Epic is one of the better-looking animated films by Blue Sky Studios. The colors are lush and the world of the Leaf Men is well-designed and beautiful. There are no unlikable characters, though some can border on annoying like the mandatory comic relief, Mub and Grub. MK is a nice deviation from the snarky, moody teen who rebels for rebellions' sake. The Interspecies Romance with Nod is rushed. Tara and Ronin had less screentime together but had much more chemistry than MK and Nod ever did.
The themes presented in the movie are underdeveloped and sort of shoved in. Is this movie about dealing with grief? After all, each of the main players have suffered a greatpersonalloss. But the characters only seemed bothered by it when somebody brings it up and even then the emotional tension lasts all of thirty seconds tops.
So is the movie about realizing that no one is alone? Ronin is the one that introduces this concept to Nod and MK, but there's no major turning point for either of the characters. They all get along most of the time and any tension between them is resolved almost immediately or ignored because of plot. Nod is built up to be a lone wolf type, but aside from his Establishing Character Moment he never actually resists other’s help and falls into group work fairly easily. And MK's arc is more about "learn how to use Dad to implement Chekhov's Gun" rather than learning to love the family she has left. Likewise Bomba was never wrong to be a Disappeared Dad because he was right all along!
Not terrible, but definitely not epic
Epic is one of the better-looking animated films by Blue Sky Studios. The colors are lush and the world of the Leaf Men is well-designed and beautiful. There are no unlikable characters, though some can border on annoying like the mandatory comic relief, Mub and Grub. MK is a nice deviation from the snarky, moody teen who rebels for rebellions' sake. The Interspecies Romance with Nod is rushed. Tara and Ronin had less screentime together but had much more chemistry than MK and Nod ever did.
The themes presented in the movie are underdeveloped and sort of shoved in. Is this movie about dealing with grief? After all, each of the main players have suffered a great personal loss. But the characters only seemed bothered by it when somebody brings it up and even then the emotional tension lasts all of thirty seconds tops.
So is the movie about realizing that no one is alone? Ronin is the one that introduces this concept to Nod and MK, but there's no major turning point for either of the characters. They all get along most of the time and any tension between them is resolved almost immediately or ignored because of plot. Nod is built up to be a lone wolf type, but aside from his Establishing Character Moment he never actually resists other’s help and falls into group work fairly easily. And MK's arc is more about "learn how to use Dad to implement Chekhov's Gun" rather than learning to love the family she has left. Likewise Bomba was never wrong to be a Disappeared Dad because he was right all along!
The main struggle presents itself as a Balance Between Goodand Evil, with pod being an equalizer since all Boggans have the ability to rot whereas only the Queen can grow things. One thing that is brushed over is that the Boggans are kept in one area with distinct "borders". Balance is not segregation. Decay is just as much a part of life as growth is and keeping it contained in one area cannot be healthy for either side. This movie could've taught an important lesson about how not everything is black and white, that death is part of the cycle. As I've said, all of the main characters have experienced major loss and none of them have shown willingness to grieve. No, instead we have the tired Light Is Good and Dark Is Evil plot with cliché characters, mood-breaking jokes, and garbled messages.