YMMV / Epic (2013)

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Though it seems like science fiction made up for the film, it's scientifically proven that small creatures truly do perceive time differently.
• Award Snub: Epic was nominated for several awards, but lost all except one (best sound editing).
• Awesome Music: The trailers for the movie features the appropriately epic tune "The Lightning Strike (What If The Storm Ends?)'' by Snow Patrol and the super fun tune "Shooting Star" by Owl City.
• Base-Breaking Character: Mub and Grub are either really funny or really annoying to most people.
• Cliché Storm: In the words of reviewer Matt Zoller Seitz:
  "There's a protagonist grieving over her mother's recent death, and a brilliant but scatterbrained father who loves his child but isn't the strong parental figure she desperately needs. There's a hidden world akin to Alice's Wonderland that the inquisitive heroine explores. There are beleaguered good guys that she joins in a war against bad guys that represent chaos and decay; their leader is a funny despot with a European accent. There's a mythology that will be fulfilled when good guys take a fragile pod on a journey toward a prophesied end. There's a young warrior with whom the heroine forms a flirtatious friendship. There's a tough older warrior who mentors the younger warrior. There are comic sidekicks, and a beautiful forest queen who utters platitudes about the cycles of life and then dies."
• Crossover Ship:
  • There's plenty of traction between this movie and the Tinker Bell movies and Strange Magic, since the major characters of all three are fairies, though Leafmen are more Lilliputians.
  • MK/Jack Frost. They have compatible personalities, and both works being adaptations of William Joyce's books. (Incidentally, both share the names of Joyce's children).
• Cry for the Devil: Mandrake receives much sympathy for losing his son.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Mandrake gets this treatment. He's an Omnicidal Maniac, planning to eradicate all green from the forest to expand his kingdom, but he's also a Tragic Villain, as he lost his son, Dagda, near the beginning of the movie, giving him an understandable reason to pursue the MacGuffin that could possibly bring Dagda back to life. Except that Mandrake was already planning to kill the wildlife when Dagda was still alive, the latter being just as enthusiastic about it, essentially giving pathos to the leader of an Always Chaotic Evil race. Some fans like to ignore that aspect, turning him into a classical Anti-Villain.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Dagda, who has barely been seen in clips and trailers, already has a small female following on Tumblr.
  • Finn (Ronin's second-in-command with a beard) also has a moderately-sized fanbase, despite his minor role. His hairstyle is a popular interpretation opportunity, considering it's never canonically shown.
• Evil Is Cool: Mandrake. Being an Affably Evil overlord who genuinely loves his son certainly helps.
• Fan Nickname: Marigold Girl's mother is often nicknamed as "Mom Jinn."
• Fanfic Fuel: There are some examples:
  • MK's mother leaving Bomba, and taking MK with her.
  • Ronin and Tara's childhood.
  • MK is chosen as queen, instead of the flower girl.
  • MK stays in Moonhaven, whether this would be related to the example above or not would be up to the writer.
  • MK returns to Moonhaven, sometimes with Bomba accompanying her.
  • Nod grows to stomper size, and lives in MK's world.
  • Ronin finds a new love.
  • Finn's Backstory.
  • Mandrake is back for revenge on our heroes.
  • The death of Nod's father, and/or his kinship with Ronin.
  • Tara lives.
  • Nod and Ronin's father-son relationship, before and after the movie events.
  • Nod's childhood.
  • A minor, but surprisingly popular plot: MK is raised by boggans.
  • What could've happened to Dagda's mother.
• Fanon: A few:
  • MK's age in the movie is 17.
  • Finn is the Captain/Second-in-Command of the Leafmen.
  • MK's mother's name is Susan.
  • MK and her mother lived in New York City.
  • Finn has a large amount of siblings.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Mub putting the moves on MK can be considered this in light of sexual abuse allegations levelled against his actor, Aziz Ansari.
• Ho Yay:
  • Jokingly mentioned by MK in regards to Nod and Ronin, but it's obvious she's not the only one who caught it.
  • Some fans ship Ronin and Professor Bomba (calling them "Forest Dads"), despite a lack of interaction between them.
  • Same goes for Mandrake and Ronin, though they share scenes together, along with Ronin and Finn. Even the Guys Want Him, indeed.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Ronin. See Ho Yay above.
• Magnificent Bastard: Mandrake is the darkly charismatic leader of the Boggans who's striving to have the Rot overrun the forest—ruling it alongside his son Dagda. Orchestrating a mass assault during the Pod's ceremony, Mandrake manages to also murder Queen Tara during the attack. Stealing the Pod from Nim's Tree, Mandrake intends on using it to usher in a new age for him to rule—later interfering with the Pod blooming by having his forces blot out the moon and almost coming within a hair's width of succeeding his goal and having the forest be held within his grip.
• One-Scene Wonder: Pitbull's character, Bufo, only appears in two scenes and is never mentioned or seen again. There is a bullfrog skeleton, labeled as Bufo americanus in the Creative Closing Credits. Considering how we left Bufo (having accidentally insulted Mandrake's recently deceased son)...
• Paranoia Fuel: So, there's a race of little people that are experts at hiding. You're a scientist of great renown, and you know they're there. But the little folk think you're stupid, and decide to play mind games with you, to the point where you're an obsessed wreck that's lost his job and his marriage, chasing after things that they know are real, and you know are real, but they won't let anybody else know are real.
• Shipping:
  • Canon:
    • MK x Nod: Interspecies Romance, Official Couple
    • Ronin x Tara: Bodyguard Crush, Childhood Friends, Lady and Knight
  • Noncanon:
    • MK x Ronin: Likes Older Men, May–December Romance
    • Nod x Ronin: Ho Yay
    • Bomba x Ronin: Give Geeks a Chance, Nerds Are Sexy, Ships That Pass in the Night
    • Mandrake x Ronin: Foe Yay Shipping
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • Bomba x Ronin (Forest Dads)
  • Bomba x Marigold's Mother
  • MK x Tara
• So Okay, It's Average: A common criticism. It's a good film in its own right and is very beautifully animated, but it really doesn't showcase anything noteworthy that hasn't been seen in other stories that separates it from the pack.
• Spiritual Successor: The film shares a surprising number of character types and plot points with another animated film, Ferngully The Last Rainforest, that make this film feel like a sequel or remake of it. You've got a race of beautiful, fairy-like people who grow plants and represent life and nature. You've got an evil, shadowy figure who represents destruction and likes to make nature die. You've got an ordinary young adult human who gets shrunken down and has to go on an adventure with the fairy-like people. You've got some comic relief talking animals. You've got a cold-blooded animal voiced by a famous rapper who serves as a minor antagonist. And finally, you've got the villain being defeated by being sealed inside a tree.
• Strangled by the Red String: MK and Nod fall in love very quickly.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Epic has been compared to Ferngully The Last Rainforest, Arthur and the Invisibles, James Cameron's Avatar, and Arrietty.
• Ugly Cute: Ozzi's a Pug. It's obligatory. Not just a Pug, but an old, half-blind, three-legged Pug.
  • This can also count for the Boggans, depending on one's opinions.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: It's hard not to feel bad for Mandrake after he loses his son.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Some viewers consider Professor Bomba to be a terrible parent who places more value on his obsession than on his wife and daughter.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • The film's entirety. According to Word of God, the characters' clothes alone took weeks to render!
  • The deer looks so amazingly realistic that it appears to have come from a different film altogether.

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