20th Century Fox’s animated adventure Epic comes to Blu-ray and DVD today. Read our review of the home release to see if you should take a journey into the enchanted forest.
Teenager Mary Katherine (aka “M.K.”, voiced by Amanda Seyfried) goes to live with her estranged father Professor Bomba (Jason Sudeikis) after the death of her mother. However, her father is preoccupied with finding a civilization of small people living in the forest. When it seems like he cares more about his crackpot theories than his own daughter, M.K. decides to leave. However, she gets shrunk down and caught in a war between two good and bad forces of the forest. M.K. is burdened with protecting a pod that will become the new queen of the forest. Helping her in her journey are the Leafmen, soldiers for the good guys, including leader Ronin (Colin Farrell) and the rebellious Nod (Josh Hutcherson). Christoph Waltz voices Mandrake, the leader of the evil Boggans, and other voice talent includes Steven Tyler, Aziz Ansari, Pitbull, and Beyonce Knowles as Queen Tara.
The film has a very familiar storyline, and I can honestly say I wasn’t surprised by any of the plot at all. It reminds me a lot of Ferngully. There is also the problem of the character moments being to heavy handed, and I actually cringed at some of the silly and unfunny jokes.
However, the film does look beautiful, and it is a fun adventure for the most part. The voice acting is great. I love Waltz’s voice in anything, and Farrell has a surprisingly authentic authoritative tone.
If you enjoy the film, it has a lot of great extras, as listed below. Even the top menu is worth mentioning as Mub and Grub guide you through the set-up.
Rating: 3.5/5 (1/2 point bump due to extras)
EPIC Blu-ray Combo Extras
● Mub & Grub Intro – Join Mub and Grub for an EPIC tour through the special features of this Blu-ray!
● Birds, Bugs and Slugs: Forest Explorer – Journey into the forest to meet the real-life counterparts of the EPIC world!
● Rot Rocks – Mandrake might be the bad guy, but his world of rot benefits ours in a number of ways, let’s discover how!
● Bugs of Camouflage – Join us to find out how bugs use their environment to hide right under our noses, just like the Leafmen!
● The Epic Life At Two Inches Tall – How would your life be different if you were only two inches tall? Aside from being small, there are some surprising and amazing benefits!
● Mysteries of Moonhaven Revealed – Meet the incredibly talented filmmakers, artists, and animators at Blue Sky, and learn all about the making of EPIC!
○ The World
○ The Leafmen
○ Queen Tara
○ Mub & Grub
○ Nim Galuu
○ The Stompers
○ Finding Moonhaven
● Epic Coloring & Storybook Builder App – Color your own EPIC story with exclusive pages on your iOS or Android devices. Then become the story teller by recording your own voice and share on your television with family and friends
● Theatrical Trailer