The Epic struggle for a good title

By Kevin Hyde
May 31, 2013

It was 1991 and the rock band R.E.M. had just completed its seventh and, what would become, its most commercially successful album. Throughout the recording process, the members pitched around possible album titles but struggled to find one on which everyone could agree. Time finally ran out, so they dubbed their record Out of Time.

I wonder if the producers of the new animated film Epic arrived at their vague, somewhat pretentious title using a similarly tossed off method? I assume the name refers to the central conflict in the story—the epic battle between life and decay in nature—but it ends up being as unmemorable as the rest of the movie.

From the makers of the Ice Age films, Epic is an adaptation of William Joyce’s children’s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, which is a much better title and would be a great name for an album by the band The Decemberists, who have been quite reminiscent of R.E.M. in recent recordings … as I continue my own epic struggle to make tenuous connections between totally unrelated subjects.

Epic tells the story of Mary Katherine, or M.K. (voiced by Amanda Seyfried), a teenaged girl who has traveled to the country to visit her eccentric father, Bomba (voiced by Jason Sudeikis). Her parents are recently divorced, and she is struggling to cope with her own grief over the matter. Her constantly distracted dad—an awkward, gangly scientist—is no help. It seems he has alienated everyone from former colleagues to his ex-wife with his strange obsession. He believes nature is held in balance by an advanced race of tiny people who are at constant war with the forces of decay.

Of course, M.K. soon learns that her father has been correct all along when she is magically shrunk down to size during a crisis in the woods and finds herself among the Leaf Men, including the heroic Ronin (voiced by Colin Ferrell) and the young, rebellious Nod (Josh Hutchison). The life of the forest Queen Tara (voiced by Beyoncé Knowles) has been ambushed by the evil Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) and the fate of the forest—of the world itself—is at stake as M.K. and our heroes struggle to ensure life will continue.

Along the way, they are aided by Mub the slug (Aziz Ansari) and Grub the snail (Chris O’Dowd), who try to provide much needed (but not nearly enough) comic relief. South Carolina native Ansari (Parks and Recreation), who is an outstanding young comic, has the perfect voice for animated features. I would have liked more from him, anything to inject a little more crackle into the proceedings.

It seems like every new animated feature must operate in the shadow of the early Pixar flicks—the Toy Story movies, A Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc., Finding Nemo, etc.—when the bar was set so high. What made those movies great? It wasn’t nearly as much the fascinating new visual world but the uncommonly good writing—the humor, the humanism and vivid characters. Epic has five credited screenwriters, which is usually a bad sign. It tells us there might have been an epic struggle to produce a good script. 

Still, there were some things I enjoyed about the movie. It is often scenically interesting. Early depictions of the forest show it in a beautiful morning glow, with soft sunlight reflecting off dewy leaves. Also, the action sequences are more graceful and absorbing than the frenetic, seizure-inducing ones that have become commonplace in these movies.

But let’s save the most important question for last: Will kids like it? I have to say, Yes. I saw the movie with a 4-year-old girl who enjoyed it very much. (She was my daughter. I didn’t just grab a four year old and take her to the movies.) And gauging from the smattering of tiny-handed applause at the end of the movie, the other kids in the audience enjoyed it too.

So if school’s out and it’s already Africa hot outside and the kids are itching to go to the multiplex, you could do much worse than the horribly titled Epic. Or you could just sit around the pool and listen to some old R.E.M.

Kevin Hyde is a freelance writer who has worked as a reporter for daily and weekly newspapers, edited regional and national magazines, written on pop culture for an international newspaper as well as several local, alternative newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected].

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