(2013)

I attempt to try to catch most of the CGI-animated movies for kids unless they just look utterly juvenile; sometimes you are treated to smarter humor than you would expect (like Despicable Me), but even in cases where the films squarely aimed at the kiddies with no real layer for the adults (like the Pirates movie), theres still a chance Ill see some neat design, so sitting through these mostly brief films is a usually a low-risk gamble. Epic purports that faeries, for lack of a better word, are real, and that they come chiefly in two varieties: one that looks like little humans, and are voiced by people like Colin Farrell and Josh Huchterson, and others that look sort of like cute orcs, and are voiced by actors like Christoph Waltz. The good faeries are led by Beyonce, and they bring life to the forest, and the evil faeries bring death to the forest; any nature show will inform you that both are necessary, but its obvious who were supposed to be pulling for here. Oh, and the entre into this world is a daffy professor, Bomba (Jason Sudeikis) and his lonely daughter who comes to live with him, Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried). Hes obsessed with finding the faeries, whose existence he is certain of, but he has no proof; she thinks hes a loon, like mom did, and she is similarly miffed at being ignored until she stumbles into the middle of the faerie conflict and is magically turned into one. From there she joins uber-warrior Ronin (Farrell) and conveniently hunky and slightly rebellious Nod (Hutcherson) to protect a magical seed-pod from the frequently menacing leader of the bad guys, Mandrake (Waltz). Its mostly back and forth until the end of the movie, but theres little doubt whos going to retain control of the seed, which has the power to renew the forest. Those old enough to recall Ferngullynow twenty years on and either parents or animation fans like me will find much of this familiar, as its the same basic plot, with little orcs substituted for the big bad humans. Here, the human Bomba is an object of derision the faeries are aware of him and constantly mislead him but the gist is intact. That leaves mainly a critique of the voice-work, which is acceptable to enjoyable, excepting Beyonce, who sounds so unlike everyone else its a bit jarring, and Farrell, who, with native brogue intact, is still so distinctive its hard to focus on his character. The design work is excellent the little good guys look a lot like the elves in Peter Jacksons Tolkien films, with shorter hair, and the bad guys are composed of dark, cold colors and wear mouse skulls as helmets and bat pelts as capes and so on. But its a pretty movie, and I was impressed by the reality of expression and movement they wring from the characters, particularly Mary Katherine. Though shes designed to look slightly cartoony, she displays more emotion and subtlety than some reallife actresses. At this rate it might not be too long before we have completely photo-realistic snythespians.

Epic

Epic is fine for the kids, but theres little substance here for the adults; put it on for them and pull up your iPad, or straighten out the closet. Again, unless youre an animation buff like I am, you wont find much of interest here, although you wont find anything objectionable either. Its mild fun that Im betting the kids will like. October 14, 2013