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Sometimes being pretty just doesn’t cut it. In this movie the visuals were definitely epic, but the plot, characters and excitement never really lived up to the beauty of the world in which the story took place.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a childhood classic to anyone born pre-Noughties so it comes as no surprise that director Chris Wedge, known for his work on Ice Age and voicing Scrap, would rip-off the idea and try to appeal to the kids of today with his version, Epic.
Don’t get me wrong, I sat in the theatre with plenty of wide-eyed and mesmerised children that clearly had an enjoyable time, yet I couldn’t help but think how this was done before … 10 times better!
Regardless, with a cast of A-list actors voicing the characters, the film will still appeal to the older crowd too, especially with Aerosmith’s frontman Steve Tyler sneaking in an out-of-place musical number to get the audience bopping their heads.
Epic is loosely based on the children’s novel The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs and focuses on nature and the universal war between good and evil. So as you can imagine, the whole film takes place in a beautiful, colourful and animated forest.
The fantastical journey all starts when teen Mary-Katherine, who goes by MK, (Seyfried) moves in with her father after her mother dies. Her delusional dad, Professor Bomba (Jason Sueikis), just so happens to live in the woods and is trying to prove that a secret world exists where tiny people rule the forest.
Of course, no one believes him and that’s the main reason why MK’s mother left him. However, the viewers know that MK’s in for a treat because not only is he right, but the secret world is in big trouble.
The Leaf Men, who are an army of tiny human soldiers, are at war with the Boggens, the evil, filthy and dark side of the forest. While the Leaf Men protect the life of anything that grows and blossoms, the Boggens destroy it.
While MK is dismissive about her father’s theory, when she comes into contact with the queen of the forest, a little magic shrinks her to the size of an insect and takes her on an ‘epic’ journey to help save the forest.
The story is a cross between FernGully and Avatar, but it lacks the creativity to go beyond the tale we are so familiar with.
Either way, the imagery is what makes the movie. I didn’t watch it in 3D but surprisingly I wish I had. The actual animation isn’t anything groundbreaking but the film’s action is impressive. There’s enough sword fighting and arrows being flung to entertain the young boys and cute little animals to attract the little girls.
Moreover, the addition of Mub the slug (Aziz Ansari) and Grub the snail (Chris O’Dowd) helped create comedic moments throughout where the drama and action got a little too much. Both Ansari and O’Dowd’s performances were great and proved to be essential to the movie.
Seyfried and Sudeikis were satisfactory in their roles, but it was only after the movie ended that I realised that Colin Farrel voiced the Leaf Man leader Ronin and Beyonce voiced the Queen. It just seems like a weird choice, but clearly as I didn’t realise who they were, they must have been doing something right.
Christopher Waltz lends his voice as Mandrake the leader of the Boggans and his sinister tone was perfect and portrayed the evil nature behind his character.
In addition, Pitbull as a mob leader toad and Steven Tyler as the God-like caterpillar were not on-screen for long, but that proved to be a good thing!
In conclusion, the film never lives up to its name. Which is a shame as it could have been a sequel to one of my childhood favourites. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable, short and had beautiful backgrounds to distract me from the unoriginal plot.
