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The
latest animated film from Chris Wedge, the director of Ice Age and Robots,
transports us and the main character Mary Katherine “MK” into the world
of the
leaf men: an advanced society of fairy-type creatures who protect the
forest
from their nemesis the evil Boggans who rot the forest. A star studded
cast
that includes Beyoncé Knowles as the voice of Queen Tara, the “life of
the
forest”, Colin Farrell as Ronin, the head of the Leaf Men military, and
Josh
Hutcherson as Nod, a young leaf man who abandons his military duties.
MK, voiced by Amanda Seyfried (Mean
Girls), has just moved in with her
estranged father Bomba, Jason Sudeikis, and is unimpressed with his
all-consuming and seemingly insane obsession with finding the mythical
tiny
creatures. Their daughter/father relationship is in the throes of MK’s
adolescence: she’s embarrassed and disappointed in a father whose
occupation
consumes his attention as she struggles with loneliness after the loss
of her
mother. She stumbles across Queen Tara in the middle of a stormy battle
with
the Boggans, and is shrunk and drawn into the world of the leaf men.
Queen Tara charges MK with protecting her successor, the
life of the forest,
embedded in a leaf pod that has to bloom in the moonlight that very
night. The
guards of the leaf pods, Grub the snail, Chris O’Dowd (The IT Crowd, The
Sapphires), and Mub the slug, Aziz Ansari (Parks and Recreation) are fantastic
as a silly slimy duo whose expertise is keeping the pod moist. Grub
dreams of
joining the leaf man army and Mub dreams of winning MK’s heart, and
while
neither dream is likely to come true they are a welcome light side to
an
otherwise serious action film.
The animation is flashy and the 3D is fun, and the forest is just
dripping in a
magical glow, but there was something a little disappointing about the
complexities of the natural world being reduced to a military struggle
between
good and evil. In contrast to a similar forest-saving animated film, FernGully:
The Last Rainforest (1992), Epic
is reductionist and morally simplistic. The
lessons the characters learn are to do with their willingness to join
the army,
their reliance on monarchy for survival and that individuality is
dangerous and
lonely. I wouldn't directly call it brainwashing, but it’s a disservice
to the
imaginative faculties of their audience. One has to wonder whether the
industrialization of the creative process, as in modern VFX house, has
leaked
into the content of the film itself.
The characters suffer from this binary too, pure good and
pure evil are dull,
even if pure evil is voiced by the incredible Christoph Waltz (Inglorious
Basterds, Django Unchained). Epic
is less of a children’s film and more of a
fantasy film that happens to be animated. The quest leads to several
huge
battles, just as 'epic' as the title would imply, but who needs epic,
deadly
battles in a kid's film?
There are also very few female characters. There's MK who is quite
loveable,
with a predictable and harmless character arc, and Queen Tara who is
all
perfection and seduction, in almost exactly the way a real life monarch
isn't.
It's another one of those Smurf-like gender situations where being a
woman is
almost characterization enough, and women with comedic roles are
nowhere to be
seen.
That being said, I had a lot of fun, and the side characters were
fantastic.
The strengths of the film were undoubtedly Mub, the slug and Grub, a
snail.
Whenever the elaborate warfare fanfare took a backseat, the expressive
nature
of animation and the skills of the actors shone through as a more
casual
entertainment delightfully took place. I could have watched a whole
film of
Ansari and O'Dowd being silly gastropods. Their characters were
fantastic,
hilarious and charming; laughter abounds.
On the whole, the film is solid. Though quite a long film, it's
entertaining
the whole way through, and while it's not ideal for very small
children, it's
got a lot going on and is visually exciting. The simplistic morals and
battle
scenes were as trite as they were ‘epic’, it's sadly no FernGully, but it's a
bit of fun for your little soldiers and little princesses.
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