing really bad happening and everything would be alright.
The thing that bothers me about movies like this is that it only takes place in a small place (no pun intended). It's just a small forest in some state in the US. There's really no reason to feel that if the Leafmen had lost that the entire world would end. Sure, the Boglins would spread their death and decay, but could it truly destroy the ENTIRE world? Or is there something "bigger" here? Is each forest protected from the forces of the same or similar evils or was it just this one? Are there boundaries that they don't cross? It's never truly explained how this relates to the rest of the world and is why I really feel this was less epic than intended. I am probably reading too much into it, but it's what happens when I don't have any reason to really care for a tiny forest in the middle of no where that could probably be regrown on its own from the rest of the forest that isn't dead or dying. Forests regrow from complete devastation all the time.
The one good thing is that we weren't treated to a full-on environmentalist movie. Some movies try to hide it while others are upfront about it (like the Lorax). While this isn't always a bad thing, it was refreshing to not be hounded about how "man is bad, trees are good" every ten minutes, it was its own story, so I give them credit for that.
The animation is decent, none of the characters really fall into the uncanny valley, though MK's dad really pushes the boundary at times. I think they wanted a more cartoony look, but it didn't quite work for some characters. Most of the character models aren't anything new and you have probably seen or will see them used again in similar designs.
Overall, if you're just looking for something to watch for two hours and you've never seen this before, you can't go wrong. It's worth the watch, but it definitely was one destined for DVD.