Movie Thoughts: Epic (2013)

• Released: 23 May 2013
• Directed by: Chris Wedge
• Running time: 1 h 42 min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

After being shrunken and entering a tiny world of forest men, teenager M.K. must defeat the evil lord of the Boggans and find a way to get back to her father. 

My Thoughts

Epic (2013). No, not Epic Movie. Just Epic. It technically doesn’t even have the capital E for whatever reason. I remember being really hyped for this movie when it first came out. I think I even thought of writing an AU fanfiction of it at one point. Yeah, don’t ask me why.

So we got our main characters: M.K. as protagonist who reluctantly gets included on this adventure, Nod the Generic Love Interest, Ronin the hardened captain of the Leafmen guard (or something) and two comic relief gastropods. As far as the non-comic relief characters go, they’re all right. They all have their character arcs (M.K. grows as a character and learns to be close with her dad, Nod accepts his place as a Leafman and matures, Ronin learns to “smile” again and be there for Nod.) The slugs/snails add literally nothing and are obnoxious as shit. Supposedly they’re there to keep the Plot Device Pod “moist” but seriously why are they there they’re disgusting get them out of here.

I do really like the villains here. They don’t really have much motivation other than wanting to spread rot (at least, until Dagda fucking dies and Mandrake wants revenge). The Boggan aesthetic is really something for me though. If I were tiny I’d totally wear a bat-skin cloak, too. The voice acting on Mandrake was really good, too.

The story wasn’t groundbreaking, but I liked how it was presented. The hidden world in this one kind of makes sense to remain hidden considering how small everything is and the somewhat “alternate dimension speed”-theory they’re running with in this film. 

The animation is good and aesthetically pleasing. The environments in general are really aesthetic. Whether you prefer the Boggan one or the Leafmen lush forest, both look really detailed. This is probably the best-looking Blue Sky movie I’ve seen this far.

I think this is one of the better Blue Sky movies? It’s not really groundbreaking or anything but I at least can watch it (unlike Ice Age Collision Course. Man, that movie was awful). It’s a fun watch.

Just something you might end up liking. Do not expect anything great about it, but fun nonetheless.
(Also yes I like Strange Magic. I’m one of the five people that does.)