Epic (2013)

Epic (stylized as epic and not to be confused with mh:awfulmovies:Epic Movie) is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated action-adventure film based loosely on William Joyce's 1996 children's book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs. It was produced by Blue Sky Studios; written by William Joyce, James V. Hart, Daniel Shere, Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember; and directed by Chris Wedge, the director of the animated movies Ice Age (2002) and Robots (2005). The film features the voices of Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Chris O'Dowd, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler, and Beyoncé Knowles.

Plot
Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried), or M.K., is a headstrong, spirited teenager who has a strained relationship with her father (Jason Sudeikis). She loses patience with her dad's tales of unseen people who live in the woods, but when she is magically transported to that mythic realm, she gains new perspective. M.K. joins a race of beings known as the Leafmen in their battle to protect their queen (Beyoncé Knowles) from their enemies, evil Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) and his crew of Boggans.

Good Qualities

 * 1) It has a serious, more dramatic tone that is a nice departure from the animated films that Blue Sky usually makes, which are mostly comedies.
 * 2) It has a familiar story, but tries to do something different with it; despite having a plot and setting similar to FernGully or Avatar, it stands out by not having an environmental message or Man vs. Nature story and instead focusing on being a fun little fantasy adventure in a world where the forces of nature are at war with each other.
 * 3) The animation is gorgeous, by far some of the best animation to come from Blue Sky Studios thus far and leaving the movie rich in atmosphere.
 * 4) The action scenes are really fun to watch.
 * 5) The final logo for Blue Sky Studios makes its debut in this movie. Scrat is hopping along a blue surface and catches his acorn. Then the surface tilts and he scrambles, then when the surface is on its side, he drops his acorn. It zooms out to reveal the 2013 Blue Sky Studios logo, and Scrat falls down. It is fun to see Scrat as the company's mascot.
 * 6) Because its trying to be its own thing, it allows for some creative visuals, such as how it explains that the reason we can't see some things is because they live faster, like in another dimension, making larger creatures look like they are walking in slow motion.
 * 7) Because its aiming for a more serious tone, it doesn't need to worry about risks as two of its supporting characters die very early on.
 * 8) They bring out some nice, even sympathetic, moments such as with Ronin or Mandrake, or quiet moments such as the romance between M.K. and Nod.
 * 9) It is well written, surprisingly well paced for a film that takes place over the course of one day, and all of the voice actors fit their respective roles.
 * 10) This movie has really impressive music score by Danny Elfman (who later composed Mr. Peabody & Sherman and previously composed Oz the Great and Powerful).

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The film has too many recognizable narrative themes.
 * 2) Some of the voice acting did not fit well, such as Beyoncé and Pitbull.

Reception
Epic received mixed-to-positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 65% based on 126 reviews, with an average rating of 5.85/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Though its narrative themes are all too familiar, Epic is beautifully animated and crafted with just enough flair to make for solid family entertainment". Another review aggregation website, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 52 out of 100 based on 30 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A" grade on an A+-to-F scale, while specifically child audiences gave it an "A+" grade.

Box office
Produced on a budget of $93 million, Epic grossed $107.5 million in North America, and $160.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $268.4 million. In North America, the film earned $9.3 million on its opening day, and opened to number four in its first weekend, with $33.5 million and $42.8 million over the four day Memorial Weekend (Friday–Monday), behind Fast & Furious 6, The Hangover Part III, and Star Trek Into Darkness. In its second weekend, the film dropped to number five, grossing an additional $16.6 million. In its third weekend, the film stayed at number five, grossing $11.9 million. In its fourth weekend, the film dropped to number seven, grossing $6.3 million. While the film was overshadowed by other animated films that summer including Monsters University and Despicable Me 2, the film finished in third out of six family films that summer, and became a moderate box office success.

Videos
CXeLk2PcSpA

Trivia

 * This is the first time that a film produced by Blue Sky Studios has not been scored by John Powell since the first Ice Age installment, which was composed by David Newman.
 * This is the last Blue Sky Studios film to use the standard 20th Century Fox theme, until Ice Age: Collision Course in 2016.