That a film about tiny heroes should feel small in scale and scope is perhaps only right. Except when that film is called Epic, and brings to mind something more ambitious and bombastic — say, last year’s holidays-and-action-heroes entry Rise of the Guardians. William Joyce, the creative force behind Rise, plays the role of producer and creative guide behind Epic. Rise was a pleasant if overblown holiday romp. Epic turns out to be better, in part because it avoids the former’s clash of outsized personalities and focuses more on nuance, relationships and story. It’s also a better version of what Rise tried to be: a fantasy willing to embrace darkness.
With its gorgeous 3D renderings, Epic takes viewers into a lush, cinematic and brilliantly colorful world of diminutive denizens of the forest — a world unknown to most humans. But one of us is onto them: a clumsy, excitable, absent-minded scientist named Bomba (Jason Sudeikis). Such is Bomba’s passion to prove the existence of this invisible kingdom, he has equipped the surrounding forest with all manner of homemade video surveillance. Unfortunately for him, this all-encompassing endeavor led to the dissolution of his marriage.
Bomba’s estranged teenage daughter M.K. (Amanda Seyfried) arrives at his ramshackle two-story home on the edge of the woods, hoping to establish a relationship with her father. Bomba’s distractions prove too much for her efforts, and she’s all set to leave before discovering the tiny civilization her father has been seeking.
The forest survives by the efforts of a benevolent queen and her loyal warriors, the Leafmen. As M.K. enters their realm, Queen Tara (Beyonce Knowles) has just chosen a flower pod that will inherit her responsibility for the forest and wield great power to protect it. To reveal the new queen, the pod must open under a full moon. A race of anti-Leafmen, called Boggans, are determined to stop this from happening, led by their malevolent leader, Mandrake (Christoph Waltz). Enter M.K. into this fray, suddenly realizing the validity of her father’s pursuit and — after being shrunk down to size by the queen’s magic — joining the Leafmen’s top soldier, Ronin (Colin Farrell) and the free-spirited rogue Nod (Josh Hutcherson) in their efforts to protect the pod.
Where the Leafmen are clothed in green and ride hummingbirds, the Boggans live in the haunted house part of the woods, and use bats and rodents for their transportation. Epic never reconciles its eco-friendly message with its vilification of the darker aspects of nature — that not every creature is cute and cuddly and survives on a steady diet of air. But that’s a minor quibble if you accept Epic on its own terms as a battle between clearly defined good and evil. Speaking of evil, young kids should be suitably scared by Mandrake and his henchmen.
Despite a familiar storyline that pulls from multiple sources, Epic entertainingly delivers the formula. Mub (Aziz Ansari) and Grub (Chris O’Dowd) are a slug and snail who provide some of the movie’s funniest moments. And Ozzy, a three-legged, one-eyed pug, is adorable. The pacing, however, could have been better: Time seems to stand still during the last act, giving our heroes copious amounts of movie time to emerge victorious. Rather than labor to ingratiate itself with pop culture jokes, Epic is content to tell a simple story and do it well. Though not epic, this is a sweet family film with images that are a pleasure to behold.
This article appears in May 23-29, 2013.