EPIC 3D LACKS WOW FACTOR
Film with a message that good clean fun means good green fun
N EVER underestimate the power of cinema to shape a young mind. Take Paul McCartney. You might have thought the man who assembled The Frog Chorus (and wrote a few other songs besides) took up the cause of animal rights on marrying Linda Eastman.
However, the process really began long before that in a picturehouse in Liverpool with a fawn called Bambi. Like so many others before and after (guilty), it was the dispatching of Bambi’s mother that turned Macca into a bunny hugger. “I think that made me grow up thinking hunting isn’t cool,” the former Beatle said.
Which brings us to Epic, Chris Wedge’s animated adventure comedy, released in time for the bank holiday weekend. The tale of forest folk threatened with disaster is the latest family film to come with a large side of greens. Such movies set out first and foremost to entertain (and make money, natch), but if they can squeeze in a nutritious environmental message while they are at it, so much the better, it is thought. Think Free Willy (save the whale from water parks), Wall.E (a planet sunk by rubbish), Happy Feet (overfishing), Ice Age (climate change), Finding Nemo (preserve
Waltz’s voice is as clipped as a suburban hedge and as delightfully menacing as a good villain’s should be
the majesty of the seas), Rio (don’t smuggle birds) and so on. In parental circles where it’s all about education, education, education, good clean fun has come to mean good green fun. It’s enough to make Jeremy Clarkson drive a hybrid car off a cliff.
As the posters shout, Epic “comes from the creators of Ice Age and Rio”. Like those movies, it boasts all the components of a successful family film, from slapstick comedy to a feisty modern heroine. It looks wonderful, with its 40 million shades of green and other colours besides. But its earnest air makes it seem as though school is not quite out yet – hardly a feeling most children want to have at the cinema – and it lacks the wow factor to make it stand out in what is a crowded market.
Deep in the forest, leaf folk invisible to the human eye are getting ready to celebrate the selection of a new pod that will rejuvenate the place. Heading the ceremony is Queen Tara, with her faithful lieutenant Ronin by her side.
Meanwhile, up in the world of humankind, teenager Mary Katherine is returning home from the city. The city has everything “MK” wants, while at home there is nothing but her nutty scientist father and his talk of “little people”.
Like many a youngster who might be watching the movie, MK wants nothing to do with the big green scratchy world outside.
Wedge (director of 2002’s Oscar-nominated Ice Age, and 2005’s Robots) has managed to assemble an impressive voice cast, not that easy when almost everyone in Hollywood seems to have acquired an animated avatar to keep them busy between other pictures. With many movie and TV stars, from Jack Black (Kung Fu Panda) to Ellen DeGeneres (Dory in Finding Nemo), already booked, Wedge has turned to the music industry to find his Queen Tara in Beyonce. A fine turn she does, too, with that naturally melodious voice lending a fitting grace to the character. Her costume, being a full bells-andwhistles, long flowing number, has rather more fabric than one normally associates with Beyonce’s attire, but it is gorgeous nevertheless.
Otherwise, Wedge has Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia, Les Miserables) as MK, Colin Farrell as Ronin (Irish accent and all), Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) as rebellious young Nod, and Chris O’Dowd and Aziz Anzari as the comedy double act, Grub and Mub. Likely to be more of a giggle to young cinemagoers is Ozzie, MK’s three-legged, oneeyed dog.
Wedge’s biggest coup lies in the voice behind Mandrake, leader of the forces who would like to destroy the dear green place. Having achieved cult status with Django Unchained and Inglorious Basterds, and won two Oscars in the process, Christoph Waltz can now add animation favourite to his CV.
With a voice that is as clipped as a suburban hedge and as delightfully menacing as a good villain’s should be, he adds some much-needed edge to the mix.
Not that Epic, firing on all 3D cylinders, should need a lot of pep. It is meant to be an adventure epic, after all. Wedge duly puts together a couple of thrilling battle sequences, but there is a lot of jaw-jaw between characters to chew through before the more exciting war-war.
The film largely relies on the exotic forest setting to pull it through. There are some feastyour-eyes-upon-this moments when the two worlds, that of MK and the little people, collide. As MK first gazes on hitherto tiny creatures now writ large, the effect is one of Jurassic Park meets The Borrowers, with a dash of The Lord of the Rings besides.
Otherwise, the film trudges through the motions familiar to other family movies. Conflicts are set up and resolved, thrills are dispensed along with wisecracks, and a few lessons are dropped, like Hansel and Gretel’s bread crumbs (“Many leaves, one tree,” says Ronin, explaining the whole circle of forest life thing). While pleasant, it is unlikely to rock anyone’s world. Unlike a certain little deer.