Epic

Director Chris Wedge’s animation flick Epic is something that has its visual beauty, but the entertainment factor is slightly missing here. From a studio that created the hilariously fresh Ice Age saga, the expectation was high but sadly the quality was visible only in those very few set piece sequences that showed stunning use of 3D.

The story revolves around the girl Mary Katherine aka MK who comes to meet her father who is researching about the tiny warriors in the forest. On a particular situation MK who went to the forest to look for her dog Ozzy happens to witness the death of the Queen of the forest and she also gets shrunken down. The days of MK along with the leaf men who are trying to protect the forest from the Boggans   are what epic tries to narrate.

The plot is too simple. Here, the predictable good vs bad concept is introduced in the relatively fresh backdrop of a magnified forest.  What scores the most is the choreography of many scenes that uses the 3D technology to a great extent. Some of the sequences that capture the flight of the leaf men will surely remind you about those exciting amusement park rides. What is missing the most is the fun part. The level of fun we used to see in these kinds of animated crafts is not met in this Blue Sky Studios presentation.

The direction is somewhat convincing and the screenplay is gentle. Dialogs are cool in parts. Edits are fine and as I mentioned earlier the animation and the visual presentation of sequences are stunning. The 3D is quite effective and the background scores are perfect. The choices for the voices are nice and my favorite character was the slug Mub which was dubbed by Aziz Ansari.

On the whole, Epic is more of an amusement of the unseen forest than the expected fun. Acknowledging the visual quality I am giving it a 3.5/5. It lacks fun, but still has enough to make you smile.