Epic movie is epic!

This is kind of a late post, but I just really wanted to write about Epic! It was a film shown last May (here in the Philippines), about a teenager, Mary Katherine or MK (Amanda Seyfried) who had to live with her estranged dad, Professor Bomba (Jason Sudeikis) after her mom passed away. Her dad lived somewhere remote and has been pursuing the existence of an "advanced society of tiny people" in the forest, but no one ever believes him. By some chance of fate, MK happens upon the dying queen who entrusts her with the pod which will choose the next queen. MK goes through a fun adventure, and experiences mishaps along the way, protected by Ronin (Colin Farrell), head of the Leafmen/soldiers, and Nod (Josh Hutcherson), a "rookie" Leafman warrior.

Other notable actors are Beyonce, Tara the queen; Steven Tyler as Nim Galuu; Christoph Waltz as Mandrake - the leader of the Boggans; Aziz Ansari as Mub; and Chris O'Dowd as Grub.

The film was refreshing because of the unique plot, but I really disliked Nod from start to finish. He's a lazy ass who didn't really care about anyone but himself at the start. Until the end, he still didn't impress me. Ronin, on the other hand, was dreamy. I wish such a guy existed in real life. I'm not sure, but I think there was also a female Leafman (Leafwoman?) because during the battle one of them sounded like a female. That, and the fact that the main protagonist of the film is female, just made me like it even more. The ending was a little too short for me - we don't know if they are still allowed to visit the "advanced society" or if there were repercussions for MK's bringing her dad to their secret place, Moonhaven. Also, since the dad has discovered them already, and he was drawing them, we don't know if he was going to publish his findings. If he does, what does that mean for their existence? Also, are MK and Nod like...together? Huh. So, the story was really good but the ending left a lot of answers. I hope there's a sequel!

But what really captured my heart is the film's graphics. Oh my god, it is so good and so beautiful! When the film started, I thought I was mistaken that it's an animated movie because the rendering of Professor Bomba, as the screen panned across his arm, seemed so lifelike. Epic is produced by Blue Sky Studios, the same studio that produced   notable movies such as the Ice Age movies, Rio, Robots, and Horton Hears a Who!. I really marveled at the beautiful graphics. (Incidentally, Rio is the first animated movie I ever saw my mom watch that she didn't fall asleep while watching. She enjoyed it because she loves Angry Birds hahaha.) I was wishing that I was watching it on 3D, and then immediately thought what if they make a ride in theme parks ala Transformers-style in Universal Studios?! That would be awesome!

The Epic website is also very fun to visit. There are a lot of photos, videos, and games you can play. A mobile game app, EPIC Battle for Moonhaven, is also available in Android and iOS. The game is free to download but there are in-app purchases if you want to get bonus content.

I'm a Disney and Pixar fan, but after watching Epic, I'm going to be on the lookout for more movies by Blue Sky Studios.

If you haven't seen Epic yet, they just released it on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D. Have fun watching!